The Laboratory

Older readers of this blog will remember Fisher Price toys, and may even have owned the classic A Frame House, a 1974 design that allowed the house to open up and the Little People (and Animals) to go in and out. Two illustrators from Alameda, Jo Anne Yada and Michael Fleming, were inspired to create a gingerbread house in the same design. Here it is: It looks great, and even has Little People made out of fondant icing! The original house looked like in this advert: If you are a fan of classic toys and design (for me it's especially Galt Toys) you should check out this book from Phaidon :

Welcome to one and all! We hope you are enjoying your weekend and maybe, just maybe, you are putting up your tree and decorations today. As usual, we'd love to have your pictures, stories and jokes for the days ahead so do send them in. Today's picture is from Hilary. We've already done way too much Christmas food shopping, now that the mince pies in the shops won't have gone off by the middle of December. But we haven't done any Christmas baking. Hilary says "Here’s a picture of some upside down gingerbread men!" Update: Hilary is doing a new picture every day! So check her out on Twitter for loads of great Advent Calendar snaps:  https://twitter.com/hilaryosborne

This year has seen our renewed interest in modernist architecture, and we had a happy weekend in Stevenage looking at the New Towns and Garden Cities of Hertfordshire. We can recommend John Grindrod's book Concretopia , and so we were delighted to find a blog combining gingerbread houses with Brutalist design. Check out the Present and Correct blog. Our favourite is the Vitra Design Museum in Basel, because we've been there! Shout out to Shaun & Samantha Jordan, friends of Adam from school and college (who met and got married without knowing they had a mutual acquaintance in him), who were first off the blocks with their Christmas card which arrived today. How many have you received so far??

We love visiting Scandinavia, and we love visiting Scandinavian food shops in London. Our favourites are Nordic Bakery in Golden Square, Fika on Brick Lane, and Scandinavian Kitchen on Great Titchfield Street. The last of these is selling decorate-it-yourself gingerbread houses: they have a blog post with some of the best ones. The News Quiz team from Radio 4 made the one above, with the house turned into a radio, and there's even a graphic equalizer at the front door, a plug, and a life-size minature Sandi Toksvig. You can order online , or head down there, to buy all your Scandi food treats!