18 Extreme Gingerbread Houses
Gingerbread house: the term calls to mind a quaint little brown cottage, decorated to a T with precisely piped icing, delicately spun sugar, and vibrantly colored gum drops. But more often than not, the DIY Christmas tradition produces precarious confections, bursting at the seams with frosting and misplaced candies, making them look more like gingerbread crackhouses. So we’re leaving construction to the pros. And boy have they been at work, building these EXTREME structures. (Edible Notre Dame Cathedral? Check. Chocolate-coated White House? Check.) Check out our favorite wacky gingerbread houses in the slideshow, and we’ll stick to decorating sugar cookies.
3/17Gingerbread Castle
The 21st annual Sheraton Seattle Gingerbread Village features fairytale-inspired displays designed by the city’s top architecture firms (Credit: Sheraton Seattle)
4/17Gingerbread Architecture
Brooklyn-based photographer Henry Hargreaves and food stylist Caitlin Levin created replicas of world-famous art museums, rendered in gingerbread. Pictured here: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC. (Credit: SCPR)
5/172013's World's Largest Gingerbread House
You can, indeed, live in sugar plum bliss. (Credit: Courtesy of Texas A&M Traditions Club)
6/17Replica of Portland circa 1913
We'd love to see the latest Portlandia sketch on this. (Credit: Courtesy the Benson Hotel)
8/17Angry Birds
We’re wondering how many bird balls it would take to knock this one down. (Credit: ShaneParker)
9/17Notre Dame Cathedral
Complete with gingerbread Quasimodo. (Credit: Paula E. Kirman)
10/17Huge Organic House
A win for the environmental lobby, in the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton. (Credit: The Ritz-Carlton, Charlotte)
11/17Teepee
We’re guessing that steer skull is not edible. (Or is it marzipan?) (Credit: The Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain)
12/17Smithsonian Castle
This artist really nailed the Smithsonian Headquarters’ faux-Norman-style architecture. (Credit: Four Seasons Hotel Washington, D.C.)
13/17Neiman Marcus Edible Gingerbread Playhouse
A life-size playhouse you can nibble. What more could a child want? (Credit: luxurylaunches.com)
14/17Noah’s Ark
If global warming persists and the ocean does, indeed, swallow the land, we know who to call. (Credit: The Grove Park Inn)
15/17UP! House
If you attached a million balloons to this house, it would probably float. (Credit: Greg Thompson)
16/17Empire State Building
The way this iconic building’s gingerbread rendering is leaning a little too much to the right makes us New Yorkers uncomfortable. (Credit: Stein Eriksen Lodge Deer Valley)
17/17Victorian Mansion
Is there a gingerbread butler to answer the door? (Photo: Courtesy of ThisOldHouse.com)
