8 Gingerbread House Kits To Buy This Winter

Gingerbread houses are a staple of the winter holiday season, though they can be quite the challenge to build from scratch. The gingerbread doesn't come out right, or the frosted walls slouch, or perhaps the candy decorations keep falling off. A gingerbread house kit can be the way to go, but quality varies widely. You might wind up having the very problems you sought to avoid in the first place.

The following well-reviewed kits should help you avoid these common pitfalls of gingerbread house construction. Many of them are particularly easy to use, with several selections being ideal for children who want to express their creativity but may not be the best at actually building the house.

There are also some unique kits among this collection, including a gluten-free gingerbread house and one that's decorated with edible paint instead of the typical candies and frosting. And while most of these hew close to traditional gingerbread house design, there's even one for the mid-century modern fans out there.

As the name suggests, Amazon's Winter Wonderland and Glittery Pink Dreamland Insta-House Gingerbread House kit actually builds two houses, not just one. The kit comes with an abundance of pink and light blue decorations to make color-coded houses. However, nothing is stopping you from mixing it up and making both of them pink and blue holiday palaces. Reviews indicate that the houses are easy to assemble, and the variety of candy decorations — including snowmen, snowflakes, presents, and more — are higher-quality than most other gingerbread house kits.

The Dylan's Candy Bar Gingerbread House Kit comes from a leader in modern candy stores named, you guessed it, Dylan's Candy Bar. The popular New York City original lends its candy excellence to the delicious decorations included in this kit, which are varied and plentiful for decorating and snacking.

Perhaps its strongest selling point is the ease of construction. The house comes pre-assembled so that kids can jump right to decorating. And for adults, the only real prep work is to mix the frosting yourself.

One of the biggest mistakes shoppers can make at Trader Joe's is skipping its seasonal items. And among the chain's winter selection, the Trader Joe's Gingerbread House Kit is one of the best. The instructions are easy to follow — and it actually looks like what's on the box, which can be rare for gingerbread house kits. But for the more creatively minded, it's also an excellent base from which to develop your own themes and decorative details.

The Gingerbread House Kit Mini Village from Amazon comes with everything needed to make not one, but four different gingerbread houses, a perfect activity for groups of four. While the houses are on the smaller side, the price of less than $9 per house is hard to beat, and they shouldn't take up too much of your time. Customers report that there's a good variety of decorations included along with plenty of icing, and the open package is fragrant with gingerbread, as it should be.

There's no reason that people with gluten intolerances should be left out of house-building festivities. While there aren't many gluten-free kits on the market, the YumEarth Gingerbread House Baking Kit is one of the go-tos for a quality build without any gluten in the walls.

This kit focuses on simple ingredients and is free of all common allergens, not just gluten. The icing is vegan and the candies are organic. Even the sprinkles are dyed with spirulina (a nutritious blue-green algae) and red radishes instead of typical food colorings.

You're probably not going to see another gingerbread house quite like this. The Woodland Mid Century Modern Gingerbread House Kit builds a single-family gingerbread home right out of a background shot on Mad Men.

This kit is held together with connector clips instead of traditional icing for easier assembly, though some reviews suggest that the house may require some design creativity since it's smaller than expected. But its size might mean it could fit under a clear cake dome, which is the best way to store a gingerbread house.

Unlike other entries on this list, the Cookie Countess 'Paint Your Own' Gingerbread House Kit eschews icing altogether, calling on you to decorate it with the provided paintbrush and edible paints in six colors.

This unique kit does, however, require you to bake your own gingerbread. Be sure to avoid some of the biggest mistakes people make with gingerbread, like rolling it too thick or too thin. You'll also have to provide your own glue. For this, icing works, but you might want to melt marshmallows for the best gingerbread house glue possible.

For prospective gingerbread home buyers who want a premium product, it doesn't get much better than Williams Sonoma's DIY Candy Cane Gingerbread House Kit. Reviewers have found that the included precut gingerbread and candy decorations are high-quality and taste good. One of the only drawbacks is that you have to mix the icing yourself, although this is ultimately convenient for getting different consistencies.