How to Make a Giant Gingerbread Nutcracker

 

This past weekend I finally finished a Christmas craft that I had hoped to have finished a few weeks ago.  Being sick two times in the last month, I had to delay the project just a bit. 

Standing in the corner of our dining room there now stands a five foot tall gingerbread boy.  I am just over 5 feet tall, and we are approximately the same height.  

This past Halloween I made six foot monster nutcrackers that stood our our porch greeting the trick or treaters. I had hoped to share a blog post on how to make them, but I finished the witch so last minute, I decided to write a post on how to make a Christmas standing nutcracker. Both sizes of nutcrackers are made the same way, and can be decorated any way you want. 

I used three regular size Dollar Tree laundry baskets to make the taller monsters, and three smaller baskets to make the gingerbread. 

All three nutcrackers use the same legs. You will need a piece of foam board for each leg, and a pizza pan for the base.  Roll each piece of foam board, and secure it with a couple of zip ties. I then used a combination of E6000 and hot glue to attach the legs to the pizza pan. 

One reason why I chose to make the gingerbread man a with the smaller baskets is because it uses less poster board. I used a 3 1/2 pieces of brown poster board that I bought from Hobby Lobby for only 99 cents.  I used two pieces to cover the baskets.

I used thin strips of poster board to cover where I attached the poster board on each side. It will be covered with part of a pool noodle for the arms. 

When making the larger nutcrackers I needed up to 6 pieces of different colored poster board.  I used purple, black and green for the monsters. 

I used part of a poster board to shape the head, and then I cut out a circle to cover it.  You will also need a circle to cover the body, so the head has something to sit on. I have about half a poster board left. 

I used craft foam to make the gingerbread's face and buttons. I did get a little more detailed, and made some 3D features on the monsters. The gingerbread man is a little more simple with flat circles and wavy icing pieces. 

I glued on the craft foam details and the pool noodle arms. Each arm is a little less than half a noodle.  I still might add a few more details. 

I found a couple of peppermints in a package of gingerbread house wall decor (also from the Dollar Tree)  I had made a little peppermint tree out of a styrofoam cone and a strand of tinsel.  I sat it on his head just to see what it would look like. It kind of looks like a peppermint hat.  :) 

He now stands in the corner of the dining room in what is being decorated in a gingerbread theme. 

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Gingerbread Party Ideas and Crafts

With another holiday season almost upon us, I began thinking about some of the parties we have had in the past.  One of our very favorites was our Gingerbread House Party.  My youngest had her friends over and their made their own gingerbread house, decorated gingerbread cookies, and went home with a box of gingerbread goodies. 

One thing I recommend, especially if you have younger kids, is to buy a gingerbread kit that has smaller kid size houses. They were much easier to put together and finished in a timely manner. 

Another tip as a veteran party thrower is to separate all of the goodies to be used on the houses using cupcake pans. They help contain the mess and make it easier to decide what to use when you can see it all. 

A fun and easy craft that I still use every year for decoration is my Dollar Store Gingerbread Charger.

One of the favorite crafts at the party were these gingerbread craft boxes. 

We had a mini Christmas tree in the kitchen decorated with cute gingerbread ornaments and peppermint ribbon.  I still use these every Christmas as well.  

You can see the entire party and with a lot more pictures and ideas here on my original post Ideas for a Gingerbread party.

While writing this post, I saw a blast from the past.  All of my kids are now young adults, but in my post Gingerbread Tea, you can them when they were practically babies.. When they were in first grade our school would throw a Gingerbread Tea every year for the parents. I have fond memories of those teas.  If you are thinking of having an gingerbread party, you may find more inspiration there too. 

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Gingerbread Tea

A fun tradition when my children were in elementary school was  the 1st grade held a Gingerbread Tea each Christmas.  There were many different activities leading up to the tea  that were all about gingerbread. 

Each of the children made gingerbread houses using graham crackers and milk cartons. (Kara's is not pictured, I can not find a photo at the moment)  

They made gingerbread sweatshirts using a sponge stamp to wear in the concert,  and read their own gingerbread themed book.  Kyle chose to do his individual book about a gingerbread rhino.   Kristina's theme was a gingerbread monkey, and Kara's  a gingerbread kitten. 

They each  made felt gingerbread people, and decorated them with buttons, rick rack and ribbon.  I still have all 3 of  them, and now use them on my peppermint garland.

Kyle's class made ornaments with photos of themselves in the gingerbread shirts
 

They sang Christmas carols for all the parents who were there for the tea.  I was able to get the best view of Kara. I probably learned my lesson and got there very early after sitting farther back with the older two.  LOL!

Each of the classes wrote a class gingerbread book.  I am the proud owner of the  "The Gingerbread Monkey" (Kristina's class), "The Gingerbread Kitten" (Kyle's class, he must have had more girls in the class to  swing the vote) and the "The Gingerbread Elephant. (Kara's class)

All 3 of them have fond memories of their "Gingerbread Tea."  I just love this picture of Kyle and his para, Mrs. T.  He just has a look of joy on his face. 

While looking for the gingerbread tea photos, I came across this flashback photo.  The year that Kristina was in first grade, Kara was only 3.  We decided to make our own graham cracker gingerbread houses at home that year.  Here Kara is applying a ton of marshmallows and candy onto her house.  She has grown up so much!

We have not yet made a gingerbread house for this year. After going through these old gingerbread pictures, I am now really looking forward to it. 

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