Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration

It may not quite be Christmas time, but it is not at all too early for inspiration for holiday baking. How about a baked something that has shelf life? Gingerbread Ideas & Inspiration to the rescue (and you can always pin the post for easy reference).

Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration #holidaybaking #gingerbreadhouse
Photo/Design: Cake Central. Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration.

Ever made a fanciful and happy candy decorated gingerbread house? It’s truly a fun tradition to begin even if you never made gingerbread houses when you were growing up!

I was compensated for this post. This post also contains affiliate links, and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

Simple alternative to all the work? Bake the gingerbread and just enjoy the aroma of it baking and its deliciousness without any construction work at all! Here are some gingerbread recipe ideas.

And kits are right here.

Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration

First some swell and sweetly swoonworthy examples.

 Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration #gingerbreadhouse #holidaybaking #christmasdecor #pink
Photo: Sweetopia. Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration.
Gingerbread house #christmasdecor #holidaybaking #gingerbreadhouse
Photo/Design: Katelig. Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration.
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration #gingerbreadhouse #christmas
Photo via Family Holiday. Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration.
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration #gingerbreadhouse #christmas
Photo/Design: Worth Pinning. Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration.
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration #gingerbreadhouse #christmas #whitechristmas
Photo: Art Korova. Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration.

Like Pizza…Even When They’re Bad, They’re Good

I’m still a novice at gingerbread houses, and since I have no experience in cake decor, mine look child-like. I prefer to think of them as gingerbread abstractions. But oh, the smells of gingerbread baking! When I helped my children make them, we glued on leftover Halloween candy (frozen especially for this Christmas craft). The festive cheer gingerbread houses bring to decor outweighs the mess of meringue, shifting architecture, and lopsided roof lines.

You can even buy gingerbread house kits online or at the grocery store, skip the gingerbread and use graham crackers, or just decorate cardboard or a milk carton with candy. Last year, I made a simple wonky pink candy house.

First Attempt at a Wonky Highly Imperfect Candy House

Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration #hellolovelystudio #pinkchristmas #gingerbreadhouse
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. Hello Lovely Studio. Most of my supplies for the little pink house came FROM HERE.

Pink sticks of bubblegum are the main design element. Gingerbread people cookies can be left plain or decorated.

Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration #hellolovelystudio #christmasdecor #gingerbreadhouse #pinkchristmas
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. Hello Lovely Studio.

Old fashioned hard candy sticks in delicious stripes also work well – but definitely use something to precisely made clean cuts! Mine look ridiculous in these photos!

Old-Fashioned Candy Sticks (80 pc)
Old fashioned candy sticks

You can buy royal icing or find a recipe for it here.

Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. Hello Lovely Studio. #gingerbreadhouse #pinkchristmas
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. Hello Lovely Studio.

Trees were formed with gumballs, pretzel sticks, and gumdrops.

Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. #hellolovelystudio #pinkchristmas #gingerbreadhouse
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. Hello Lovely Studio.

Alphabet cookies can spell out any sentiment you like.

Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. #hellolovelystudio #christmasdecor #pinkchristmas
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. Hello Lovely Studio.

White cotton candy makes great snow – it starts out fluffy and cotton-like before evaporating within a few hours and lying flat.

Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. #hellolovelystudio #gingerbreadhouse #christmasdecor #pinkchristmas
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. Hello Lovely Studio.

The base is a simple white ceramic tile I picked up for a buck at Home Depot.

Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. #hellolovelystudio #christmasdecor #gingerbreadhouse #pinkchristmas
Gingerbread House Ideas & Inspiration. Hello Lovely Studio.

When They Look Like Perfection

Dreamy and romantic Gingerbread house with pink and rock candy decorations
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.
Photo/Design: Goodies by Anna. Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.
National Gingerbread House Competition 2017
Photo: Jason Tarr. Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.

Rock Candy Trees

No matter what the size of your gingerbread house, rock candy sticks work awesomely for trees since they glisten and look like magical psychedelic quartzy Christmas evergreens. (Also notice how effective a monochromatic color scheme works: in this case, slightly varying shades of pink boost the romance factor…sigh!).

Beautiful pink gingerbread house with pink and rock candy pink trees
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.

