Two years ago, I first attended a gingerbread-house-making night hosted by our church. I enjoyed the creativity of decorating the house, but I felt constricted by the lollies available and thought I could create something really special with a bit of fore-thought.

It’s that time of year again, and tonight I took Serena who is planning to host her own gingerbread-house-making activity as a social event at her children’s school. We were going along to learn the secrets of making the perfect icing, where to buy cake boards in bulk, and also to have a bit of fun.

Serena came along to learn how others organise their own gingerbread-house-making activity. We were supplied with six pieces of gingerbread to make the house, but large flat pieces were available as bases. I took the pieces I was given and used them, along with a base, to cut the gingerbread in a more complex fashion for my house.

We piped icing to hold the gingerbread pieces together, and then I started decorating the house with biscuits and lollies.

Before I went, I spent a little bit of time looking at designs online and thought I would try to make my house a bit classier, like this. I did not really come close, but I had enough information to work from so I could change the actual structure of the house.

I think the house looked more sophisticated before I started adding the lollies.

I brought along my own lollies and biscuits with which to decorate my house, and that was fantastic, but I still don’t think I got the colour combination right. My main problem was that I finished my house, then I looked around and saw everyone else’s house were covered with lollies — so I started adding more and more to my own house… and it ended up more garish than I first intended.

With 160 houses decorated tonight, there was a fantastic array of styles and designs.

I was amazed at the depth of genuine creativity from all the participants. Everyone had the same materials and yet used them so differently.

The final product — not quite what I had in mind, but I love the t-shaped structure.

The colours just don't work together… sigh.

Maybe next year I’ll do better…