Decorating gingerbread houses is the best part. You’d be surprised at how creative you can get with candy. First, make assemble your houses…

Now that your houses have dried overnight, they are ready to take on the heavy decorating! Start by making a new batch of royal icing. These can be put into parchment cones or bag with piping tips. If you don’t have either of these just use a ziploc bag and cut the tip off one corner. Beware, these are not the sturdiest of contraptions, so don’t squeeze the bag too hard!

Now the fun part, CANDY. And lots of it. In the next sequence of pictures I will show you what we used, so that you can get a better idea of what candy works best for your decor.

On this house we used marshmallows around the window. It is nice and soft like snow and gifts alot of depth to the window.

I made a bridge by curving licorice and laying down pieces of pretzel down for planks. Black Crows were used to anchor the bridge.

On this roof we used licorice and candy canes. See how the candy canes hide the seams from when we put the house together? Also mini M&M’s work great as faux Christmas lights.

Sliced almonds make and attractive roof but take a darn long time to lay out.

A little pond can be made by spreading icing on the base and dusting with blue sanding sugar. Baby goldfish crackers are just the right size for this little pond.

This little snowman is made entirely out of fondant.

Mike & Ikes, along with jelly lifesavers make a simple and colorful roof.

A “stone” wall is made of chocolate covered raisins. The grassy knoll below is made of shrek swamp colored mini m&ms…

Necco wafers are the classic gingerbread house roofing material. They are pretty and make sturdy shingles. Like the almonds, layout takes a while, but the result is worth it.

The candy canes on the eaves and roofline add alot of color as well keep the house stuck together.

Broken Necco wafers are still usable. Just arrange them on some icing for a mosaic effect.

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