Hellobee Boards

We have a plastic house base, and we eat as we decorate....my kids definitely sneak candy off of it later and don’t care how stale it is!

@bhbee: we smash ours with a hammer or mallet every year the day after Christmas! My kids LOVE it.

@AB810: This is a dynamite idea and I'm totally stealing it!

I never ate them. The cookies always seemed so hard and unappealing. Then I worked for Wilton for two years and found out that their kits were all baked at least a year before they were sold and stored in a warehouse. That just seemed not right to me. They shouldn't still be edible that far after being baked.

I should note that I'm not creative to make them on my own with graham crackers and the like but still, after they're made, that would be a hard pass for me.

@Chuckles: my kids also just enjoy making it collapse - a little less messy so you can do it on a sheet pan

I've actually never made one and would really love to try it this year. What are the must-have supplies/instructions, especially if you do like to eat them/snack as you go?

@Mrs. Carrot: in my opinion the walls are basically never worth eating, but I always buy a bunch of candy in addition to whatever may come in the set. Colorful, tasty, fun shape, etc (m&ms, red hots, holiday dots, spice drops, twizzlers, you name it - and I was able to get them all through target pickup this year!). Pretzel sticks make fun paths. I usually put down a disposable tablecloth to catch all the mess.

I always buy kits for the walls but put them together myself (you can also make them easily with Graham crackers, just google instructions). Sometimes simple is best! I think it’s fun to make your own white Royal icing - as long as you have a mixer, it’s easy and then you don’t have to use whatever piping bag it came with except where you want to - you can just use a butter knife if that’s easier, and it’s really fun to put “snow” all over your base. I don’t worry much about what the icing looks like and just add candy on top anyway! I think it’s a good idea to build the house one day after dinner, let it set up overnight so the icing is really hard, then decorate the next day. If you don’t make your own icing but need some extra, I’ve also had good luck with the Betty Crocker cookie icing bags (found them at Kroger). I bought those when we had a gingerbread party and all the 7-8 year olds used them no problem.