I’ve been to various creative Christmas exhibits this year and they’ve left me itching to get out the glue gun. Today I finally got the chance to get messy – as Ryan and I helped his family construct a gingerbread village.

We headed to his family home in Long Island where his mum, Stephanie, had already crafted the houses from Graham Crackers – leaving us to the fun bit. She had laid out an impressive spread of jelly beans, gummies, chocolate drops and candy Christmas trees, and was whipping up a batch of icing for piping bags. This is a family tradition – and they’ve definitely got the process perfected.

After a bit of a Pintrest browse and a look at Stephanie’s model house from a previous year, we got stuck in, using the icing as our glue.

While Jenn and Jason constructed balconies and landscaped gardens, I gave mine a lot less thought and went to town smacking on jellies (Ryan went to town snacking on them).

After sipping on some delicious egg nog (another first for me), we dusted off the houses with a sprinkling of icing sugar for snow…

I must say – I think they look a little bit neater than the ones from the world’s largest edible village, don’t you?