12 Days of Christmas

Letterpress greetings card by designer Erin Jang of The Indigo Bunting.

Did you know that the official 12 days of Christmas begin December 26 and end January 6th with the coming of the Wise Men. In my Latin culture January 6th is another day of gift giving, as the Magi came bearing gifts.  I personally love these 12 days.  The madness of Christmas is over.  The kids are home from school and there are the after-Christmas sales. It’s the perfect time to go buy gingerbread house kits at 50-75% off and make a few. it’s the perfect time to bake cookies and drink hot cocoa by the fire without the rush of having to be somewhere.

This year I’m kinda jonesing to make a Mid Century Modern gingerbread house….FROM SCRATCH!   Crazy!  I know!  Actually, I think from scratch is my only option. I don’t think there’s a kit or even an app!  A couple years ago I tried making a regular gingerbread house from scratch and it was a failed project.  However, now there’s Pinterest and I’ve been busy researching recipes and techniques. (I just realized I must have tried this project more than a couple years ago since it was pre-Pinterest.)This year the girls are older and I’m a bit calmer so I think I can take this on.  Tomorrow, we have nowhere to be so I’m going to start sketching out a home and maybe even baking some walls and roof! Below are some great links from other fellow bloggers with fantastic pictures and ideas.

Instead of taking down the tree and the holiday cheer consider leaving it all up until the 6th.  Relax, enjoy and savor the full Christmas season.  To me these are the best 12 days of the year.

Home Made Mimi did her’s out of Matzo and its’ brilliant! Love all the decor! Not to mention her chalk wall in her real home!

Retro Renovation has templates for 3 Mid Century options.

Carlos and Estella duplicated a Gregory Ain home from Mar Vista!  They did a great job and I’m very familiar with this neighborhood! They also have very good tips and instructions.

This Royal Icing by Nigella Lawson is nicknamed “the 7 minute cement” so that sounds promising for keeping walls up.

This icing is called “The Best Gingerbread House Glue”.  Also sounds like exactly what I need!

Tikkido has a great recipe for gingerbread houses.  She makes more than a 100 houses each season so I’m gonna go with her recipe. From my experience I know that the recipe you would use to make cookies is not the same one you would use to make a house. There’s a difference in consistency and texture which correlates to how well a house will hold together.  I like her recipe the best from what I’ve researched.

We’ll see how it goes. I guess if it all fails at least we’ll have something yummy to eat.