Reviewing a Variety of Holiday Cookie/Candy Decorating Kits & Houses

Review

Definitely one of the darkest house pieces I’ve eaten! It genuinely tastes like the cookie part of an Oreo: a bold, mildly sweet, non-bitter dark cocoa taste. Heck, even its texture is soft, lightly crunchy, and has a typical cookie mouthfeel.

Surprisingly, the frosting that comes with the kit is a little less thick and less sweet than other seemingly typical house frosting I’ve had. Its flavor, of course, is really just sugary tasting. Lastly, the package has a small package of mini MMS and regular ones.

The hrowing these all together and chowing down, it gives me an off-brand Oreo vibe. Honestly, if the frosting were a little sweeter and accurate to an Oreo’s inner creme, what you’d get is an Oreo in candy house form.

Of course, we can’t forget about the MMS… Or can we? Sure, they provide a milk chocolate taste and creamy crunch to it all, but it feels more subtle as the large cocoa cookie house parts take up most of your taste buds with their pronounced flavor and texture.

Overall, this is a cocoa-rich flavored cookie house, all due to the pronounced cocoa flavor from the house pieces and the less sweet frosting, combined with the subtly chocolate M&Ms. Maybe I just expected more nuance from the flavors and combined textures; however, the frosting and the M&Ms played much less of a role than I expected.

Release Date

I’m unsure of a release date, although mentions of different variations date back to around 2023. Found at Walmart in late December 2025.

Review

I didn’t expect the level of authenticity here!

As advertised on the box, both the house cookie parts and frosting taste more or less identical to their Oreo cookie counterparts! The house pieces have that iconic, dark cocoa Oreo cookie piece taste, and the creme itself tastes like they scraped the actual stuff off the Oreo and repackaged it. Notably, the cookie house pieces don’t have the snappy crunch of an Oreo; these were softer, yet they provide a good cookie-based crunch like most other kits.

As a side note, unfortunately, the included Christmas sprinkles and crunchy candy balls are pretty much flavorless, though the balls have a slight artificial sugar taste–same cheap stuff you find in other kits.

A big gripe of mine with this kit is the lack of frosting. Sure, this is supposed to be a small house, but comparing it to other similarly sized ones, they really skimped out here. The only redeeming quality, aside from it being your standard textured frosting, was that it tasted like sweet Oreo creme. Lastly, there are at least enough sprinkles and a decent amount of mini Oreos to enjoy, and I also appreciated how the Christmas ones had a variety of shapes like gingerbread men and candy canes.

Now, the main part: eating these.

Sandwiching some sprinkles, a mini Oreo or two, a cookie house part, and a big dollop of frosting tasted like… an Oreo! Well, a bigger one with a more nuanced texture provided by the softer cookie house piece, extra frosting, and crunchy sprinkles. It felt like version 2.0 of an Oreo!

Basically, if you like the flavors of Oreo, you will absolutely find it here and appreciate how accurate everything is! At the same time, I personally would have liked to see some combination of other flavors represented to complement the normal Oreo cookie taste.

Release Date

I’m unsure of a release date, although mentions of similar house kits date back to October 2019. Found at Five Below in mid-November 2025.

Review

Note: You can also find this review on my Chips Ahoy! review page.

Comes with light vanilla pieces with small chocolate chip pieces embedded throughout. Notably, it’s uniformly textured, reminding me of a mix between a traditional gingerbread house and a Chips Ahoy cookie. A pouch of darker chocolate icing also comes with this kit, a small pack of Chips Ahoy mini cookies, two packets of wintery sprinkles and crunchy cheap candy bells, and a small packet of blue icing.

The house is crunchy, a lot like a cookie but slightly thicker and harder, though with a smoother texture. It has a mildly sweet, regular chocolate cookie taste, reminding me of a less-sweet Chips Ahoy cookie. In a way, for the most part, it’s a flattened, dry cookie.

What really makes the taste and flavors come alive, surprisingly, is the large packet of chocolate icing. It genuinely tastes like melted, sweet, authentic, chocolate chips found right in any cookie you’d find in the market. The texture is also perfect, smooth, thick, and with a good mouthfeel. Honestly, one of the best, most unique icings I’ve come across in a house kit–how did they make it taste and feel like actual chocolate chips?!

