"We always do this in January, Mom. It's kind of a tradition."
On Tuesdays, I post a picture and just a few words.
So said Zoe when I brought home a gingerbread house kit, purchased on clearance at Aldi.
She's right. I'm not sure we've ever bought one of these in December since I can only be convinced to pay for rock-hard gingerbread when its marked down to just a few dollars after the holidays.
I know homemade gingerbread would be way more delicious. But the odds of me making the time to do from-scratch gingerbread houses are very low, so after-Christmas clearance kits it is around here.
And like Zoe says, it's kind of a tradition now anyway. It would feel sort of wrong to do this in December. 😉
(By the way, do you notice the muted colors on the candies? Aldi has phased out artificial colors on all of their private label products, which is pretty cool. I mean, not that candy is ever exceedingly healthful, but I'm always up for taking artificial stuff out of food.)
Good to know about the artificial colors at Aldi.
We made this kit this year. My girls wanted to leave it until the next day and all of the red ran out of the starlight mints and down the sides of the house. It looked like a house of horrors the next day. It was pretty funny! 🙂
Oh, weird! Our starlight mints didn't run at all. I wonder why!
Oh my gosh, I feel the same way about the whole store-bought gingerbread house thing. I just bought a huge set at Walmart for $5, much bigger than what I would have bought at regular price. The thing with us is that I rarely have time to do the kit before Christmas, and so it works out perfectly.
Also, if I don't pay much for it, I don't really put much effort into helping the kids with it. That way, they get a better experience reading directions, following said directions, and working on their decorating skills (and working together). I just enjoy watching them do it. I have four girls, 10 and under, so this is always humorous.
We did ours in December but bought it last year on super clearance at aldi for 10cents. We don't eat it anyway as the girls like to display it and we have pets that leave fur everywhere. Ditto for us on the house of horrors thing . Super creepy!
This is what I do, too, since I have enough space with the Christmas decorations to put the kit. Everything but the icing will be just as inedible next year, and I can make construction icing if necessary.
I bought mine at Aldi during December. Our December is very low key with very few activities so it was something fun to do as a family one night. I noticed the change of colors but didn't realize it was because they weren't using artificial food coloring. That's cool!
Last year, while on vacation, DH and I wandered into one of those All-Sugar tourist trap stores. We found a Trailer Trash Santa Gingerbread House Kit on mega clearance. I bought it for one of my brothers, as I knew he'd appreciate the whole sleigh on cinderblocks, chili pepper house lights on the trailer vibe. I stashed it away for the rest of the year and then dragged it along to our Thanksgiving festivities.
My other brother's wife is from China. Her son was still living in China with his grandmother, awaiting necessary approvals. They finally came through, and he arrived right before Thanksgiving, so they were hosting the festivities this year.
The transition is full of challenges, but my new nephew and his new American (girl) cousin, who is exactly the same age, seemed to share the same affection for small electronic devices and were managing fine, despite the language gap. After dinner, I gave them the Gingerbread House. The two ten-year-olds hunkered down and built the whole thing together. They sat side-by-side for the better part of two hours, with no need for a common language or electronics. I'm sure he had no idea what it was all about, but we adults got a kick out of seeing them work together so intently. Best sub-$5 gift ever. And oh, yes, I am positive that all the colorings were artificial.
Love this story!
Oh, I wish I had one of those. We are having a snow day here and that would be a fun activity.
I had read that Aldi was phasing out the artificial colors, and I noticed it when I was using butterscotch chips last week--I had the remnants of an old bag left and added a new bag to them, and they are different colors, which I assume is due to them not using artificial colors anymore.
I find the traditions that just happen are the ones my kids enjoy best.
I love Aldis...if I could just live in one I could die happy (and probably stinky because...you know...no shower).
Love this tradition and that Zoe wistfully looks forward to it! Imagine it would cost a small fortune to make actual gingerbread, frosting, get candies, etc. and the fun factor might get buried. My daughter's traditions were the ones she plucked out of our somewhat haphazard celebrations and were never exactly Hallmark approved, but they worked. Enjoy!!
So excited to hear Aldi's is phasing out artificial food colors. My kids are on the Feingold diet and it's so challenging to find holiday food items without fake colors. I didn't buy this but I did buy giant gingerbread men at Whole Foods with pre-made naturally colored icing. That was before Christmas. We still haven't decorated them. I think this weekend is finally the time to do it. 🙂
I always make one with my grandson and after the holidays we put it out on the deck and watch the squirrels and birds go crazy over eating it. In a day or so, all that is left is the base that it sat on.
We always do ours Dec. 31st or Jan. 1st, its a fun low-key activity post holidays. Though our Aldi has been selling out of them before Christmas so I've learned to just grab it when I see it...I do buy supplemental candy on the post-Christmas Clearance.
I always buy my kids Valentine's Day treats from the after Christmas markdowns and the Easter treats I buy from the Valentine's day markdowns. This year I found chocolate covered cordial cherriesand huge Hershey's kisses. The cordial cherries don't expire until 12-15-16 so they really last awhile. They actually sell the exact same huge Hershey's kiss for Valentines' Day but it's regular price again. I don't mind the kids having sweet treats but I don't always buy sweet treats for special occasions. I also found some very nice PEZ dispensers of the Charlie Brown characters in the Christmas markdowns. Last year I found huge stuffed animals in the Christmas markdowns that I just tied a pink Valentines' Day themed bow around them. By the way, the Easter bunny keeps bringing back the same old basket he just fills it with new items. They have never noticed! I also just purchased Christmas wrapping paper for $.29 a roll to put up for next year. I know wrapping paper is such a waste but I just can't give it up yet so I least try to pay as little as I can for it.
We don't have an Aldi's anywhere around us. Boo!
I grew up in a fairly large extended family, which would arrive back at the old home place a family or two at a time for Christmas. I grew up with celebrating Christmas Day, the next day, the following night, and the next day or so, as more family arrived. We opened presents for nearly a week, sometimes. Doing Christmas-type things after Christmas Day feels normal to me, and I think it's a great tradition to develop, doing gingerbread houses in January. Let's face it, January and February can be a bit bleak. They need some festivity.
Love it! We always save ours til next year though.
We usually do this after the holidays too. However this year, I found a foam craft gingerbread house in the target clearance for 45 cents I think. It's my only Christmas decoration out. Not ready to put it up either.