This is, by far, my favorite party of the year! It has everything I love: Christmas cheer, candy, friends, ugly Christmas sweaters, wine and friendly competition.

Here are the blueprints for the McCoy “gingerbread” houses:

To create the base, gather up some cardboard boxes and cut the panels to size. Then cover in tin foil (it will take 2 sheets of regular foil or 1 sheet of the heavy duty foil).

Making the royal icing:
[This recipe can easily be doubled]

Ingredients:
4 large egg whites
1 lb powdered sugar
1 Tbs cream of tarter

Whisk the egg whites and cream of tarter in your mixer bowl using a hand whisk. When the lumps are gone, pour all the powdered sugar in the bowl, attach your paddle attachment and attach the bowl to the mixer stand. Mix on low for about 5 minutes and then increase speed to medium for 5 minutes. The icing should be thick but still a little bit runny. If it is not to your liking add a little more powdered sugar to make it thicker. Royal icing is meant to be used right away but can also be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for a few days, if needed. [*Note: This icing is made with egg whites and should not be eaten in large quantities]

Constructing the houses:

We use 10 graham crackers per house. 6 of the 10 need no cutting. 2 will need a diagonal cut on the top, cutting off the left hand corner. the remaining 2 will need a diagonal cut at the top, cutting off the right hand corner.

Once you have all your materials ready you can start constructing your houses. Below are photos to show you how we did this. Note: you need to place the short ends on the inside of the long ends.