16 gingerbread house kits the whole family will love in 2022

Table Of Content

• Favorite Day Tree House Gingerbread Kit
• Wilton Mini Village Gingerbread Kit
• Hershey's Holiday Chocolate Cookie House Kit
• Mini Brightly Holidays Quilt Pattern CCS219 by Allison Harris for Cluck Cluck Sew
• Wilton Ready-to-Decorate Dressed for the Holidays Gingerbread House Decorating Kit
• Baketivity Baking Kit Holiday Gingerbread House Kit
• Start New Holiday Traditions With These Wirecutter Picks

We’ve also chosen more traditional build-it-yourself kits for those also interested in the building process itself. For shoppers who want an even more hands-on process, we’ve included a few kits for baking and building a gingerbread house from scratch. For over three years, we've been testing popular gingerbread house kits. Our editors have done two rounds of side-by-testing in addition to sending samples out to the festive homes of our experienced gingerbread architects (aka, product testers). We looked at features like quality, ease of assembly, and taste. Most gingerbread kits are designed with aesthetics in mind (although we did find a clear winner in the taste category).

Favorite Day Tree House Gingerbread Kit

Here is a selection of four-star and five-star reviews from customers who were delighted with the products they found in this category. The pieces are hard and made cutting just a little treacherous. Allison Wignall is a staff writer for The Spruce Eats who focuses on product reviews.

Wilton Mini Village Gingerbread Kit

The whole kit will give you peace of mind while you build and listen to carols about peace on Earth. This gingerbread house kit from Sweetology wowed us with its décor. It was one of the most fun houses to build (and we've tried a lot!). It comes with a ton of cute candy for decorating, including gummy penguins, candy cane sprinkles, and colorful chocolates that perfectly resemble Christmas lights. And the house itself was easy to assemble—the pieces are interlocking like puzzle pieces so it comes together smoothly.

Hershey's Holiday Chocolate Cookie House Kit

I gathered a few links for you to use as decorating inspiration. There are so many beautiful (and SIMPLE) decorated gingerbread houses out there. As you can see in these photos, I covered the roof with royal icing before piping the buttercream on. As the royal icing dried, it gently dripped off the sides and looked like snow. This Hershey's cookie house kit is perfect for the chocolate lovers in your family. If watching A Charlie Brown Christmas is a tradition in your household, double up the fun with this Peanuts gingerbread house kit.

We found most gingerbread kits offer just average taste, but this one really wowed us—in fact, it tasted homemade. Chilling the dough is imperative—otherwise the house pieces will lose shape and constructing will be impossible. The dough is a little sticky from the molasses, so I recommend chilling in two discs before rolling out.

Wilton Ready-to-Decorate Dressed for the Holidays Gingerbread House Decorating Kit

The 2 Best Gingerbread House Kits of 2024 Reviews by Wirecutter - The New York Times

The 2 Best Gingerbread House Kits of 2024 Reviews by Wirecutter.

Posted: Wed, 29 Nov 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

I liked that each house was unique, but they are pretty small, so if you’re looking for a big, majestic centerpiece, this isn’t it. I’ve baked, cut, and decorated gingerbread houses before, so I was ready for more housebuilding when the Wilton Welcome to Christmas Mini Gingerbread Village Kit arrived. I examined the contents of the box, cut apart the house pieces, and got to work building. Was it as fun as baking from scratch, or was I left wishing the gingerbread was hot from the oven?

Luckily, that's an easy fix—just buy or make more of your own royal icing. After building and decorating in our test, we were pleased with the end result but think you could always add more candies—since that is the theme. M&M's are the star of the show — literally and figuratively — in this mini gingerbread house. Prepare to top your gingerbread house with gumdrops, jelly beans, candy canes and a coating of powdered sugar snow.

The houses are stamped with lines for doors and windows, which is helpful for more timid decorators or those who might forget the front door. Some kits come with everything you might need and some involve a little more work on your end—read the packages carefully. Gingerbread kits tend to sell out quickly each year, though, so be sure to make your selection early. You outsource the cookie baking and skip right to assembly with an all-in-one kit that includes everything you need. Instead, you get multiday frustrations of collapsing walls and slow-drying icing.

To make your house simply glue the graham crackers to the sides of the container. This will provide a sturdy base on which the kids can create their homes. If you are having a party and you have a lot of houses to build and excited kids to entertain, these easier versions are the perfect recipe for a fun (but messy) winter holiday party. Using icing to hold your gingerbread structure together is a task that is seemingly easy and surprisingly difficult. With this set from Walgreens, you won't have to rely on icing to "glue" your house together because the pieces come in a "link and lock" style, like a puzzle! Fit them together and use a bit of icing for additional support, but the rest is mainly used for decoration.

It even includes food coloring and a handy color wheel so you can cheer on your favorite candy-coated team. The Nordic Ware pan would be great for a soft gingerbread, but for folks who don’t like that flavor, it could just as easily be a chocolate or vanilla cake under the holiday decor. Of course, the baker would need to make his or her own icing and supply the decorations. To be honest, I like both for different reasons, aside from the craftiness.

Why build a gingerbread house when you can build a gingerbread castle? Bring winter wonderland dreams to life in miniaturized edible form with this kit from Wilton. It comes with everything you need, including pre-baked gingerbread panels, three types of candy, blue decorating sugar, white fondant and ready-to-use icing. The Williams Sonoma Gingerbread House Kit is our top pick because it is not only adorable but also easy to build. The precut gingerbread slabs include notches that help keep each piece in place while the icing is drying.