Holiday Gingerbread Village is a perfect family activity

I love everything about gingerbread houses. I love creating them, decorating them and of course eating them. I love the cookies, the icing and of course the candy! Even though I don’t celebrate Christmas, making gingerbread houses has been a yearly tradition since I was a kid. I love that you are able to be as creative as you want with a gingerbread house and the possibilities are literally endless!

I love gingerbread houses so much so that it was part of my bachelorette party! Seriously!!! We started the entire day with decorating gingerbread houses at a bakery….in July!! That was the first time a bakery had done such a party off-season. See, my love for gingerbread houses is REAL!

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This holiday season, Loblaws at Maple Leaf Gardens (60 Carlton Ave, at the corner of Church and Carlton) is bringing the joy of gingerbread houses for everyone to enjoy with a life-sized gingerbread village! This gingerbread loving mom, can’t wait to take myself (errrr…….) my kids.There will be a variety of holiday activities for the whole family and best of all it is free!

The village will be open every weekend from November 28 until December 20 from 10 AM to 6 PM and on December 22 and 23 from 10 AM to 6 PM. For a charitable donation of $5 to President’s Choice Children’s Charity, you can decorate a cookie and get a photo with Santa.

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I can’t wait to take my kids to the gingerbread village in the next few weeks! Here are the activities that you can expect to find at the Holiday Gingerbread Village:

  • Decorate gingerbread cookies-  decorate a gingerbread cookie and choose from a wide range of toppings!
  • Take a picture with Santa-  get a chance to sit on Santa’s lap and tell him what you want for the holidays
  • Take a fun-filled seasonal selfie in the Gingerbread village!- with the Gingerbread village in the background this is sure to be a hit!
  • Toasty, Tasty Treats – try free samples of new twists on holiday classics! Check out the new PC Insiders Collection for more information
  • Winter Warmers- warm up with a DIY Hot Chocolate and Apple Cider Stand

Win it!!

One lucky Canadian My So-Called Mommy Life reader will win a $100 President’s Choice Gift Card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Comments

  1. Anne Taylor says:

    Some of our traditions are baking loads of cookies, and going out for Japanese food on Christmas Eve. We’ve been doing that now for about 30 years.

  2. Jeannie Lam says:

    Our tradition includes baking cookies with the kids and decorating them to give to our neighbours! We also always always always have cinnamon buns on Christmas morning.

  3. Every year we go to the Santa Claus parade and then head home to put up the tree

  4. Lauren J says:

    My husband and I decorate a gingerbread house every year. We also try to go see the lights in Niagara Falls and I can’t wait to take our toddler!

  5. BobbiJo Pentney says:

    We make cookies for our friends and neighbours

  6. Judy Cowan says:

    We do lots of baking together to share with family and friends, including sugar cookies and gingerbread. We also have appetizer for dinner on Christmas Eve.

  7. lynnbeanie23 says:

    baking cookies and decorating ornaments

  8. Tracy D says:

    We have an annual tree trimming party.

  9. BlessedTA says:

    Cooking and eating together

  10. Lisa bolduc says:

    We have a tradition of getting new xmas pj’s so we have some nice new pj’s to wear tk bed for santa

  11. Glogirl says:

    We have a tradition of singing the 12 Days of Christmas with my dad’s family. Every year at our Christmas gathering we divide into groups to sing a part of this song.

  12. We use a recipe that was great-grandmother’s and bake her shortbread cookies 🙂

  13. prairiebelle says:

    We open one gift each on christmas eve. It usually consists of pj’s and a dvd!

  14. We do holiday baking.

  15. Maria says:

    We make cookies, we volunteer at the downtown mission and we visit elderly at the old age homes. We also love to have dinner with family and friends

  16. David says:

    We make cookies and dinner on the 24th

  17. i host the family here on Christmas day and then we have friends over in the evening after supper.

  18. Florence Cochrane says:

    Holiday baking which has to include a fruit cake.

  19. We watch a lot of holiday movies.

  20. Yuen C says:

    We like to decorate the Christmas tree together

  21. Krista M says:

    Every year we watch the Christmas special, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer together as a family on the night we decorate the Christmas tree. There’s something special about it that gets us in the spirit!

  22. lori b says:

    we grab a hot chocolate and drive around looking at the light displays

  23. Robyn Bellefleur says:

    We decorate our tree with all gold decorations only.

  24. We always get together in the morning and open our stockings in one big bed.

  25. Elizabeth R says:

    We have a family gathering every boxing day night, any and all are welcome.