A slight downside — the blue icing is regular sugar icing and reminds me of the cheap store-bought frostings you find on cakes, but worse. It’s not as sweet, making the artificial flavor more pronounced. Lastly, the sprinkles are a nice addition, especially the cheap candy bells, which throw you a hit of a crunchy and super artificial fruity sugar candy flavor.

When you combine it all together, it feels like you’re eating a giant Chips Ahoy cookie, but even better due to the thick, sweet layer of chocolate chip tasting frosting and background of crunchy sprinkles. The chocolate dominates, essentially making the house taste mostly like chocolate chips with an addition of milk chocolate cookies.

Release Date

I’m unsure of a release date, although mentions of this date back to around late 2023. Found at Bass Pro Shops in mid-November 2025.

Review

Unfortunately, I immediately noticed that the house cookie pieces are on the thinner side–oh no! And the color looks like a light brown… isn’t this supposed to be gingerbread?

Biting into them, they are also a little more crunchy and harder than what’s typical. I personally am not a fan of these crunchier houses. That aside, despite the color, the flavor is a subtle blend of ginger, cinnamon, and sugar; nothing too crazy here. It’s honestly almost forgettable and could have been more boldly flavored. Still, it’s okay, just not something premium and below average overall.

Most annoyingly, the frosting is very thin; perhaps I didn’t knead it enough, I’m not sure. It’s very liquidy and sweet with a hint of artificialness not typically found in these types of frostings. In fact, there is a hint of bitterness with an odd, almost artificial-tasting sweetness.

The sprinkles at least look nice, resembling the premium sprinkles you find in stores. Though that’s all they really do is look nice, they don’t provide much else in terms of flavor or anything else aside from texture. 

Overall, this is a cheaper tasting house kit that could have really improved using better frosting, better, thicker gingerbread house pieces with a bolder taste, and sprinkles or add-ons that had some sort of contributing flavor. It’s not too horrible, but definitely not good enough either.

Release Date

I’m unsure of a release date. Found at Five Below in mid-November 2025.

Review

This comes with fairly dark cookie pieces that lean towards a more cocoa-based flavor profile. They’re lightly sweet, have a soft crunch, and, for the most part, what you only really need to know about these is that they really do taste like a mix of cocoa and your standard chocolate-based house kit, something I haven’t seen much of in other house-building boxes.

The frosting is thick, airy, and very sugary sweet, and the kit also comes with crunchy little pieces of Christmas sprinkles that are pretty much flavorless but give it a light crunch. Coupled with the frosting, it tastes like a very, very sweet hot chocolate in cookie-crunchy form, with the frosting dominating most of the flavor while the background of cocoa chocolate from the cookie house itself provides a tasty backdrop.

To push this further, the addition of marshmallow would have a nice touch and some more meaningful sprinkles; something about it feels like it was missing something, perhaps it was that– though I can’t complain much. It’s more or less pretty close to your standard house kit.

Release Date

I’m unsure of a release date. Found at Five Below in mid-November 2025.

Review

The cookie house has a very, very mild buttery, plain cookie taste. It has your typical light crunch and isn’t too hard. Nothing too notable in this regard.

It comes with some pieces of hard, circular candy that provide an additional artificial, fairly strong sugar, fruity candy taste–it works well here! Surprisingly, when I chowed down on this, these bits were noticeable despite the sweet, thick frosting and the Sour Patch Gummies and gave it an extra kick I didn’t think it needed.

Needless to say, all of them together provided a sweet, lightly sour taste with a commendable mouthfeel — you’re greeted with the light crunch from the house, the thick, airy frosting, crunchy bits, and the super-chewy Sour Patch Kids! Interestingly, I think that if the cookie house were any more flavored, it might just be too much!

Overall, I especially love the mouth feel of these and the experience of eating them. You get so many different textures from gnawing through it!

So, basically, I would say that this is more of a fruity, sweet, and lightly sour house kit. I have no other real complaints about this; if you like fruity-based sweet candies and a combination of nuanced mouthfeel, this is for you.

