December has arrived. The leaves are falling and the temperatures are dropping. Lights are being put on houses and Christmas spirit is in the air. With many traditions coming about, we all have our favorites and the ones we wished were no longer around, but one of the worst traditions that still exists is building gingerbread houses.

Gingerbread houses are only there to look at. You don’t eat them after building, and it’s not common to bake them from scratch. It doesn’t make much sense to spend so much time making a gingerbread house if you are only going to stare at it until it rots. 

Gingerbread houses are unlike the beloved Christmas cookies, that you get to bake and enjoy. Gingerbread houses do not grant that reward. Even when buying a kit from Target, we are not guaranteed a good outcome. The only kits worth buying are the pre-packaged, stale, gingerbread houses. Even with those kits, the gingerbread houses are still a hassle to make.

When making gingerbread houses you better be prepared to get your hands sticky and the table dirty just to glare at a creation that looks halfway like the picture on the box. Not only is it messy, it is difficult to make. There is no guarantee that there will be a complete and finished house at the end of your journey. The sad mockery of icing never keeps the pieces of bulky gingerbread cookies together. Not only do they not stick together, they break easily, as the cookies that are used to make the gingerbread houses are very delicate. Your house could be perfect and one wrong move will cause a cookie to break and a house unable to be built. There are more times than anyone can count where your gingerbread house is flawless and standing, you walk away and accidentally bump into the table, and the gingerbread house collapses in front of your disappointed eyes. It is the most frustrating tradition. Gingerbread houses are simply too fragile.

With Christmas around the corner, we should be utilizing our time with better traditions. Christmas trees and lights still need to be up and non-gingerbread Christmas cookies need to be made. Grab a cup of hot cocoa and put on your favorite Christmas movie. Without gingerbread houses, it’s going to be a stress-free Christmas this year.