MAKE GINGERBREAD LETTER GARLANDS

Gingerbread men are a staple of holiday fun and decorating for children, but why not switch it up this year by making gingerbread letters? These are fun to personalize, look festive up on trees or mantles, and are fun for kids to stamp out and thread with twine.

Gingerbread Letter Garlands – Materials:

– You’ll need a basic gingerbread recipe. I love this one from the Joy of Baking, but doubled the batch size. Note you will need to bake these longer so they do not fall apart. I baked the letters for about 16-18 minutes per tray.

– Large letter cutters

– Twine

– Rolling pin

– Something to place a hole on the letters before baking like a straw or skewer

Instructions:

Step 1. Prepare your gingerbread dough. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm. Roll out to about 1/4″ thickness. The dough will be sticky and soft so make sure to sprinkle some flour as you roll it out. If it gets too soft, place it back in the refrigerator. Cut out your letters and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Step 2. Add two small hole at the top of each letter before baking. If you want, you can also make round ornament gingerbread like we did with extra dough by using a 4″ round cutter. Make sure to add one hole before baking.

Step 3. Bake at 350 degrees for 16-18 minutes. You want these to be extra firm and hard so it’s okay to have them brown on the edges. Let cool. You will need to reinforce the holes you made prior to baking when the letters are still warm, and not completely cooled. What this means is using your straw and skewer and going through the holes one more time after baking.

Step 4. Thread twine through the holes and hang these up as festive holiday garlands.

You want to make sure to use large letter cutters as we did in our case (at least 3″ tall” so they are easy to cut out and thread twine through.

The kids enjoyed stringing the these cute letters together.

You can also personalize each child’s name.

And simply cut out into circles and have kids decorate the gingerbread cookies as ornaments.

These gingerbread letter garlands look so festive on the tree. The hard part is keeping the kids from sneaking a bite or two!

Take a look at more gingerbread ideas here or lots more holiday crafts for kids here.

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