  26. On christmas eve we always build a gingerbread house! 🙂

  27. SueSueper says:

    I loved when I was little we always went to grandmas Christmas eve, then when we got home after that Santa had already arrived. Always a wonderful Christmas eve.

  28. ginette4 says:

    We have many holiday traditions but my favourite is going to the tree farm cutting down our tree then decorating it.

  29. aly3360 says:

    We exchange gifts with family friends on Christmas eve. we have lots of Friends and family over for a big breakfast on Christmas morning. and we watch Christmas movies while we wrap presents.

    – Amber y

  30. Gillian Morgan says:

    We have always done Christmas dinner at my parents. We also open 1 present before bed on Christmas eve.

  31. Jackie M says:

    Favourite tradition is holiday baking and lighting up the tree!

  32. Lee-Ann says:

    we open our gifts Christmas eve and leave the stockings until Christmas morning

  33. Wendy hutton says:

    our one tradition that we kept over decades is Mom always made broken glass dessert and we all still do this

  34. mom2michael says:

    We have lots – mostly around food it seems! On the day we decorate our tree, we always order Swiss Chalet for dinner so I can have my Festive Special. Christmas Eve we BBQ really nice steaks. NYE we always have sushi 🙂

  35. Ever since my daughter was young, maybe twenty five years ago, we always did our holiday baking together! Last year she was not able to come up early to help so we face-time doing the same recipes! Loved it!

  36. Pam says:

    every year we take a horse drawn carriage ride through the park to see the xmas lights.

  37. Jenny Major says:

    we decorate our tree together

  38. elaing8 says:

    One of my traditions is baking cookies with all my nieces and nephews.

  39. One of our traditions is opening the gifts from my sisters on Christmas Eve.

  40. Rebby says:

    We go ice skating every Christmas Eve!

  41. lilfifi says:

    We have Christmas traditions, one is a family gathering on Christmas Eve with lots of appetizers and smoked turkey, open faced buns and lots of baking treats. Another tradition I just love is one of those treats is Nanaimo Bars, my fav!

  42. my villa says:

    the lil ones play santa, we make a big mess, sing karaoke and then clean up in the morning

  43. lisa neutel says:

    on christmas eve every year we walk around niagara falls and look at the festival of lights

  44. Hasmik says:

    Baking cakes on Christmas.

  45. Julie Nadin says:

    Great contest! Thanks for all the info 🙂
    I have too many traditions to write them all!! Such a magical time for little one

  46. Lucille says:

    We love baking together and making homemade marshmallows to go with hot cocoa!

  47. Bo Simms says:

    My favorite holiday tradition is getting together with family, having Xmas dinner, and spending quality time together. We always pick names each year for the adults for gift giving, and keep the focus on the kids. We also have an ugly christmas sweater tradition which is a lot of fun too! Happy Holidays everyone!

  48. Angie says:

    We usually go to church on Christmas Eve, open one present and then have our big meal on Christmas Day

  49. ksceviour says:

    We always go out Christmas Eve delivering presents and visiting relatives and friends

  50. Josh S says:

    We decorate the tree together as a family.

  51. Eldon says:

    We like playing Christmas songs on the piano

  52. Lushka Smith says:

    We have 12 meatless dishes on Christmas Eve

  53. Jolie says:

    We chose a day during the holidays doing nothing. We stay in our pyjamas & watch movies all day.

  54. ivy pluchinsky says:

    we all decorate the tree together, and bake together

  55. andrea amy says:

    Just the regular stuff… we decorate cookies, we decorate the tree, turkey dinner on Christmas. When I wrap gifts, I like to watch Christmas movies like Elf and The Santa Clause. Christmas eve the kids get to open up one specially bought gift 🙂

  56. we build gingerbread houses, put up the stockings and open one present as soon as it is midnight on Christmas

  57. hollyogorman says:

    Opening one present on Christmas eve.

  58. Cheryl says:

    Our traditions are putting up the tree together, baking cookies

  59. Holly MacRitchie says:

    We love to watch Christmas Vacation the night before Christmas!

  60. Caroline says:

    We do a lot of baking and drive around the neighbourhood admiring all the Christmas lights!

