18 Fun Gingerbread House Pictures to Inspire Yours

Gingerbread houses offer all kinds of opportunities to get creative! From adorable candy-covered confections to sophisticated centerpieces, these sweet houses are fun to decorate. Get inspired to make your own with gorgeous gingerbread house pictures that are more than just eye candy.

One lovely decorating option is to choose only white frosting and candy to embellish your house. This monochromatic motif looks sophisticated and beautiful sitting on your sideboard or dining room table.

One beautiful all-white gingerbread house decorating idea is to make lacy designs with icing. You'll need a very fine piping tip to do this, and it's good to practice on a scrap piece before you start on the main house. You can do some white on white decorations on the roof, add decorative lacy hearts to the sides, and even make a delicate lacy design around the base.

Get inspired by a favorite Christmas carol, Walking in a Winter Wonderland. You can create a winter wonderland gingerbread house by using lots of white icing to create snow and icicles along the eves. Don't forget to add snow above windows and doors too, as well as snowbanks and a snowy path to the door. Add other elements like trees, and colorful decorations for even more winter fun.

There's no rule that gingerbread houses need to be a little cottages. Gingerbread houses can be any size and shape. Be unique and opt for a two-story home or a house augmented with a tower or other unusual structure. Taller gingerbread houses offer more visual impact as centerpieces, and they also give you lots of room to get creative with your decorating.

One beautiful gingerbread house roof option is to create a tiled look with pieces of candy. Starting at the eaves, begin placing any type of flat candy in rows using icing. Add another row, slightly overlapping the first. Continue until you've covered the entire roof. You can use any kind of candy for this, but all white candy disks are a pretty look.

One way to make your gingerbread house stand out as unique is to opt for colored icing instead of a brown house with white trim. Use pale colors to fully ice the sides of the home for flavorful siding, and add piped lines of icing to represent the siding panels. This lets you customize your gingerbread house to be any color you like.

Colored icing on the sides of your gingerbread house is only one way to add tons of color to your design. Take this gingerbread house theme to the next level by adding brightly colored candies to the roof, making colorful characters out of fondant, and decorating with multiple colors of frosting.

Whether you're making a gingerbread church or you want to add some extra style to the windows of your gingerbread house, you can create stained glass windows out of candy. Simply crush hard candies in your choice of color and bake the crushed candies with your gingerbread house pieces. Experiment with different colors and designs.

A chalet is a style of house with a very pointed roof that extends nearly to the ground. You can make this simple design for your gingerbread house, and it lets you experiment with roofing materials for extra style. Layer slivered almonds for adorable shingles.

While the candies can make a gingerbread house stand out, the structure of your house can be just as unusual and eye-catching. Add a tower, chimneys, or other accents to a simple house base for a more unique and outstanding structure that gives you even more room to decorate. You can get as creative as you like, and this is a fun way to make the project challenging if you've made lots of gingerbread houses in the past.

Another fun gingerbread house decorating idea is to create a log cabin. Before baking, create a log design on the edges of the house. Then, play up the rustic design with simple decorations like nuts and plenty of icing. For even more fun, add some woodland creatures or other cabin decorations.

Don't forget to decorate the landscaping around your gingerbread house to make a complete fantasy scene. Gumdrop trees, a pretzel fence, and a marzipan snowman are all fun options. You can even create more elaborate decorations by adding a candy cane sleigh or skis, white chocolate truffle snow fort, or a tiny gingerbread mailbox to the yard.

Candy is only one option for decorating a gingerbread house. You can also use cookies, pretzels, crackers, dried fruit, and cereal. Pieces of shredded wheat make a wonderful thatched roof, for example.

Instead of just icing and small candies on the roof, consider more unique and creative options for your gingerbread house. There are lots of fun roofing materials to try, or you can even use the roof to display a holiday message. To do that, use white fondant to create a banner and then use icing to decorate it with your words.

Make a gingerbread village with a large house or church and lots of smaller cottages. These little houses can be perfect if you're having a Christmas party with kids and want something for each child to decorate. They're also fun as decorative elements to put at each place during Christmas dinner. You can even choose to decorate each mini gingerbread house in a different style so you can try out lots of fun techniques.

Another way to play with scale is to create a gingerbread townhouse. You can make an extra tall gingerbread house and add lots of windows to indicate stories of apartments. This extra large design can be a wonderful Christmas decoration for your home.

Not all gingerbread creations need to be houses or buildings. A gingerbread train can be a fun alternative, or try a series of elaborately decorated gingerbread gift packages or a large gingerbread tree to decorate. You can make a gingerbread church, a school, or just about anything that sounds like fun.

The traditional gingerbread house can take on even more dimension when you turn it into a holiday cake. This Christmas cake design uses pieces of a gingerbread house to decorate the edges of the cake. You can just use a gingerbread house pattern to make the front pieces and then make the cake any flavor you like. It's just one fun way to take your gingerbread house game to the next level this holiday season.