Gumdrop Gabled Roof

Gumdrops are your best friend as a gingerbread house builder since they are easily sculpted into varying shapes, cut open to reveal sticky insides that can be pressed into place, beautiful on their own with their sugary frosted snow exteriors, and perfect for massing on a rooftop as magical, balloon-like roof tiles.

Isn’t the tall gingerbread house below reminiscent of a Paris apartment building!?!

Lovely gingerbread tall house with gumdrops piled on roof
Photo: Solodke. Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.

Heart Shaped Candy

Is it any wonder that a heart shaped anything pulls at our heartstrings? If you can find heart shaped chocolates for decorating your house…hurray! If you cannot, think about forming your own hearts from gumdrops or cutting heart shapes from Swedish Fish or fruit leathers.

Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.

Best Gingerbread House Ideas: Finla Noronha

Rustic Stone Cottage

This beautiful gingerbread house is reminiscent of a rustic stone cottage. You can be creative in what you choose to emulate the stone. Go ahead and decorate your gingerbread candy house with your favorite color combinations, designfreaks, and definitely don’t feel limited by the candy available to you on the shelves…so long as you won’t be eating the house, paint the candy as you wish!

Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.
Photo/Design: Worth Pinning. Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.

Topiary Trees

In the gingerbread house below, topiary trees have been formed with pink lollipops, brown sugar (I think), and thimble-sized caps or plastic toys, but you can easily substitute gumdrops for the base by molding them to your taste.

Adorable gingerbread house with hearts, stars, and pink
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking. Photo: Local Cakemaker

Lollipops & Ice Cream Cones

Old fashioned swirly whirly vividly striped lollipops and suckers look so at home with homemade gingerbread houses and add to the nostalgia and romance so do try to find one or ten to enhance your gingerbread home’s landscape. These turquoise blueberry beauties may inspire you!

How to make them stand in place? Styrofoam will work for a base, and in some cases, gumdrops!

Adorable gingerbread house with ice cream cones, cookies for roof tiles, and pastels
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking. Photo: Allas.se

Round and Round

The beautiful gingerbread house below incorporates round wafers which soften the home’s overall design and presentation. Even the royal icing is piped in lacy, delicate patterns as opposed to strong straight lines.

Colorful candy decorated gingerbread house
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking. Photo: King Arthur Flour

Need a pretty scalloped pedestal for your candylicious creation?

Cupcake Chimney Smoke

Isn’t this sweet white cupcake adorned with a single red candy perfect for simulating chimney smoke from a candy cane chimney? Notice too how the vanilla wafer cookies as roof tiles are not perfectly placed in uniformly straight lines but rather are staggered artfully to suggest an aged and interesting rooftop. (Pssst…need lemondrops for house landscaping like below?)

Colorful gingerbread house with cupcake chimney and vanilla wafers
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.

Trade Gingerbread for Chocolate

Your magical Christmas candy house need not be made of gingerbread or any cookies at all should you choose to build walls of chocolate.

You’ll want to adhere the chocolate to a cardboard base so the weight of your adornments do not collapse, and I predict this is one house that will be nibbled on throughout the season. How fun to research candy bars and undress them to reveal their shiplap, board and batten, and log cabin architectural textures.

Chocolate bar Gingerbread house decorated with marshmallows and cookies
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.

Happy Skittles Embellishment

Maybe you will opt for happy hued Skittles, a few gumballs, red hots, and peppermints for your gingerbread house design which can be completed in just a short amount of time…so simple lovely.

Adorable mini gingerbread house on jadeite pedestal and gold and white tablescape
Design Improvised. Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.

Mini is Merry

This wee little gingerbread house looks adorable with its vivid and unexpected color palette and crisper look with royal icing only on the roof.

Miniature Gingerbread Houses with vivid colorful Polymer Clay
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking. Petit Plat

Frank Lloyd Wright Inspired

Who says you have to stick to a gabled roofline for your gingerbread house? Go Midcentury Modern with a flat roof and minimal embellishments for a creative spin on holiday house splendor.

Midcentury Modern gingerbread house with snowman and snow
Photo via Vogue. Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking.

Open the Door

If you plan ahead in your gingerbread making, you can cut an arched door and position it to be open like the house below which adds to the warm hospitable flavor of the whole design.

