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

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

Candy Lane? 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.

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

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

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

The cookie house itself has a very light, buttery vanilla taste; it’s a really fairly pleasant eat. 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.

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

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 need to be more options!

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.

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!

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

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!

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

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!

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

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.

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

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.

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

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. 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!

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

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.

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

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.

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

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 an 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 liquidy of 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.

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

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.

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

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.

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

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!

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

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.

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.