Delicious Ideas to Inspire Your Gingerbread House Making may be helpful with any of your crafty or baking plans during the holidays. Last year at my sister’s for Thanksgiving, it was a relaxing way to spend the afternoon. No photos to show off from that day since our creations were less than blogworthy (we were more engrossed in laughter and conversation than architecture!).
I independently selected products in this post—if you buy from one of my links, I may earn a commission.
Ideas to Inspire Your Gingerbread House Making
Elevate Simple Gingerbread Creations With a Pretty Pedestal
Sometimes you can skip the complicated architecture and gravity defying embellishments by thinking about a pretty pedestal. Here’s a perfect example from Design Improvised who placed this sweet simple cottage on a Jadeite cake plate at a kids party.
Gingerbread Chicken Coop
No need to limit yourself to a cottage or castle, here’s a sweet chicken coop with copper topped cupola. The copper is Big red gum.
Chewing gum sticks are perfect for creating siding for your gingerbread houses…Doublemint is what Eleven Gables used on the coop above.
Premade Gingerbread House Centerpiece
Skip the DIY and let someone else make your gingerbread cottage if you’re after a whimsically sweet centerpiece and don’t want to go to the trouble (and gamble!) of baking and embellishing.
What’s wonderful is the option for personalization!
You can also consider everlasting options like these advent calendar village houses:
Here are a few ideas for gingerbread house making fashion…a patchwork Dolly Parton design:
and the sweetest pajama options from a quality brand:
Breakfast Waffle Cottages
Put those little squares to work holding gumdrops and royal icing!
Bear in mind you don’t even need to dust off that Belgian waffle iron. You can purchase the waffles for a little less work.
I love the inspiration the image above provides. Notice the whipped cream, licorice window shutters, strawberries, chocolate door, and bacon sidewalk/cobble path. Candy is minimal on this one yet it remains delightful.
Wouldn’t these be perfect for a holiday brunch?
Cookie Dough Cottages
Move over gingerbread…don’t you love the idea of a delicious sugar cookie dough for your sweet house?
Steal this idea for the roof: storebought meringue cookies!
Pink, white, and silver is a magical trio:
Fantasy Gingerbread Houses & Mansions
Rock Candy & Gumdrop Embellishments
No matter the size of your gingerbread house, rock candy sticks work magically for trees since they glisten and resemble psychedelic evergreens. (Also notice how effective a monochromatic color scheme works: in this case, slightly varying shades of pink boost fantasy factor…sigh!).
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!?!
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.
Lollipops & Ice Cream Cones
Old fashioned swirly whirly vividly striped lollipops and suckers look right at home for homemade gingerbread houses and add to the nostalgia and romance. These turquoise blueberry beauties may just inspire you!
How to make them stand in place? Styrofoam will work for a base, and in some cases, gumdrops!
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 uniformly placed but are staggered artfully to suggest an aged rooftop? (Pssst…need lemondrops for house landscaping like above?)
Graham Cracker Gingerbread Houses
Here’s a great crafty activity I have done for several parties. While not edible, these little houses can be prepped ahead of time for a decorating party. Pre-assemble the graham cracker houses using hot glue.
If you love baking gingerbread like I do, you can also pre-assemble the houses using the real stuff. Turn up the Christmas music! Your house is going to smell out of this world, and your party is going to be a hit!
Even if you decide to use a premade gingerbread house kit, there will still be plenty of room for creativity!
Gingerbread House Boxes & Kits
Another inedible house idea is to use boxes for decorating. A template makes assembly a snap, and markers or paints will get the job done.
Once again, elevating your little houses on pedestals makes all the difference!
I like the idea of going a little further than just assembling these box village houses…hot glue peppermints, gumdrops, and assorted hard candies to them for greater dimension and color.
You could even glue storebought gingerbread boys and girls on the houses.
The gift box above is adorable, and if you’re using it for decoration, it seems just right for gluing sticks of gum for colorful siding.
There are also great options for painting your gingerbread house with the help of kits like the one above.
Did I save the best one for last? A white chalk marker, glue, and a cardboard box are about all you need for this easy craft.
How to Build a Gingerbread Gift Box
Decorate Pre-made Gingerbread Cookies
When I served as a room mom, it was a challenge planning holiday crafts for the annual class Christmas party since time was always short! (It makes me a little sad thinking about that now – our sons were worked so hard even as first graders! How I wish there had been a different mindset at work, recognizing that childhood needs plenty of play and rest even at school.)
How perfect would a costume-y festive apron like this (above) be for hosting any holiday shindig?!?
Since kids love decorating cookies, keeping the holiday party activity as streamlined as possible was key. Some years, I brought scallop-edged Swedish Pepperkakor ginger cookies since they easily transform into snowflakes with white icing. (This is breaking with traditional Swedish tradition since the cookies are eaten un-iced, so do forgive!).
I would prepare a big batch of homemade buttercream, fill individual baggies, and instruct students to snip a corner of the baggie to easily pipe icing on cookies.
Alternatively, bake the gingerbread and simply enjoy the aroma as it bakes without any construction at all!
Here are some gingerbread recipe ideas.
My Wonky Candy Cottage
I’m terrible at cake decorating and gingerbread everything!
The only thing I can really handle is baking the most delicious tasting gingerbread.
So my imperfect attempts should encourage you to go for it.
Pink sticks of bubblegum are the main design element. Gingerbread people cookies can be left plain or decorated.
Alphabet cookies can spell out any sentiment you like.
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!
You can buy royal icing or find a recipe for it here.
White cotton candy makes great snow – it starts out fluffy and cotton-like before evaporating within a few hours and lying flat. Trees were formed with gumballs, pretzel sticks, and gumdrops.
Chocolate Candy Houses
Your magical Christmas candy house need not be made of gingerbread or any cookies at all should you choose to build walls of chocolate.
How genius is this candy bar Christmas house (or church!)?
Isn’t the chocolate bar base genius for stabilizing this house?
How fun to “research” candy bars for their potential for shiplap, board and batten, and log cabin architectural textures.
You can also build a candy or cake house with silicone molds to fill with chocolate or brownie batter…
Teeny Tiny Houses
This wee little gingerbread house looks adorable with its vivid and unexpected color palette and crisper look with icing only on the roof. Psst. It’s made with polymer clay.
Frank Lloyd Wright Approved
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.
Does Your House Need a 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.
Repeat a Geometric
For orderly types, repeat a shape like this candy cottage with candy wafers. The chocolate bar candy house also illustrates how limiting your decorations to old fashioned candy creates a truly vintage-inspired feel.
Pin this post for future reference! And DO VISIT my Christmas Boards HERE and HERE to save even more lovely inspiration!
Should You Decide to Make it a Party…
Doesn’t this set up feel inspiring should you decide to host a gingerbread making party?
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.
For holiday decor interior design inspiration, mosey over HERE!
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
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