Gingerbread houses galore add some nice spice to both Discovery Cube locations

While few people would begin a major house project in the second half of December and hope to complete it by Christmas, plenty of Southern Californians plan on building an attractive, eye-catching home from the ground-up, with all of the necessary flourishes and design details.

Or should we say they'll build it from the "table-up"?

We are, of course, talking about gingerbread houses, those spicy structures that give aspiring architects the chance to construct a personalized cookie-perfect palace.

Discovery Cube OC and Discovery Cube LA, those educational wonderlands of science-cool learning, are already ahead of most of us in the whole gingerbread game, as they are most years. The museums' celebrated "Science of Gingerbread" gingerbread showdowns, billed as "Southern California's LARGEST gingerbread competition," have already wrapped for 2023.

Well, the naming-of-the-winners is done, we should say, but the displays themselves? They're still on view at both locations, through Jan. 7, meaning you can swing by to admire them in person.

An adorable Barbie house, a sizable spin on the world of Super Mario Bros., and a monstrous mansion are on view in Santa Ana; competitors kept the categories in mind as they created their entries, including one focused on STEM, a theme that aligns with the Discovery Cube's science-forward mission.

Here are the lists of winners and honorable mentions — congratulations to all — as well as further information on how to visit these snacky subdivisions, two of the biggest collections of gingerbread buildings around.