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Gingerbread House

The rare Winter Village set that made grown builders grin like kids.

Brick Rated Score

4.6/5

Set 10267 · 2019

Pieces1,477

Minifigs2

Year2019

Set number10267

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The verdict

This is the Winter Village entry that stopped pretending to be a quaint little cottage and just went full candy fantasy, and I love it for that.

The frosted roof, the candy-cane columns, the two gingerbread figures with their disc heads and rosy cheeks, it all lands with real charm instead of feeling gimmicky. It's not cheap and it won't challenge a seasoned builder, but it's one of the happiest sets I've put together. If you decorate for the holidays and want one showstopper, this is it.

Best for: Holiday decorators and Winter Village collectors who want charm over challenge

The full review

Some sets you respect and some sets just make you happy, and the Gingerbread House lands firmly in the second camp. This 1,477-piece LEGO® set arrived in 2019 as that year's Winter Village release, and instead of another cozy realistic cottage it committed fully to the candy fantasy. The roof is frosted and dripping with colorful gumdrop buttons, the columns are red-and-white candy canes, the windows shimmer with glitter bricks, and a tall chimney hides a glowing fireplace inside. It should be too much. Somehow it isn't. The whole thing reads as warm and cheerful rather than tacky, and that is a genuinely hard balance to pull off.

The two gingerbread figures are the heart of it. Mr and Mrs Gingerbread both get custom printed disc heads, his with a wild mustache, hers with rosy cheeks, lipstick and a swirl of pink cream in the middle of her biscuit. Their torsos and her dress carry brand new prints too. Then there's the gingerbread baby, and here's a lovely design choice: rather than use a standard baby figure, the team represented the little one as a printed 1x2 tile so you get a clear round head and a readable expression, tucked into a tiny pram with a bottle of milk. Inside the house you'll find a pink wafer bed, a crib and stockings hung on the fireplace. It's the kind of set where every corner rewards a closer look.

Now the fair warnings. This was a LEGO Shop exclusive at $99.99, and the build, while a total pleasure, is not going to test an experienced builder. If you live for clever engineering and tricky techniques, you may find it a relaxed evening rather than a puzzle. It retired in October 2021, so secondhand prices have climbed well above retail, which stings if you missed it. And the candy fantasy direction genuinely split the fanbase: some Winter Village purists wanted another realistic townhouse and felt this was too whimsical for the collection. Those are real, and worth knowing before you chase one down. But if you decorate for the holidays, if you love a set that photographs beautifully on a shelf, or if you're building the Winter Village year by year, this is one of the most joyful pieces in the whole run. It won a rare perfect score from more than one reviewer for good reason. I'd grab it without a second thought.

Skip it only if you're strictly a technical builder chasing complexity, or if the secondhand premium puts it out of your comfort zone. For everyone else who just wants a bit of holiday magic on the table, this one delivers.

The parts story

What the build is actually like, and the pieces worth knowing about.

The build opens gently with a brick-built Christmas tree and a little pile of presents, the tree taller and narrower than usual and capped with a neat four-pointed star. From there you work through a run of small toys and gifts that are honestly some of the best bits: a steam train, a rocking horse, a wrapped present with a pretzel-shaped ribbon, and a tanker truck that's simple but so effective. Then you get into the house itself, and it's a satisfying section-by-section build, walls going up in gingerbread tan with the candy-cane columns framing the door, then that frosted roof going on to cap it all off. The pacing stays easy and cheerful the whole way through, which is exactly the point.

On the pieces, don't expect brand new molds, but there are treats for parts hunters. This was the first appearance of the unprinted trans-yellow kite-shaped tile and a new 1x1 heart tile. You get 11 gold ingots recolored in tan to stand in for white chocolate, 20 glitter trans-purple 1x1 bricks for that frosted sparkle, eight bright coral 1x2 plates with a bottom hole, and four trans-yellow diamond elements. The candy detailing scatters useful small pieces everywhere, and the printed gingerbread heads and baby tile are the standouts collectors chase. At just under $100 retail for 1,477 pieces plus two custom figures, the part-count value was widely called reasonable to good, and that was before it retired and prices jumped.

Fun facts

01The set was mainly designed by Tiago Catarino, but Creator Expert design manager Jamie Berard built the little snow blower that Mr Gingerbread pushes around.
02Rather than use a standard LEGO baby figure, the team represented the gingerbread baby as a printed 1x2 tile so it could have a round head and a clearly readable happy expression.
03It marked the first ever appearance of the unprinted trans-yellow kite-shaped tile, plus a new 1x1 heart tile.
04Released in October 2019 as the year's Winter Village set, it was a LEGO Shop exclusive and retired in October 2021, with secondhand values since climbing well above the $99.99 retail price.