Celebrate With A Favorite Holiday Tradition

By Ricky Gray of Sterilite Corporation

The Holidays are my favorite time of the year because of the many traditions shared with friends and family. Of all the traditions, my favorite is making gingerbread houses. As a child my family would gather around our kitchen table and spend the evening perfecting our own delicious creations. To this day when the Holidays arrive we still get together and carry on this fun tradition. With a group of people reaching for the same sugary building materials, organizing the ingredients is essential to keeping things neat and orderly. This is where Sterilite can help.


When making gingerbread houses I find it best to have the candy separated in bowls that can be passed around from person-to-person. Sterilite’s 20 ounce bowls are ideal for this. They are durable and dishwasher safe for easy cleaning. Below are a few steps to help you get started on creating your own gingerbread house:

1. Pick a solid base for your gingerbread house - either a flat cookie sheet, or a thick, sturdy piece of cardboard. If you want, line the base with aluminum foil or wax paper. This will give you a smoother surface to work with.
2. Place a thick line of icing along a short end of one of the side walls. Press the side with icing against an edge of your front wall. Hold these two pieces in place for a moment until the icing begins to set. Repeat this step with the second side all and the back wall. These will come together to form the foundation of your house.
3. Place icing along the inside and outside seams to fill in any gaps and to add stability.
4. Ice the bottom edges of the house where they meet the base.
5. Allow the icing to set for a few minutes before adding the roof pieces.
6. Once the foundation is set, ice along the top edges of the structure, front and back and two sides
7. Place the roof pieces on the freshly squeezed icing along the top of the structure and hold in place until the icing begins to set
8. Place extra frosting across the top seam of the roof for extra support.
9. Before decorating, let the house stand for about an hour to dry
10. Last but not least, decorate! Use icing and a variety of your favorite candy to decorate the house and yard.

When the gingerbread houses are complete, Sterilite’s Ultra+Latch 3.5 Cup Rectangle and Ultra+Latch 3.8 Cup Square food storage containers provide a great way to store the leftover candy and building materials. They feature a domed locking lid with an air-tight, leak-proof silicone seal to keep food fresh, longer. That way you can eat the extra candy over time or use them to build another gingerbread house!