Release Date

I’m unsure of a release date. Found at Five Below in mid-November 2025.

Review

What I immediately noticed is that the sprinkles are the most unique I’ve ever seen! They’re all square-shaped and different colors, sporting more or less your typical crunchy, mildly sweet sprinkles.

That aside, the house pieces have a pleasantly light, sweet, authentic gingerbread flavor; you can really taste the nutmeg, cinnamon, and other nuances that go along with it–its taste is definitely commendable here! They’re reasonably crunchy, slightly on the harder side, but still have a pleasant enough mouthfeel, and honestly, do feel more premium than what usually comes in these house kits.

The frosting accompanying this is your typical thick sugary sweet frosting you find in any other gingerbread houses, along with a small tube of darker colored frosting to write with. Nothing special here, however, what is pleasurable is that since the authentic flavor of the cookie house is really good already, the frosting really brings it out even more! Not to mention, the crunchy pieces of the square candies add a touch of additional crunchiness to the texture, though they’re flavorless for the most part.

Release Date

Likely released in December 2024. Found at Five Below in mid-November 2025.

Review

The house pieces taste like a semi-sweet, plain sugar cookie. It has a genuine, mild sugary buttery vanilla. Notably, this contrasts with a lot of other gingerbread-based houses I’ve come across. It definitely reminds you of a very tame sugar cookie in terms of flavor, and combined with that of a house treat building kit texture, with a soft, light crunch.

The frosting is surprisingly nice, sporting that authentic Barbie bright pink, and in addition, comes with a lot of colorful flat sprinkles and a bright blue tube of frosting to write with.

Interestingly, while the frosting here is mostly standard–thick, airy, and sweet, there is a smidge of artificial bitterness–perhaps it’s the food coloring? Either way, it doesn’t detract much, if at all; it’s just a nitpick I noticed. Lastly, the sprinkles don’t do anything here in terms of flavor and, at best, offer the most minor additional texture.

With the bright colors and frosting alongside the vanilla-based cookie house, when you combine these, you get what almost resembles a brightly sweet sugar cookie that has a smidge of artificialness. It’s good, different, though that slightly off frosting does detract slightly, and the sprinkles aren’t doing much aside from being pretty.

Release Date

While I can’t find an exact release date, mentions of this date date back to October 2020. Found at Five Below in mid-November 2025.

Review

The house pieces taste like mildly sweet semi-dark chocolate with about average texture, typical of a build-it house; soft, easy to bite through, and with a light crunch. This is your average, middle-of-the-road stuff here so far.

Unfortunately, the truth is, this house is small and you don’t get much from it. A little bit of frosting, some average, colorful Christmas sprinkles, and three kisses. It almost doesn’t feel like enough.

Taste-wise, the frosting is very typical sugary sweet and pairs reasonably well with the mildly chocolately house, but when you combine it with a kiss and the crunchy sprinkles, you get a great mouth feel of the soft-solid creamy chocolate Kiss, a light, crunchy bite from the gingerbread house, the thick, soft layer of frosting, and, of course, the crunchy sprinkles. Altogether, it’s great and notably chocolately.

Overall, this is a very, very chocolatey house, as both the kiss and the cookie house dominate with their chocolate flavors, which, flavor-wise, nearly resemble one another aside from one being sweeter than the other. This is a cute, small house with just about enough ingredients and quality to make it feel neither too cheap nor too premium.

Release Date

While I can’t find an exact release date, mentions of this date date back to October 2020. Found at Five Below in mid-November 2025.

Review

Biting into the orange-colored house pieces, it initially tasted plain, but then I swore I got a tiny hint of cheddar cheese along with it. In a way, it resembles an extremely, extremely mild Cheez-It cracker, where even the texture reminds me of it. In fact, compositionally, it’s a little softer than other gingerbread houses and resembles a mash-up of your typical crunch house and soft, buttery Cheez-its. The interesting texture and color of them are very unique!

It comes with a decent amount of regular, sugary-tasting frosting, two bags of cheesy Cheez-Its, and some inexpensive, crunchy candy pieces. The frosting is your typical sweet, thick variety, though I wish they had included more to assist in decorating, as there isn’t enough here. The candy bits taste like cheapo crunchy sugar pieces and come in different Christmas shapes, which I found cute but typical. And lastly, of course, your regular Cheez-its — two small bags of them.

