DIY A Gingerbread House That Will Last All Season Using A Common Kitchen Throwaway

'Tis the season for making wreaths, roasting chestnuts, and baking delicious gingerbread in the shape of tiny men and their tiny homes. Gingerbread houses are a fun tradition with one unfortunate flaw — they have a very limited shelf life and have to be eaten or discarded after a matter of weeks. To keep the Christmas holiday spirit as a part of your home's decor all season long, there is a perfect bread substitute, and it is probably already waiting in your recycling bin.

Used milk cartons may not be edible, but they are the perfect blank canvas for creating a whimsical cottage with no real assembly required. Blogger Jessica Grant shared an Instagram video where she used three oat milk cartons and some craft supplies to construct a small village of gingerbread houses that resemble the real deal, without all the ants and sticky melted sugar. She even added an adorable clothespin snowman to the display to complete the winter scene. If your family doesn't drink milk, then juice, egg whites, or even boxed water cartons would do the trick as long as they have the gable top design.

The first step in creating your own gingerbread house from milk cartons is to wash and dry the insides of the cartons to remove any food residue (you should be cleaning your recyclables anyway to avoid bugs). Because the building portion of the craft is already done, you get to skip straight to the fun part: decorating. Paint the carton brown with spray paint or acrylic paint and allow it to completely dry. Then, draw on architectural details with a pencil before going in with your "frosting," which in this case could be a marker or, even better, white puffy paint to give it a similar 3D look. The rest of the project is only limited by your family's creativity and the types of accessories you can find. 

Hot glue cotton balls, white felt, or a piece of glitter snow blanket to the roof to replicate snow. Twine or ribbon can be used for windows and door frames. For finishing touches, Jessica Grant suggests using pipe cleaners, buttons, cut up straws, and sequins to replace the gum drops and other candies on traditional gingerbread houses, but there are no rules. Use anything you have on hand that sparks your imagination. You can even string some mini LED lights. These milk carton gingerbread houses won't go bad and can be stored and reused for years to come. Or, they can be dismantled and recycled/repurposed into milk carton dustpans, DIY storage containers, or even a cool DIY bird feeder.