Oreo Holiday Chocolate Cookie House

In late October/early November 2019, a few friends let me know about something new for Christmas: The Oreo Holiday Chocolate Cookie House. I found it at the grocery store in mid-November, and I put it aside to try it out closer to Christmas. So I waited... and waited... and the holidays happened... and now it's mid-February and the box was still unopened.

If this was a non-food item, I'd say to save it until next year. But the box had a "best if used by" date of February 29, 2020. I wasn't planning to eat it, but I didn't know how the ingredients would hold up after then. I was a little nervous about putting it together, since I've seen enough Pinterest fails to be wary of taking on a project above my skill level. But I found myself with some free time on a cold winter day today, so I decided to put it together.

The cookie house set comes with everything you need to put the house together. It has chocolate cookie panels for the front and back of the house, the sides of the house, the roof, and even a small piece for a chimney. It includes icing packets to use to hold the house together and decorate it. Decorations include a small packet of mini Oreos, a 2-cookie package of original Oreos, a small packet of mini gumdrops ("fruity gummies"), and a small packet of multi-colored spherical candies ("candy jewels").

One feature I really appreciated was called a "Simple Start Tray," a plastic tray with slots to hold up the house. You put icing into the slots (called "canals" in the instructions) and they hold up the house. I've never put together a gingerbread house before, so that was a good feature to have.

One mistake I made at this point was that, despite the warning in the instructions, I cut the hole in the icing packet too large. I hadn't thought so at the time, but the icing came out clumsily. I ended up getting a spoon to help spread the icing once I squeezed it out. It didn't turn out so badly because that packet was mostly for construction, and there was a second packet that could be used for decoration and detail work. But even when it came time for that second packet, I still cut the hole too large. If I do this again, I'll cut a very tiny corner of the packet.

I put up the walls of the house, then the roof, then the chimney. The icing was easier to work with than I thought. The instructions say to hold the pieces together until they feel secure, and it didn't take long for that to happen. The pieces have etchings to represent windows, doors, and other house features. Some of the pieces had imperfections, so judge which ones you want to appear more prominently and which you'd like to hide. Make sure they line up, too, since the roof pieces need to come together at the top.

After letting the house pieces dry together securely, it was time to decorate. This was the part that made me nervous. If I messed up, it might be a glaring error that would be hard to disguise. I knew I didn't have the skill to mimic the design on the box, but I wanted it to look decent. I started by mimicking the Oreo design over the front door. I took that as a version of a sign saying "In This House We Eat Oreos." I put some of the multi-colored sphere candy pieces around it. I also decided to build an Oreo snowman and make an Oreo walkway leading up to the house. I topped it off with a candy doorknob on the front door and some candy accents on the roof.

I decided to add some touches of my own, too. I added an E.L. Fudge Keebler Elf cookie and a Trader Joe's Mini Gingerbread Man for the front of the house. Do they live there? Is one visiting the other, or is there an unknown Oreo mascot that they have come to see? I'll leave that open to interpretation. I also put some Andes mints on one side of the roof to represent solar panels. And coming out of the chimney? Blue cotton candy "smoke."

If I had more time and courage, I would have created a more elaborate design on the roof and walls. This is where having an icing packet with a very tiny precision hole would have come in handy. I could have at least filled in the window and door etchings to make them appear more prominent. But you know what? I stopped while I was still having fun with it, without turning it into a chore. And I think that was a good decision. Because what am I going to do with a Holiday Chocolate Cookie House in the middle of February... Eat it? Put it on display for a few days? Sometimes it's more about the journey than the destination.

And for the record, the packaging does have nutritional information. There are 27 servings per container, with a serving size being 1/27th of the kit. There was a small piece of cookie house that I had to break off to make it the same shape as its corresponding partner piece, and I ate it, and... while it had a nice, freshly baked smell, it didn't taste that good. The icing was pretty good, though, as were the Oreos and candy pieces.

Key Info
Product: Oreo Holiday Chocolate Cookie House
Date First Heard About: October 29, 2019
Date Found: November 16, 2019, grocery store (Mariano's/Kroger)
Date Made: February 16, 2020
Cookie House: Chocolate
Package size: Cookie House Pieces, icing, mini Oreos, regular Oreos, candy pieces
Serving size: 1/27th of kit, 140 calories, 4 grams fat