When combining the sweetness of the frosting and candy pieces with the Cheez-its — it’s interesting! Notably, it doesn’t taste weird, and I attribute this to the fact that the frosting is so sweet that it mostly overwhelms any meaningful contribution from the Cheez-It flavor. On some parts, the little cheese flavor that does come through still works surprisingly well with the house’s sweet nature; it’s just not too noticeable or as bold as you may think.

The combination of textures is my favorite and a standout, however. Biting into the soft cookie house, reminiscent of a similar style Cheez-It cracker, the thick frosting layer and crunchy candy bits make the entire eating experience worth it!

An improvement I’d like to see would be to have the house pieces flavored even more than they are, as well as more frosting to help decorate. Otherwise, this is a pretty good and fantastic house kit. And if you’re thinking this might taste weird, it won’t, because, again, for the most part, it’s just a sweet-tasting regular house with unique textures and hints of complementary, salty cheddar that flow together so nicely.

Release Date

Released around early November 2025. Found at Walmart in mid-November 2025.

Review

First, the cookie portion is different than many of the other cookie house pieces I’ve had from other brands. It’s softer and not as thick or hard. It genuinely feels like you’re biting through a soft, darker, lightly sweet cocoa-based cookie–it’s great! It doesn’t feel cheap on this end either; it definitely feels a cut above. I can practically just eat this part and be satisfied!

The included thick frosting isn’t as sweet as I imagined. It’s just sweet enough with a sugary taste, nothing more. As a sweet-toothed person, I was genuinely taken aback by how much milder it is compared to some other house kit frosting. Secondly, the colorful butterflies provide a thick, non-flavorful crunch, and the black bats, on the other hand, are crunchy and have a bold, standout, artificial candy-fruit-like taste. Lastly, the thick sugar crystals are a nice final addition.

This house is great, and I’d especially recommend it to those who are normally not fans of eating them. The cookie parts taste like an authentic cookie, the frosting is just sweet enough, and the included candy pieces, while more or less your typical cheap-crunchy-junk, are a nice contrast and a small highlight of the house itself. Lastly, the building experience is your typical one–it’s not easy yet, but if you’re patient enough, the frosting and cookie parts will mold together.

Release Date

I’m unsure of an exact release date. Found at Michael’s in early November 2025.

Review

It’s easy enough to put together, as it’s small and the orange frosting dries quickly. The texture, however, resembles an almost stale semi-dark cocoa cookie-biscuit. It offers a light, soft crunch, but something about it makes it feel like it has sat out for too long. It has this soft-dry, stale-like mouthfeel.

The flavors are okay. Sure, the cookie part of the house itself has a stale texture, but the taste is passable, offering a mildly sweet, dark cocoa flavor. The frosting and candy beads are also very sweet, offering a noticeable and appreciable contrast.

Overall, this kit feels cheap and lackluster. This could be so much better if the cookie part of the house were improved.

Release Date

While I can’t find a release date, reviews on the Target product page point towards 2023. Found early September 2025.

Review

Note: This appears identical to The Elf on the Shelf House Kit.

Candy Land? Aside from the few semi-hard, cheap-feeling gummies and hard button candies, not really. For the gummies, they have a super light fruity taste, but are overshadowed because they’re hard, stale-feeling, and aren’t all too sweet or noteworthy. The little crunchy candy buttons are mostly flavorless.

As for the house parts themselves, they’re decent: mildly sweet, crunchy, hard-ish gingerbread cookie pieces with no sign of that traditional ginger bitterness. Also, the frosting is smooth, soft, and very sugary sweet. All in all, it’s a small kit with just enough to build a tiny house. It definitely feels on the cheaper side.

Release Date

While I’m not sure when this was released, Amazon reviews date back to December 2023. Found on Amazon in April 2025.

Review

Note: This appears identical to the Candy Land House Kit; check out my review for that.

Release Date

While I’m not sure when this was released, Amazon reviews date back to 2018. Found on Amazon in April 2025.

