Family Gingerbread House

As I mentioned last year as well, our family decorates a gingerbread house together every year in late November or early December, and we display it in our house until close to springtime. We always buy a kit from the store, we have tried to get a different kit each year, but there are only so many variations out there, and we have ended up with the same kit the past few years. That's okay though, because every year we decorate it, it looks different. We actually considered maybe doing something a little different this year and getting a gingerbread train, tree, or family to decorate, but we decided to stick with tradition in the end. We always buy a kit rather than go through all of the trouble of making one, because we never eat the house. The house is simply for display purposes and not eating. With a kit, we don't end up wasting a lot of ingredients and effort, and this way we also get a nice variety of candies we would not normally buy, without having to deal with leftovers. The icing is also the perfect consistency to use, which can be difficult to achieve at home! I was slightly disappointed with the candies this year though  as they were definitely lacking in red and green, the primary colors we wanted to use for Christmas. We also supplement the kit with a few of our own candies, particularly sprinkles. 
Every family member chooses a different part of the house to decorate, and we switch from year to year. We all input our overall ideas, and my father assembles the house, which can be quite the task. Sometimes it requires the support of a few soup cans or other random containers, but our house has never fallen apart! This year, I chose to decorate the front of the house and the gingerbread man. I decided to make the door resemble a candy cane using red sprinkles and icing, and I added a wreath at the top using a peppermint and all of the green candies we had. I cut a yellow gumdrop in pieces to put candles in the windows. For the gingerbread man, I covered his head, feet, and hands in white icing and sprinkled them with Christmas colored sprinkles for a matching hat, mittens, and boots set. My oldest brother decorated the roof and the tree, my mother did the back and the walkway, and my dad did the sides and the assemble. A wonderful group effort, and the house looks beautiful, just as it does every year!