’Tis the season—to get lots and lots of packages! Before you flatten the boxes to put out with your recycling, consider transforming them into holiday crafts. Here’s a step-by-step guide to turn empty cardboard boxes into festive gingerbread houses.

Choose your box. For this project, look for boxes that already resemble the shape of a house. Think rectangular rather than long and flat. The size of the box can be as large or small as you wish. Small boxes look great on a mantle or tabletop, medium to large boxes can be displayed on a windowsill or might even work as a doll’s or child’s playhouse.

Gather your materials. Besides your box, you’ll need flat pieces of cardboard to make a roof, white paint, paintbrushes, cotton balls, candy, construction paper, glue stick, and either school glue or a hot glue gun (adult supervision needed for the latter). Keep some newspaper handy to protect your floor or table when you are painting, and plan to wear a smock or work clothes you don’t mind getting paint or glue on.

Find inspiration. Search online for images of gingerbread houses. There are so many to choose from it can be hard to decide on just one. If you’d like, you can combine details from multiple examples into one house. It’s up to you.

Prepare your box. Remove address labels and packing tape. If you’d like to start with a perfectly smooth surface, open the box on top and bottom and locate the reinforced edge inside the box. You can separate that edge and turn the whole box inside out. Re-glue the box along the same edge and then glue the top and bottom shut.

Build your roof. Bend a flat, rectangular piece of cardboard in half and position it on top of your box. Hot glue along the edges to adhere it. School glue will also work but it will need to be held in place for a longer amount of time in order for it to dry completely. Cut small triangles out of another piece of cardboard and glue them in place to cover gap between the top of the box and the inside of the roof.

Grab a paintbrush. The great thing about cardboard is that it’s already the color of gingerbread; white paint detailing will look just like like icing trim. Start by painting your roof according to the design you chose. It might be solid white for snow or a show drift effect. You can also paint a scalloped border to look like roof shingles or strings of holiday lights. When you’re done, place your brush in water until it’s time to put on the final details.

Make a door and windows. You can paint these details onto your box or you can cut shapes out of construction paper and adhere them with a glue stick. I used construction paper to make a red arched door and blue rectangular windows.

Glue on candy details. I used small candy canes, peppermints and DOTS. This can be a great way to use left over Halloween candy if you don’t feel like buying new candy. You don’t even need to use actual candy. You can paint candy designs or cut and paste colorful construction paper circles to look like candy.

Paint white trim on windows, doors and walls. Wipe off your brush and get more white paint ready to create details like window panes, icicles, door trim, polka dots and any other decorations you’d like to add. A thin brush is best for creating clean lines.

Let it snow. Add cotton ball “snow” for a finishing touch. Pull cotton balls apart and glue the fluff around the edge of the roof and the base of your house.

Share pictures of your creations! Send pictures of your gingerbread houses to: george@redhookstar.com. I hope you enjoyed this craft idea!

Marie Heuston is the Parent Coordinator at Red Hook’s PS 676

’Tis the season—to get lots and lots of packages! Before you flatten the boxes to put out with your recycling, consider transforming them into holiday crafts. Here’s a step-by-step guide to turn empty cardboard boxes into festive gingerbread houses. Choose your box. For this project, look for boxes that already resemble the shape of a house. Think rectangular rather than

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