As we gear up for the holidays, I took a trip to Christmas Tree Shops to gather some festive decorations and entertaining supplies. I brought my daughter and after we walked around the store and tested out every single nutcracker, I filled my cart up with the cutest holiday entertaining supplies! And while I was there, I was struck with inspiration for a fun gingerbread house decorating activity after seeing their contest flyers, which was a special way for us to kick off the Christmas holiday season while we were off from school and work for a few days after Thanksgiving.I was at Christmas Tree Shops hunting for some cute entertaining pieces and found tons of festive options – from decorative dessert plates to trinket dishes (shaped like pink Christmas trees!), to grinch-themed plates and serving trays and the cutest gingerbread cookie printed glassware. The glasses got my wheels turning for the gingerbread house decorating theme, and I rolled with it! One of my favorite things to gather at Christmas Tree Shops is seasonal candy and snacks, they always have special holiday sections that are great for these types of projects. It was fun to let Jane pick out a lot of the sweets for our gingerbread house, from peppermints and candy canes, to sprinkles and bags of various candies. I event spotted some cute Elf on the Shelf chocolates that I snuck in my cart for later this month when our elf visits! One of my favorite finds were the cake decorating supplies and tons of specialty gingerbread house candy decorations that looked like windows and doors and little Santa faces and reindeer! We also stocked up on marshmallow Peeps in a variety of holiday shapes and used those to decorate around the edges of our gingerbread house board. It was so fun to lay out all our treats and get to work decorating the big gingerbread house together, which is now a festive centerpiece on our dining room table!PS: Be sure to enter your creations this holiday season at Christmas Tree Shops.com for a chance to win one of three prizes!

Please note: This post is created in partnership with Christmas Tree Shops. All opinions, images and content are my own, thank you for supporting brands that support this site.