Graham Cracker House Decorating

This is a budget-friendly way to do gingerbread houses for the holidays.

Instead of buying or baking gingerbread for walls, use graham crackers. Buy a wide variety of candy from the bulk bins in a grocery store. The candies could be lemon drops, gumdrops, red hots, red vines, or anything you want. Make or buy frosting to use as cement to hold the houses together, and build and decorate just as you would a gingerbread house. Build each houses on a cardboard square, so it has a sturdy base and can be thrown away when it's old and stale.

You can have design contests for the best house. Try building a mansion, or a model of a real building.

When everyone is done, take pictures of the finished product. Then eat or destroy -- or deliver the houses to friends, family, teachers or ward members and the activity becomes a service project.

Supplies:
graham crackers
frosting
candies
heavy cardboard cut into squares

Pumpkin Carving

Supplies:
pumpkins
knives
spoons
newspaper or plastic
tea lights (candles)
matches

Get some pumpkins, either one per person or just a few and assign a small group to each one. If there isn't a budget for pumpkins, ask everyone to bring one for themselves (which generally works better for people, so they get to pick exactly the one that they want for the project they have in mind). Lay out newspapers or plastic to protect your work area. Distribute knives and spoons, and let everyone clean out and carve their pumpkins into jack-o'-lanterns.

Everyone can do their own thing, or you can have a theme (celebrity, animal, scary things). You can pick a winner for best pumpkin. When they're all finished, put a candle in each one and light them.

This could turn into a service activity by delivering the finished jack-o'-lanterns to friends, family, teachers or ward members.