Review

The cookie house itself has a very light, buttery vanilla taste; it’s a really pleasant treat. The white frosting that comes with it is standard, sweet, sugary, and easy to decorate with. The colored frostings are similar but have a bitter aftertaste from the dye.

Overall, this kit provides an overabundance of different colored frosting, which is substantially more than enough to decorate with (unlike most other house kits). I also love the addition of the mini-pack of fondant, hard candies, and sprinkles.

Release Date

While I’m not sure when this was released, reviews date back several years. Found at Stop & Shop in January 2025.

Review

It’s cheap-tasting, to say the least, especially compared to other house kits. The cookie itself tastes dry, breaks apart easily, and has a light, almost stale, gingerbread taste. Additionally, the crunchy candies that come with it feel incredibly cheap, as does the frosting. Granted, there is a decent amount of frosting to decorate, although the kit only comes with white frosting! There needs to be more options!

Release Date

Not sure of an exact release date, although these likely only come around Christmas. Early reviews date back to 2001. Found at Walmart in December 2024.

Review

Crunchy and more thin and airy than other candy house kits. The cookie has a powder-like flavor similar to that of cocoa powder, but a little less dark. The kit is very small and has a regular-tasting frosting, super dry, tiny marshmallows, and cheap, colorful hard candy. Overall, I’m disappointed in the amount and the quality of it all. Definitely get a different candy house!

Release Date

Not sure when this was released. Found at Walmart in December 2024.

Review

Note: This can also be found on my Target-branded review page.

Absolutely adorable! It comes with a cute Target cart and Dog, as well as lots of premium-tasting decorations like gummies and hard candies. It also comes with a decent amount of sweet white icing and other colored frostings, too. These do allow you to build an adequate Target store, although it definitely won’t look as nice as the box.

In terms of flavor, the cookie parts themselves are very plain and crunchy, but they are made up for by all the tasty decorations and frostings you can add. The white icing that comes with it is very soft and sweet, and the rest of the candies feel a cut above the rest. Overall, this feels like a premium house-building kit. As a side note, the Target cart and dog are nearly impossibly hard and taste like bitter, nasty dye!

Release Date

Not sure when this was released. Found in November 2024 at Target.

Review

Note: This can also be found on my Aldi-branded review page.

The first thing I noticed was that this only comes with white icing, though it’s about enough for most of your decorating. Notably, the taste of the cookie is definitely Christmas spice with a kick, not gingerbread. They’re moderately sweet, and with the icing, it’s a nice, sweet touch.

The kit includes a variety of candies, including sugary gummy Christmas trees and plain gummy balls, as well as cheap-tasting hard candy and mints. Overall, the kit feels on the lackluster side given what it came with. At least give us more icing colors!

Release Date

Not sure when this was released. Found at Aldi in November 2024.

Review

The gingerbread house itself is pretty crunchy and has a light gingerbread taste. The frosting that comes with it is weird; it feels cheap and slimy and slides off the house parts. It’s also very sweet, tasting like pure sugar. The additional two little tubes of white frosting taste extremely artificial, weird, and bitter. Overall, this house kit tastes extremely cheap compared to other ones.

Release Date

I’m not sure when this was released. Found at Walgreens in January 2025.

Review

Note: This can also be found on my Target-branded review page.

Two small, thin tubes of red and green frosting and a few pieces of hard candy. The frostings are very runny and taste like unsweetened dye. The gingerbread men themselves have a hard white frosting already applied; they’re hard and have a light gingerbread flavor. Overall, these are not good and feel cheap.

Release Date

Not sure of a release date, although around November 2024 seems reasonable. Found at Target in December 2024.

Review

For both of the kits: The cookie itself is dry, and the taste resembles that of the cookie part of an Oreo. The package comes with plenty of them, both regular and mini, depending on the kit. The white creme they come with is very smooth and is a much sweeter version of Oreo creme. Together, the flavors do resemble an Oreo in a sense.

Notably, these packages don’t give you nearly enough creme or sprinkles for the decorations! One of them, however, comes with a soft green fondant you can use to style with.

Overall, it’s tasty and very sweet with that frosting! I do love how it leans towards a reasonably authentic Oreo taste when you combine the creme and cookie house parts!

