Mayflower Christmas Gingerbread Houses

Katie Hoisington’s creation is pictured. (She had a little help from her daughter Sue Keenan!)
Katie Hoisington’s creation is pictured. (She had a little help from her daughter Sue Keenan!)
In preparation for Christmas, residents of The Mayflower Community’s Health Center and Beebe Assisted Living have made traditional gingerbread houses. Mayflower Activities Director, Chery Nelson has been leading this activity at Mayflower since 2008. Dating back almost 15 years prior to that, Chery first started making gingerbread houses with local first-graders in her native northwest Iowa.

This year, Grinnell Girl Scout troop leader, Linda Tish, brought her Scouts to help with the project. There was much prep work necessary, but residents had fun making them and eating candy as they did!

A gingerbread house is a novelty confectionery shaped like a building that is made of cookie dough, cut, and baked into appropriate components like walls and roofing. The usual material is a cake made with molasses and flavored with ginger. The houses, covered with a variety of candies and icing, are popular Christmas decorations.

Pictured above: Beebe Assisted Living residents work on their gingerbread houses with Girl Scouts in the Activities Room.

— Bob Mann, Sales & Marketing Director