When circumstances change, it’s time for new traditions

For most of my life, Christmas meant dressing up in one’s best and spending it with one side of the family or the other. After my parents divorced, it became one side of the family and the other. Christmas eve was always spent with my father and his family, and Christmas day with my mother and hers.

But either way, it always involved dressing to the nines and a lot of polishing of silver. Other than one year when there was an ice storm, there was no sleeping in or relaxing on Christmas. There were far too many things scheduled for the day to allow for that.

Years pass, and circumstances change.

This year was very different. For the first time I can remember, I not only slept in, I spent the day leisurely lounging around the house. A good friend, whose kids were at their grandparents for the weekend, joined me for dinner. The highlight was spending a couple of hours building ‘gingerbread’ houses out of graham crackers.

I don’t know if judging the Seasons of Easton window contest (the theme was gingerbread) got me started on this, or what, but since just after Thanksgiving, I’ve had the idea. I don’t even know where I got the notion to use graham crackers, and I had no idea where I would find the time for such a frivolous activity, but I really wanted to do it. My chance came when it became apparent that Christmas would be a casual affair at home this year.

My buddy agreed to give it a go (probably to make me happy), though he looked a little skeptical. We hit the loose candy section at Wegman’s, picked a good seasonal variety, and with the addition of a bag of confectioner’s sugar and a box of cinnamon sugar graham crackers, we were set.

I made butter cream icing (the recipe we used is at the end of this article), and we arranged all the candy in bowls, palette-style. Due to our twisted sense of humor, we also made sure red and green gummy tarantulas threatened to eat the gummy Santas and the reindeer while they all awaited permanent placement.

Since I couldn’t find my icing bag, and I only have one anyway, we each picked up a butter knife and some graham crackers and began the construction process.

Did I mention my buddy is a contractor? Immediately, he began planning how many dormers his house would have—literally.

He also praised the utility of graham crackers for construction purposes. “Wouldn’t it be great if some construction materials were a little bit more like graham crackers? The perforations are great, very convenient and nicely proportioned. And they’re so much like Legos...”

Personally, I just went for a simple vertical saltbox-type construction.

But we both agreed, next time, the addition of pretzel rods for corner posts might be very useful. And, it might not be a bad idea to do the project in two parts. It was definitely okay, but decorating would have been a bit easier if we’d allowed the structures to harden before adorning the houses with candy.

There will definitely be a next time, though. We had a blast—it was like a very sweet (pun intended), mini-vacation of sorts. In a world that seemingly never slows down, there is something wonderful about not having anything to do for a few hours other than build a gingerbread house. In fact, it’s so wonderful, I’m thinking it would make a great holiday party next year.

It might also be a great way to occupy the kids, right now, as winter vacation is about to end, if everyone in the house is feeling a little stir-crazy. Seriously, what other way can you think of that you can occupy two or three children for several hours for less than ten dollars?

Or, perhaps, yourself and friends for New Years?

It’s also not a bad way of transforming leftover holiday candy into something new.

Making gingerbread houses at the holidays is an old tradition, though one that up until this year, I never experienced. As the circumstances of our lives change, so necessarily must our traditions. The trick is to make sure that they still mean something, and that everyone’s still having fun.

Happy New Year!


Butter cream Icing
6 Tablespoons butter
About 4 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Beat butter ‘til fluffy, add half the sugar and mix. Add the milk and vanilla and mix. Gradually beat in the remaining sugar. Add more milk or sugar to reach the desired consistency.

(Originally published in The Easton News, December 28, 2006)