Release Date

Not sure when this was released. Found at Target in November 2024.

Review

The gingerbread men are pale and have a light gingerbread taste. For the most part, though, it’s a bit plain, and the texture is dry and crunchy. The frostings it comes with aren’t as sweet as regular frostings; it’s quite light, actually!

The Christmas house is weird. It’s plain, crunchy, and almost stale-tasting. The frosting is weird, having a fruity, off, weird taste. Overall, it’s just… weird. Not bad, just weird.

Release Date

Not sure when this was released. Found at Dollar Tree in November 2024.

Review

Note: This can also be found on my Aldi-branded review page.

This comes with so much! Super sweet gummies, a variety of cheap-tasting hard candies including bat and bone shapes, and two tubes of Halloween orange and black colored frosting.

The cookie house itself has a tasty, moderately sweet chocolate cocoa flavor. Granted, it’s still dry, crunchy, and a bit tough. The frosting and the gummies are very sweet and taste good, almost premium! Together, it’s all a great combination and steps above other house decorating kits.

Release Date

Rereleased October 2, 2024. Found at Aldi in October 2024.

Review

Note: You can also find this review on my Trader Joe’s review page.

One of the cheaper gingerbread house kits I’ve found, and it even looks less fake and more premium! I especially love how it comes with little edible figures, too. HOWEVER! This requires egg white and lemon juice or white vinegar for the piping icing.

Unlike other gingerbread house kits, these are actually chewy, semi-sweet, and have a subtle ginger flavor. The icing you make is too liquid a consistency to decorate or build with, and frankly, it tastes odd. It’s like powdered sugar and water mixed together; it just isn’t good. The candies that come with it look nice, but also lack any sweetness or flavor. Overall, this kit looks nice but is bland and impossible to construct.

Release Date

I’m not sure when this was released, but reviews date back many years. Found December 2023.

Review

How do you decorate the sides? Why is the frosting so stiff and hard to use? Why is there barely any frosting? Why did mine include almost entirely orange gummies? There are so many questions; nonetheless, these are impossible to put together yourself, usually because they tip over as the frosting is a horrible glue. The taste is that of a dry, semi-sweet, hardish, cinnamony gingerbread cookie, and for whatever reason, I love it. It reminds me of winter and has a bunch of different flavor combinations from all the cheapo decorations.

Release Date

I’m not sure when this was released, although I only seem to see this specific one at Walmart. Found December 2023.

Review

Immediately, I could smell sugar cookies, and the taste was similar to that, albeit very light and not that sweet. There’s a small hint of that Funfetti / vanilla birthday cake flavor. The house cookie texture is also dry, pretty hard, and crunchy. Decorating and putting this together is a nightmare, as the sweet white frosting takes a very long time to dry and simply isn’t that sticky. Inevitably, yours will likely fall down if you aren’t extremely careful. The toppings that come with it feel very cheap, and their off-putting artificial taste doesn’t combine well with everything.

Release Date

Released for the 2023 winter holiday season. Found December 2023 at Walmart.

Review

So, so much more premium and better than other Christmas building kits! First, the frosting. It’s soft and decently sweet, and most importantly, extremely easy to pipette from the package it comes in. Secondly, the candies that come with it feel and taste more premium than other kits. This kit comes with a huge abundance of frosting and candies, way more than required for decorating. Lastly, the cookies feel and taste premium! They’re so soft, and the taste is moderately sweet and semi-dark. Godiva didn’t skimp out anywhere on these!

Release Date

Likely released around November 2022 for the holiday season. Found at Walmart in December 2023.

Review

Like most other holiday house kits, these are almost impossible to put together, or perhaps I’m an idiot. The taste and texture of the house itself is an off-tasting, mildly sweet chocolate chip cookie that’s a bit too dry. Even the frosting tastes too much on the artificial side, even a bit stiff, but at least its sweetness adds to the bland, unsweetened chocolate chip cookie house pieces. Still, something about all of this comes together decently.

Release Date

Not sure when this was released, although it has been around for the last few years, at least. Released late fall for the holidays. Found at Stop & Shop in December 2023.