Today I’m going to share with you a cute neighbor gift idea for Christmas, these DIY Gingerbread House Snow Globes. I’ve even included a free printable Christmas tag for you to download!
Each year after Halloween I sit down and make a “list” of projects that I want to complete before Christmas. Some of the projects are purely for personal use and some are created to be shared with all of you here.
Last year, I got the idea to make mini gingerbread house snow globes to give to my friends and family. My intention was to make them early, deliver them and photograph them so that I could share the idea (and free tag) with all of you before Christmas.
Soooooooo…. we have the intention and we have reality. The reality is they got delivered on Christmas Eve day (which in the end was okay, because I’d like to think that my friends had a fun dessert to eat on Christmas day). After Christmas, there was really no reason to share the idea with you, so I “filed” it away to be shared “next year”. Well, now it’s next year!
How to Make DIY Gingerbread House Snow Globes:
These snow globes are not as complicated to make as you think they would be. They are also not as expensive to make as you may think. I got the jars for $5 and the cost of the baking ingredients was also low.
I wanted to “bake” something for Christmas for our friends but was coming up short on ideas. I’d spied a lot of “snow globes” on line that year and thought it would be cute to make one using food instead of miniatures.
Supplies for Gingerbread House Snow Globes:
To create the gift, I used this gingerbread house mold (you can get it on Amazon), and the recipe that came with the mold. I was able to bake two houses at a time, and just started a day or two ahead. I left all the ingredients out on the counter and noticed it did not take much time to finish baking a dozen or so houses. Let me tell you the house smelled AMAZING those two days!
We (I say we, because the kids totally helped) decorated the houses very simply with powdered sugar and a few Christmas candies. We also added marshmallows to the bottom of the jars to help “prop” the houses up a bit!
As a finishing touch, I tied a tag that I created to the top of the jar it reads “We made this sweet treat for you to eat. Merry Christmas”.
Here’s a complete source list to make the snow globes:
-Mini Gingerbread House Mold (purchased from Amazon)
-Glass Jars (purchased from Target online; they had the best price and we so well packaged that none of them broke during shipping. I used a coupon code to purchase them. Keep an eye out Target has a lot of online deals this time of year). You can also find jars at Hobby Lobby (also watch for sales)
-Mini Christmas Trees purchased from Amazon – I used a toothpick to attach them to the chimney.
-Gift Tag – you can download it for free on the TEMPLATES page (click here). Just make sure you READ the instructions at the top of the page! The tag prints in black. It is red in the photo because I added foil to mine. If you don’t want to add the foil, I would suggest printing the tags on some simple patterned paper or kraft colored paper.
-I added foil to the tags with my Minc. I used red foil. You can pick up a Minc. on Amazon for 40% off right now. To see how it works, CLICK here. Note: for the foil to adhere you need to print the tags with a laser printer. If you don’t have a laser printer you can use a copy machine or have them laser printed at a local copy shop.
-Red Bakers Twine. I bought a giant roll a few years ago and still haven’t used it all!
That’s it! I hope you enjoy this idea, and if you make them, be sure to drop me a line and let me know!!!
A few More Christmas Neighbor Gift Ideas:
How to Make a Simple Felt Holly Banner
