Skip to main content
EN CAEnglish

Making gingerbread – a festive holiday activity for the whole family

Round up the family! Whether you are participating in a Christmas cookie exchange or if Christmas cookie baking is a treasured tradition in your family, now that it's December, the time for baking gingerbread is here!

A family stands around a large harvest table that is filled with supplies to make and decorate gingerbread cookies, including gingerbread houses.
A family stands around a large harvest table that is filled with supplies to make and decorate gingerbread cookies, including gingerbread houses.

A holiday tradition with history

Ahh, gingerbread! The quintessential flavour of the winter holidays to many Scandinavians. Gingerbread dates centuries back and the traditions surrounding it are firmly established. Mostly eaten in the form of thin, brittle cookies, they’re often made at home and baking them involves everyone in the family, especially the kids! Baking gingerbread cookies allows children to experience total kitchen collaboration (and allows ample opportunities to sample the dough and garnishes!).

A young child whisks a bowl of wet ingredients to make cookie dough. She is wearing a festive-patterned chef's hat and apron.
A young child uses a flour sifter to sift powdered sugar on top of a gingerbread house.

Gingerbread in all shapes and sizes

Once the dough is made, it is rolled into a thin sheet and then it's time for cookie cutters! Once cookies are cut out, they are placed on a baking tray then go into a pre-heated oven to bake. One great feature about gingerbread is that the dough is easy to work with - if a mistake is made when cutting out shapes, just roll it out again to start fresh!

See all winter cooking & baking
An overhead view of a large wood harvest table, filled with baking supplies, ingredients and tools to make gingerbread cookies.
See all winter cooking & baking

Home sweet home

One of the best uses for gingerbread is building a gingerbread house. Glue your gingerbread pieces together with icing, then decorate with more icing in a piping bag and sprinkle powdered sugar. To add some colour, attach a variety of candies to the icing before it dries! This activity is fun for adults and children alike and the options are endless. Will you build a replica of your own home, a miniature Christmas village or something else? While the icing "glue" ensures that your gingerbread home is built to last through the holidays, don't be surprised if pieces of it mysteriously go missing! Happy baking!

See all baking tools & accessories
A collection of miniature gingerbread houses arranged to look like a small village with green bottle brush trees and twinkle lights in between the houses.
See all baking tools & accessories

Please note: The VINTER 2021 holiday collection is only available for purchase in-store or through our Click and collect service.​ 

We love to see our customers get creative with our products. Go for it! But please note that altering or modifying IKEA products so they can no longer be re-sold or used for their original purpose, means the IKEA commercial guarantees and your right to return the products will be lost.

You might also like

The ultimate playtime kids room

A colorful kids bedroom

Shoe cabinet? Nope. So much more.

A modern living room with one wall furnished with three TRONES shoe cabinets aligned around a bench to create storage and focal points

Paint your own decorative napkins

Paint your own decorative napkins