"And this is icing!" exclaimed Gretel,Starving but delighted, the children began to eat pieces of candy broken off the cottage." Hansel and Gretel

This time of the year many turn to the classic that is a gingerbread house and a week later they are not sure what the heck to do with this giant sweet construction. Well Google has an internet solution and a contest. A while back I wrote about the free tool called Sketchup. It is a nice piece of software that allows you to create 3-D buildings. I have seen it used in architectural offices to set a design or just for kicks. Recently Google put out an updated version with some cool extras. It works really well and tends to be a bit more intuitive. Anyway back to the gingerbread house. Google has created a simple template for you to create an online gingerbread house. The basics are all there like the pinwheel mints or gumdrops. It is really simple to use and has some major perks. No mess, no insulin shock, and the ability to tour your creation. Plus you can send it to anyone or make it viewable on your website. Google also has a contest for the best house in a bunch of different categories. They did a create Santa’s sleigh contest last year that was pretty cool. So if you are not interested in a sticky dining room table with sugar high kids running around at speeds of mach 8 then give this alternative a try.

Note: Artist is Scott Gustafson