Daner Designs

25 Years of Gingerbread Houses

December 28, 2010 at 6:54 pm (Food, Holidays)

Earlier this month, I wrote about our “silver anniversary” Gingerbread House. (Click the link to see it). That’s right- our family has been making Gingerbread Houses from scratch for over 25 years. To celebrate (or document, really) I made my mom a Shutterfly book with photos of all 25 houses through the years. Since I spent the time to find and scan all these old photos, I figured I’d give them another use and share them here.

1985 was our first house. I was 2, so I’m pretty sure I didn’t help too much with this one.

1986

And here’s what I looked like in 1986 (and we still have, and display that snowman!) Wish I could say the same for that sweater—wouldn’t it make great felted mittens?

1987

And here’s me again in 1987 (this is the last random picture of me- I got tired of scanning pictures REAL fast…)

1988 was the year my sister was born. Seeing as she was not even 2 months old at Christmas time, we didn’t have time to make a house.

1989 – we had just moved into our new house, hence the unfinshed kitchen counter here.

Starting in 1990, we began the tradition of inviting another family over to make a second house with us. Here we are with my childhood friend Ashley.

Some in-progress shots from that year:

1991 – Ashley came back for another round of house decorating.

Jenna must have finally been old enough to help:

1992 – Another childhood friend, Alyssa, along with her mother, came to build a house.

1993

(I love the Alf puzzle next to the house….)

1994

’94 must have been an angry year for me….I have no idea why I’m making this face. On a side note- I love how these pictures tell us so much about our lives—we’ve seen new houses, Alf puzzles, and this picture has my “Marble Club” necklace. I was such a dork. Haha.

Jenna happily helping

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000
In the new millenium, we began inviting people over again. We began with my dads cousin Elena. This must have been when I started taking over as family photographer—I’m in a lot less photos, and there’s many more pictures of each house now…

2001

2002
In 2002, we went to Disney for Christmas. So instead of making our own houses, we got to visit 2 of Disney’s life-sized Gingerbread creations.

2003
Jenna’s friend Michelle and her family joined us to make a house this year.

2004

2005
In 2005, our relatives came to make a house with us.

2006
A friend from work came with her daughter.

2007

2008
We ran out of holiday time in 2008, so we “cheated” and made a sugar cube igloo. The igloo did light up though! I had also made graham cracker houses with my students that year, and I brought the extra supplies home to make a few more.

2009. In 2009, we must have run out of time once again—so Wilton kit it was!

And #25 was completed in 2010.
For “complete coverage” on that house, click here

Where will the next 25 years take us?