Review - Christmas Candy Stand miniature house kit from Rolife

I was sent this miniature Rolife craft kit in exchange for a review

I always love crafting for Christmas, and so I was delighted to be given the opportunity to review a Christmas themed miniature crafting kit from Rolife. I chose to build the Christmas Candy Stand, which will make an ideal companion for the Christmas themed Miniature Gingerbread House which I reviewed last year.

The Christmas Candy Stand kit is a two star difficulty kit with a suggested build time of around 2-3 hours. I would say that this is accurate, and I was able to complete most of the kit over an uninterrupted evening. It was certainly a welcome relief after the rather more complicated Rolife Oxygen Oasis kit!

I enjoyed the fact that most of the construction materials in this set are wood and paper, and the kit doesn't contain too much plastic. All you need for the build in addition to the kit contents are two AA batteries for the lighting kit. Although the house is designed to be assembled using the supplied double sided tape, I did find that I preferred to use stronger glue in several places. This will ensure that it survives being packed up and kept in storage from year to year.

Most of the parts in the kit are supplied as wooden sheets, with pieces that need to be pressed out. You need to take care here as some of them are a little fiddly, especially from the thinner wooden sheets. There are also pre-cut paper pieces, stickers, and tiny plastic, wooden and metal components. The smaller parts are packaged inside numbered bags, and it's best not to remove them from the bags until you need them. If you get in a muddle there is a parts guide to help identify individual pieces.

As with many Rolife kits, the first step is to put together some of the smaller elements that will go inside the house. In this case you work on the counter which goes along the front of the shop, and various shelves and display items. This is where you really appreciate all the tiny details that go into the build, even things that won't be easy to spot once fully assembled! 

Here you can see the front counter, and the small shelves and display units that will be filled later on. It's a good idea to have a place to store these items until you need them - the upturned lid of the box is ideal.

Next you assemble the walls and roof. These pieces are larger and made of thicker wood to make them more sturdy. This is my favourite part of the assembly, because you can start to get a feel for the dimensions of the finished house. At this point the lamp and wires have been installed underneath the snowflake themed roof, and I love the tubes of sweets along the back wall. They are really cleverly made with printed rolled paper inside.

These pieces are then slotted together to form the main structure. At this point the battery box is also installed and hidden underneath the counter with the wires neatly tucked away down the sides. 

Finally the remaining pieces are assembled and everything is firmly stuck into place. There are some lovely details in this kit. The gorgeous little sweet bags are made using some of the plastic packaging from the sticker sheet and filled with little sweets which are cut from a longer section of extruded plastic, it's very clever. There are tiny lollipops made by gluing beads to plastic tubes, and cardboard gift boxes and pouches.

The completed kit is a gorgeous little sweet shop packed full of delicious Christmas treats. It's a great addition to my Christmas decor, and was a real pleasure to put together. 

I love how it looks next to the Gingerbread House Miniature Kit, and both kits will be proudly displayed on my sideboard this year!

If you are looking for more Christmas themed crafting kits from Rolife then you might also like these:

Miniature Gingerbread House kit from Rolife

Christmas 3D frame miniature kits from Rolife