German International School Sydney Christmas Workshops

This festive season, the German International School Sydney is inviting Sydneysiders to embrace the wonderful Christmas traditions by attending a -Christmas workshop' event.   With four workshops scheduled, participants will learn to build and decorate their own handcrafted Gingerbread House or Gingerbread Star Christmas Tree and of course, there will also be Gingerbread Men available too.

While many of us are experts at deconstructing and eating Gingerbread Houses, this delicious project is intended to give our multi-cultural society a hands-on experience building and decorating them!   The traditional gingerbread house hails from Germany where it is known as a Hexenhaus.  It became popular in Germany after it was immortalised as the witch's house in the famous 1812 fairytale from the Brothers Grimm, 'Hansel and Gretel".  Nowadays the Gingerbread House is a popular centrepiece on Christmas dining tables around the world, and festive way for adults and children alike to kick off the preparations for the holiday season.

The school will be hosting four workshops on Sunday 1st December where budding master chefs of all ages will be encouraged to explore their culinary creativity.

Bookings are essential for the 1.5 hour workshops which start at 9:30am, 11:30am, 1:30pm and 3:30pm.

Christmas enthusiast and mother of two, Gillian Shakespeare, will lead the workshops providing tips and tricks on making your house the ultimate, delicious Christmas treat.  'Now in its fifth year, our Christmas workshops are incredibly popular and participants are always adventurous and try various decorating techniques.  But, you don't have to have any decorating, baking or cooking experience, it is simply a matter of trying something different and the aim is to have fun, which we do!  The workshops are open to young and old alike and have a very festive atmosphere; it is the perfect way to gear up to the Christmas season",  explains Gillian.

Gillian's top four tips on creating the perfectly decorated gingerbread house:

1.     Solid construction is key as this lessens the risk of the house collapsing under the weight of the decorations.

2.     Lightly colour desiccated coconut with green food colouring to achieve a ''snow-covered grass effect".

3.     Cover an ice-cream cone in icing, dip into green coconut and turn upside down and place in front of the house to create a Christmas tree.

4.     Add loads of colourful lollies and dare to be different!