One of my favorite holiday traditions is decorating gingerbread houses. However, baking the gingerbread itself never seems to be something I can squeeze into our hectic schedule this time of year. Since you don’t actually eat the house and get the satisfaction of tasting something you created, I am more than happy to delegate the baking part so we can skip right to the best part… eating, I mean decorating with, the candy! Lucky for me, my friends at Brand Castle were nice enough to send us a gingerbread house kit. And this isn’t just any kit, this is Santa’s Light Up Gingerbread Workshop featuring Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and his friends and a tree that actually lights up!

It was super easy to put together and we had a really great time decorating it. I’m not sure who had more fun, the kids or me. First the walls, went up! Then we slid the magic light up tree onto the back.

It was time to decorate! At first we had a little bit of a tough time getting enough frosting onto the candy to make it stick. We decided to try putting the frosting into a Ziploc bag and squeezing a dollop on the bottom before sticking it on the house. Here’s where it got tricky for me, not because it was hard to use, but because I wanted to take over and make it all symmetrical and perfect looking. Why do I do that?! I set my perfectionist tendencies aside and let the kids take the reins. Apparently Elizabeth and I are even more similar than I realized, as she took over my role telling her sister and brother where to put things.

Before we knew it, we were finished! Just as the kids were ready to be done. I think it turned out really cute. The kids LOVE the switch that turns on to light up the flashing tree lights and they’ve been playing with the Rudolph characters that come with it as if it is a doll house. My only complaint is that there is not enough of a variety of candy to use to decorate it. The fun of decorating a gingerbread house is having a big spread of different candies to really get creative. If you make this on your own, you might consider picking up some mini candy canes, some M&Ms, marshmallows, and more.

Thanks to Brand Castle for sending us this adorable project. Despite some bickering over who got to knead the frosting, who got to turn on the tree and who to got to put the last gum drop on the house, we had a really fun time and created a great memory we won’t soon forget.

GIVEAWAY!! Brand Castle also sent me these hilarious other kits including the Ugly Sweater Cookie Kit, perfect for your ugly sweater party, the Ninjabread Cookie Kit, perfect for silly kids, and the Star of David chocolate dipped star cookie kit. I will be doing a gift pack giveaway including all three of these fun kits to help save you time and energy as you do your baking this holiday season. To enter to win, just comment on this post!

Read more about all of Brand Castle’s baking kits and where to buy them at http://www.brandcastle.com. They are a local company based right here in Northeast Ohio, let’s support them!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!