17 Gingerbread House Ideas
Updated: Jan. 28, 2024
Bring some Christmas magic to your home with our favorite gingerbread house ideas.
These gingerbread house ideas are great places to start when making your edible Christmas village. Start with one of our top-rated gingerbread cookie recipes and then get the basics on how to build a gingerbread house (we’ve got gingerbread house templates if you need ’em!).
Whether you want to build a petite chalet or a towering mansion, we’re sure that the process will be just as much fun as enjoying snacking on cookies. So whip up a batch of royal icing (it’ll help your gingerbread house stay together) and grab all your favorite candies. Then, start building!
Gingerbread Lodge
Gingerbread house ideas can be as varied as the homes in our neighborhoods or favorite destinations. With a little effort, a basic A-frame gingerbread house kit becomes this snowy ski lodge. We used candy rocks for the exterior, rolled wafer cookies for exposed beams and a heaping helping of royal icing and coarse sugar for the snow-kissed rooftop.
Gingerbread Farm
Not every gingerbread structure needs to be a house. This gingerbread barn is the perfect setting for cookie creatures of all kinds.
Home Sweet Home Gingerbread Cottage
Pull out all the stops when creating your gingerbread house! Use shredded wheat cereal as shingles, candy canes as decorations and all your other favorite Christmas candies.
Gingerbread Cabin
Who wouldn’t want to curl up in this cozy gingerbread cabin? A basic A-frame kit gets dressed up with shredded wheat cereal, pretzel rods and candy rocks. Our favorite embellishment is the mounted candy “antlers” on the front door, made from a chocolate disc and broken pretzel pieces.
Christmas Tree Cookies
Complete your gingerbread house village with plenty of festive trees. These cutout cookies can be finished with white frosting and sprinkles to look like they’ve just been dusted with snow.
Gingerbread House with Chimney
Santa will be happy to land on the rooftop of this cute gingerbread house made from an A-frame kit. The impressive chimney made from graham crackers, icing and red chewy candy is just big enough for him to slide down.
Christmas Village Houses
Bring some holiday magic to your home with these cute creations. You don’t even need to make gingerbread! Break out a few boxes of graham crackers and get building these mini cottages.
Gingerbread Chalet
For a more modern twist on gingerbread house ideas, try a monochrome look. This snowy chalet layers different white textures to create a winter fantasy.
Gingerbread Snow Globe
Looking for a twist on typical gingerbread house ideas? Turn your favorite cutouts into a sweet scene inside an oversized jar. Nestle tree-, animal- and house-shaped cookies inside to make a snow globe. This is an innovative way to decorate gingerbread cookies and show off your collection of cookie cutters.
Christmas Candy Train
Make way for holiday gifts! This cookie train can be made with gingerbread or graham crackers. Fill each boxcar with your favorite candy. Make tracks to wind through your gingerbread town.
Gingerbread Christmas Cottage
This sweet cottage is quintessential Christmas. Make sure you have plenty of gumdrops on hand to finish this centerpiece.
Gingerbread Country Church
For a stained glass effect, melt hard candies into the windowpanes. Just crush your favorite flavors and sprinkle into the gap. Just five minutes in the oven at 350ºF is all you need to make these windows.
Marshmallow Snowmen
No winter village is complete without a few snowmen! Add these marshmallow decorations to your list of gingerbread house ideas. Use a skewer to stick a few marshmallows together, then pipe on the eyes and nose. To create snow piles next to your snowmen, use white chocolate chips!
Christmas Gingerbread House
Keep your house simple by sticking with a simple icing and one or two types of candy. For this recipe, just grab a bag (or two) of holiday M&M’s.
Stacked Christmas Tree Cookies
Use scraps from your gingerbread houses to make easy stacked Christmas trees. Use green sprinkles or sugar to make them look like evergreens. Extras like these will really make your gingerbread village look complete.
Gingerbread House Cookies
Not all gingerbread house ideas need to be 3-D creations. These cookies use a classic gingerbread cookie base and a house-shaped cookie cuter. From there you can pipe on doors and trim to complete the look (feel free to add candy, too!).Originally Published: November 26, 2018
