Abriella Terrazas and her sister Isabella tell PEOPLE that the whole process takes anywhere from 4 to 5 days
Abriella Terrazas and her sister Isabella grew up in a family that loved baking, decorating and crafting — especially during the holidays. So, it’s no surprise that every year, the family would make gingerbread houses, starting with graham crackers when they were little and eventually progressing to deluxe gingerbread mansion kits as they grew.
However, in 2020, after their mom struggled to find a deluxe kit for the sisters, she suggested something different: they could take the creations into their own hands, using Abriella’s knowledge as a student at the University of Southern California’s School of Architecture.
With the help of computer-aided design (CAD) software, Abriella drew up blueprints, and the sisters’ first gingerbread greenhouse was born. Now, years later, they’ve only continued to grow their skills, and their intricate, festive creations are taking TikTok by storm.
“The process is chaotic getting everything ready before Christmas, but we love having a new challenge every year,” Isabella, a 25-year-old clinical research coordinator in San Francisco, tells PEOPLE exclusively.
“It’s a chance for us to spend time together and create fun memories,” Abriella adds. “Our whole family is in the kitchen while we’re building and decorating — my oldest sister is baking cookies and my parents are cooking.”
Abriella tells PEOPLE that she draws inspiration for each year’s house from her architecture studies, travels and everyday life. For their 2023 gingerbread house, she was inspired by San Francisco’s classic Victorian architecture.
“That year’s design is my favorite because its intricacy shows the growth we’ve made throughout the years,” Abriella says. “It was smaller than some of our previous gingerbread projects, but we focused on the details and created a neater, more intricate design.”
“We could spend more time perfecting everything, but for now, it’s more about having fun, spending time together, and challenging ourselves,” she adds.
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The sisters explain that the whole process takes anywhere from four to five days, starting early in the morning and going late into the night. It takes one to two days for Abriella to make the blueprints, one day for preparing the layout, another day for baking and assembling and then a final day for frosting and adding final touches.
They usually start building as soon as Abriella comes home for college winter break. While the sisters carry out the building, designing and decorating, the overall process is definitely a family affair.
“Our mom and dad give great input on the design and do the ingredient shopping,” Isabella says. “Ileana, our older sister, helps us with baking. Our little dog Coco is a skilled floor sweeper, this is her favorite time of year with powdered sugar and other gingerbread house materials flying everywhere.”
“Our parents were so impressed with our first design they kept it up through January,” she adds. “It held up well on display in our family room — no mold or issues with ants. In more recent years we have not kept it up quite as long and we compost everything at the end of the holiday season.”
Since Abriella is dedicated to using 100% edible ingredients, the sisters have had to get creative to ensure their gingerbread houses don’t fall apart, especially given the size of their designs. Icing alone isn’t enough to hold everything together, so they’ve experimented with different methods to secure the pieces.
They’ve found that melting sugar on the stovetop works best. The sugar melts into a gooey, brown liquid that acts like glue. However, this method is always the most challenging part of the process because the melted sugar gets incredibly hot and dries quickly, making it difficult to work with.
Each year, Isabella posts their gingerbread designs on TikTok but it wasn’t until last year that her videos gained views beyond family and friends. When the sisters first noticed the videos go viral, they were so excited. In October, Isabella shared a video documenting last year’s gingerbread, which has since garnered 6.4 million views.
“meanwhile ours falls apart within the first 3 minutes every year,” YouTube commented on the video.
“DIY’ing the perfect gingerbread house is even better with family!” Lowe’s, the home improvement store, also wrote.
“We were proud of what we created and we were happy to share it with others. This has also motivated us to continue our tradition,” Isabella says.
She adds, “I like seeing people tag their friends and make plans to do something similar.”
“The 2021 gingerbread house, which resembles a castle, was one of the more difficult designs,” Isabella explains. “The pointed roofs made it especially tricky to get all those pieces to stick together. Since we always create everything from scratch, we’re still experimenting with different dough recipes.”
“We’ve also run into issues like the dough warping or bubbling while in the oven,” Isabella continues. “But during the decorating process, we just frost over and touch up any imperfections.”
The sisters are waiting for Abriella to finish her finals and return home before starting this year’s gingerbread house, but Abriella says she’s already working on the design. She hints that it’s inspired by a recent trip she took abroad.
“I hope one day we can enter a competition or even create a gingerbread kit so others can recreate our designs,” Abriella says. “Creating this family tradition has been so much fun and has given us something to look forward to each year.”
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