Adorable gingerbread house with malted chocolate balls on roof
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking. Photo: Casas Deliciosas

Fairytale Turret

To create a tower or turret like the wondrous candy house below, you could incorporate a simple plastic kitchen funnel (with its base snipped off) for the roof atop a cylinder which only appears to be gingerbread. The addition of bright candy decorations and little fairy lights inside is pure magic.

Beautiful gingerbread house tower or turret with cone roof and pink
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking. Photo/Design: Lizon

Wafers & Old School

Don’t forget the geometric lovely and sweet scale of candy wafers to construct your gingerbread houses. The chocolate bar candy house below is also illustrative of the power of limiting yourself to old fashioned candy only for a truly vintage-inspired gingerbread or candy house.

Hershey chocolate bar gingerbread house with sticks of gum for doors
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking. Photo: BHG

Make it a Party

Doesn’t the beyond lovely tablescape below take your breath away and perhaps make you yearn to host a gingerbread house making party (which would float the boat of every girl or grandma)? Gold dotted gift wrap or kraft paper, chevron gift wrapped boards, plastic paint palettes to house candies (just 50 cents per palette and free shipping!)and partially constructed gingerbread houses await the creativity and imaginations of the lucky party guests.

Beautiful Christmas party tablescape with gingerbread house building ingredients
Gingerbread House Ideas, Inspiration, and Holiday Baking. Photo: Design Improvised

Send me pics if you make one!!!!

DO VISIT my Christmas Boards HERE and HERE to save even more lovely inspiration!

p.s.

While I did not win my category at the Interior Blog Awards, I am enjoying my trip to London and visited Kensington and Buckingham Palaces today. The architecture and history everywhere blows my mind.

I independently selected products in this post—if you buy from one of my links, I may earn a commission.

Peace to you right where you are.

-michele

Shop for items you already intended to buy on Amazon RIGHT HERE, and also find home decor here to keep decor inspiration flowing on Hello Lovely!

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18 Comments

  1. October 27, 2018 / 6:03 am

    So Cute!! Love!! Great pic of you at the Amara Awards!! It looks like it was super fun!! Glad you went.

    • michele
      Author
      October 27, 2018 / 7:07 pm

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      Author
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  9. February 1, 2023 / 6:44 am

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    • Michele
      Author
      February 1, 2023 / 8:09 am

      Someday when my schedule is more manageable! Thanks for visiting. 🙂

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SHOP MY HOME!
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Slipcovered Dining Chair
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Parisian Style Iron Table Lamp  33.5″
Black or Bronze Accent Table
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French Country Rattan Basket Set
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Rattan Basket With Lid
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Slipcovered Sofa
Upholstered Dining Arm Chair
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White Matelasse Quilt
Tree Mural Wallpaper
Faux Potted French Lavender
Shaw Daybed
Distressed White French Country Chandelier
French Country Headboard
Oval Back Counter Stool, Set of 2
Antique Brass Pharmacy Floor Lamp
Round French Tufted Ottoman
Kinston Wood Bench
Italian Candelabra Chandelier
Slipcovered Linen Chair
Warner Upholstered Bench
Rustic Country French Dresser
Laurel Wreath Mirror
Round Farmhouse Dining Table
Reclaimed Wood Dresser
Louis Upholstered Bench
Pardon My French Doormat
Stripe Turkish Towel Throw
Pamela Arm Chair
Sweater Weave Basket
French Carved Wood Chandelier
Terracotta Pots & Basket
French Country Wood Chandelier
French Linen Dining Chair
Gustavian Cabinet
French Farmhouse Dining Table
Bar Stool
Beachy White Slipcovered Sofa
Rattan Armchair
Diptyque Oyedo Candle
Cross Back Dining Chair
French Country Candle Holder
French Industrial Metal Chairs (4)
Designer Favorite Wall Mirror
Holborn Lantern Pendant
French Country 6-Light Chandelier
Tray Side Table
French Country Upholstered Arm Chair
Wicker Trunk Set
French Ticking Stripe Pillow
Jute Area Rug
Mohair Throw
Rustic Industrial Farmhouse Shelves
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Rustic Wood Candlestick Set
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Linen Modern Wing Chair
French Country Farmhouse Baskets
Concrete Pillar Table Lamp
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Belgian Style Lamp
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White Charleston Sofa
Scrubbed Wood 5-Light Chandelier
Arched Champagne Wall Mirror
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Highback Armchair
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Round Woven Placemat Set
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