  61. Suzie M says:

    We decorate the tree & go look at the lights & we do a big Christmas dinner

  62. Meg A says:

    My family has a midnight feast called Noche Buena on Christmas Eve. The feast is abundant for it’s also served for Christmas day guests. We also exchange dishes we’ve made with our neighbours. Other families make Christmas pudding and Food for the Gods. In schools, churches and offices, we have Christmas parties wherein we have an exchange gift or Kris Kringle. We also visit our relatives and friends in the evening to have dinner since, during the day, we are hosting our guests at home. But, the evening Christmas mass or services called Simbang Gabi leading up to Christmas, is particularly festive as the whole community attends it. The town or city is still alive at 9 or 10 pm and food vendors sell Chritsmas pancakes on banana leaves that fills the air with its aroma. The days before the feast are filled with preparations or delivering gifts to people so, it’s a very busy time for everyone. The sense of community and being with your family makes this hectic time special for all.

  63. Brenda Lacourciere says:

    We all get new pjs and watch Christmas movies on Christmas eve.

  64. ann w says:

    We decorate the tree together and then have lots of sweets and hot chocolate afterwards.

  65. We love to have an evening of board games.

  66. angela m says:

    Kids get to open one gift on Christmas eve night, usually new pajamas and a book

  67. Cara Woo says:

    My family tradition is to open one present on Christmas eve and then save the rest for Christmas morning!

  68. edmontonjb says:

    We do our big turkey dinner on Christmas Eve then we go sledding and we each open one gift before bed. On Christmas day we have hot turkey sandwiches for dinner with out leftovers from Christmas Eve.

    Jonnie

  69. Wayne Lecoy says:

    It would be great to win a $100 President’s Choice Gift Card.
    In response to your question of
    What holiday traditions do you have in your family?
    One of our holiday traditions is to open a present on Christmas Eve.
    Thank you for having this giveaway.

  70. Angela Mitchell says:

    We go for a walk in the neighborhood on Christmas Eve to look at all the lights. In the morning my dad always hands out the presents.

  71. Tina L. says:

    We have a gathering on Christmas eve with lots of appies.

  72. laura says:

    baking cookies

  73. david says:

    decorating the tree

  74. We always have breakfast together christmas morning

  75. Ira says:

    We don’t have an established traditions yet, just trying different things to see if any of them will stay with us 🙂

  76. margaux retrophiliac says:

    We love to bake a bunch of different kinds of cookies! trying to make some confections this year!

  77. Sunshine G says:

    We go to a farm and cut the tree down and then go for brunch.

  78. bswilkins80 says:

    We always do Christmas crackers!

  79. Holiday football!

  80. tanyab79 says:

    Getting together and baking xmas goodies. Love the quality time together and have so many great memories.

  81. angela september says:

    WE LOVE MAKING GINGERBREAD HOUSE EVERY YEAR

  82. Erika Letson says:

    We always have Christmas Eve dinner at my parent’s house. Thanks for the giveaway!

  83. Jenness M says:

    We have the ukrainian 12 meatless dishes of christmas eve.

  84. favgreen(Rhonda W G.) says:

    My dad gets us king shrimp christmas day! We enjoy my mothers gumdrop cake and so many other things…

  85. Patrick Siu says:

    We decorate the tree outside with lights

  86. Sara Lima says:

    My fiance and I always do the Christmas Market here in Vancouver, and go see the Christmas Trees at the hotels with hot chocolate.

  87. Bev says:

    We adopt a family and provide them with a Christmas hamper.

  88. We have homemade pizza every new years eve.

  89. Marlene J says:

    Watching christmas vacation & drinking hot chocolate using Griswold Moose Mugs

  90. We always have a turkey dinner, and open our new PJs on Christmas Eve.

  91. SUMMER PLEWES says:

    we always have a pajama party on christmas eve.

  92. Mark V says:

    we always have a big xmas eve dinner and then we open stockings.

  93. Kris L says:

    Used to have fun decorating and stuff, but now everyones moved part, so doesn’t happen

  94. joy says:

    we decorate a gingerbread house, put up a real Christmas tree, and have Christmas dinner with my mom

  95. Catharine says:

    Matching Pj’s opened on Christmas Eve.

  96. We go out for a nice dinner and put up the tree together

  97. Sara Rai says:

    We watch holidays movies and decorate the tree.

  98. SUMMER PLEWES says:

    we always have a pajama party on christmas eve.

    Reply

  99. cherdon says:

    we gather together Christmas Eve to open just 1 gift, order some pizza and wings and watch a christmas movie

  100. watch holidays movies and decorate the tree.

  101. Cassie says:

    We visit Santa’s village evry year ( small farm that puts up massive lights for food bank donations )

  102. marygaudet says:

    We have family visit & stay for a late dinner…lots of food!!! That’s our Xmas day.

  103. Kelley Moore says:

    my family and I go to my aunt’s house Christmas eve for a little party

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