Costco's Gingerbread Houses Are Letting Shoppers Down This Year

Although Costco's gingerbread house kits hit shelves earlier than ever this year, some shoppers have been vocal about their disappointment — and morbid amusement — with this year's batch. According to a Reddit thread posted Monday, December 18, it's because the icing is (consistently) the wrong consistency, with some customers reporting that the sweet stuff is too thin and others saying it's too thick.

The gingerbread kit in question is sold almost entirely pre-built, with an optional build-it-yourself gable, a white icing pouch, red and green icing tubes, four gingerbread people cookies, and candy for decorating. It's made by the aptly named Pre-Built Gingerbread Co. and sells at Costco for $14.99 (prices may vary by location). One significant benefit of it being mostly pre-built is that you don't have to learn the secrets of assembling a sturdy gingerbread house.

The original poster asked, "Anyone else's Costco gingerbread house have water-thin icing?" and shared a photo of their drippy, trippy house. Most of the commenters replied in solidarity with a resounding yes. The red and green icings, in particular, look too runny to decorate the house properly. Only a select few have said the opposite, claiming the icing was so dense it had to be microwaved to become usable. One commenter mentioned that thoroughly mixing it helped, as instructed by the kit. Another reported that they "kneaded the heck out of all of them" to no avail; the consistency never improved. The kit appears to have few, if any, defenders.

The Reddit thread accumulated no fewer than 216 comments in 24 hours, and it is thoroughly decked with photos and descriptions of horrifying results, many reported in good humor, of blood-like red icing dripping all over the house and gingerbread people. There are photos of gingerbread people with dripping green eye sockets — like they just stared at the Ark of the Covenant, as one person pointed out — and sanguine streaks of red. Some of the decorators tried to use the red icing to line the windows and doors, leading to a "very metal gingerbread house" and doors that looked like they were "on an acid trip."

At least one person apparently had better luck; they recommended flipping the house around because decorating a flat surface allows for more control. This, of course, is still pretty tricky for a pre-built house with overhanging eaves and a pitched roof.

These kits certainly seem to have created a nightmare before Christmas for numerous Costco shoppers, and there's no shortage of example photos in the thread. One particularly creative commenter even compared their finished product to a crime scene and dressed their gingerbread people accordingly in police uniforms. Still, some Redditors, even those who admitted to enjoying the chaos, said they might switch kits next year. On X, formerly known as Twitter, one disillusioned user echoed that sentiment, surmising that the icing "was packed during the Nixon administration" and warning others to avoid Costco's gingerbread houses.