Gingerbread Christmas Tree

Making gingerbread houses is a father-son event in our home, with the boys crowded around the table as Michael assembles the house, a task that is not always easy. Some years the walls fall over and we’ve even resorted to using a glue gun to make the walls stand up. Each boy has a mini muffin tin filled with little candies in each cup that they put on the house. Some years the boys cooperate and the effort is pretty organized, but certainly not every year. Someone usually bumps into the house or spills the candy decorations or sticks their fingers where they don’t belong, but in the end that’s all part of the fun. In the past we purchased gingerbread house kits because the boys were very young and we wanted to simplify things a bit, and we weren’t planning to eat it anyway. We figured making our own parts from scratch would come as the boys got a little older.

Last year as we began talking about the annual gingerbread house, we stumbled across a Wilton kit for a gingerbread Christmas tree. After looking it over we thought this would be fun and different. (And if your children are very young, this is an easier project than a house because of the walls-falling thing.) After buying the kit I came across the Wilton Christmas tree cookie cutters on Amazon and immediately ordered them. (Also check your local K-Mart, Michael’s, A.C. Moore, and Jo-Ann’s Fabrics.) Even if we didn’t use them right away we thought they would be useful in coming years.

As it turns out, we were so excited by the prospect of having the cookie cutters that we made three trees: the tree from the kit, a homemade gingerbread tree, and a homemade rice crispy treat tree. We went a little overboard but had a lot of fun doing it. With the cutters you can use whatever kind of cookie you like for the tree. The box comes with a few photos of trees to get your creative juices flowing.

We made a shortened version of the gingerbread tree to save time, so we only made one of each size star, but to get a tall tree you need to make two of each, for 20 stars altogether. The rice crispy treat tree pieces were thicker than the gingerbread pieces, so we chose to make one of each star plus one extra tiny star for the top and still got a nice tall tree.

Of the two homemade trees, the gingerbread tree held up better. If you plan to eat the rice crispy treat tree, you really need to do it on the day it’s made because the pieces dry out quickly. Because we didn’t use any royal icing on this tree, we drove half a chopstick through the middle of the large stars to hold it together.

We use royal icing to decorate because it hardens and stays in place, and it also makes good glue to hold the tree pieces together. The recipe makes a large amount, but you can use the extra for decorating other Christmas cookies (Moravian Christmas Trees, Gingerbread Men) or make a recipe-and-a-half, using half for each color (green, yellow, white). Just remember you need enough for the glue, as well.

We’re sharing our gingerbread Christmas tree with Susan of Food Blogga for her annual festive Christmas cookie event. Each year she gathers links to many beautiful and delicious Christmas cookies from around the world, so you’ll have plenty to choose from. And thank you, Susan, for keeping this fun event going for the past three years.

Yum

More Christmas Cookies

More Gingerbread From Around the Blogs

• Baking Bites – Gingerbread Men
• Elana’s Pantry – Gluten-Free Gingerbread
• Kitchen Parade – Chocolate Gingerbread
• Enlightened Cooking – Whole Wheat Gingerbread Cookies