The candy on your gingerbread house will play an essential role in creating a vibrant holiday theme. Each candy can create a different texture and design. By choosing your gingerbread house theme first, you can select the candy that will better accent your design.
First, decide whether you will buy a gingerbread house kit or make the gingerbread house from scratch. This will be crucial when selecting your candy.
What Makes Specific Candies Good for Gingerbread Houses?
Based on the popular candies in the document, the best choices for gingerbread houses are those that offer a good combination of shape, color, and versatility. The right candy can help you create a specific texture or mimic a real-world part of a house.
- Versatile Shapes: Many popular candies are chosen because their shapes are perfect for building. For example, M&Ms are small and round, making them great for roof patterns, while pretzels and Kit Kat bars are long and straight, ideal for creating log cabin walls. Candy canes can even be used to create heart-shaped windows.
- Vibrant Colors: Candies like gumdrops, M&Ms, sprinkles, and jelly beans add a festive “pop of color”. Red and green-themed candies are especially popular for creating a classic Christmas look.
- Creating Textures: Different candies can create unique textures. Licorice can be cut to make a unique roof texture, sour tape adds a sugary texture to walls, and chocolate chips can be used as decorative roof shingles.
Mimicking Real-World Objects: The most popular candies are often those that can be cleverly repurposed. Gumdrops are used as Christmas lights, pretzels become wooden logs, marshmallows are stacked into snowmen, and candy icicles add a wintery touch to the roof’s edge.
1. Gum Drops
Gumdrops are one of the most iconic gingerbread house candies. They are mainly used as Christmas lights, fences and colorful accents on the roof.
2. M&Ms
M&Ms are a must for any gingerbread house. M&Ms are small round chocolates that are commonly use for decorating the roof of the house. By adding some frosting and sticking them individually on the roof, you can create colorful red and green patterns.
3. Hershey Kisses
Hershey Kisses are also one of the most popular gingerbread house candies. They can be used as roof decor, but also used to create walk ways for the house.
4. Candy Canes
Tradition Candy Canes are one of the most diverse candies to use when decorating a Gingerbread house. They can be used to create heart shape windows, lamp posts with a yellow gumdrop lamp or even a supporting doorway.
If you are able find stick shaped candy canes, this will allow you to create many red and white boarders around the house.
5. Christmas Sprinkles
Sprinkles can be used in various ways when decorating your gingerbread house. The primary purpose of Christmas themed sprinkles is to add a pop of color and shapes to your theme.
While most sprinkles come in a cylindrical shape, Christmas themed sprinkles can come in round, star, heart, Christmas tree and even Santa shapes which can elevate your design. They can be also found in many different kinds of colors as well.
6. Peppermints
Peppermints can be the focal point of any gingerbread house. They are usually placed right above the door or where the two roofs meet. Peppermints can also be used as the primary candy to decorate the roof.
7. Candy Icicles and Bricks
Candy icicles can add the winter touch to any gingerbread house. Candy icicles are used to decorate the edge of the roof and around the doors.
In addition, candy bricks are great to line the gingerbread house walls. This can bring a nice rustic or classic feel to your house.
8. Gingerbread Man Decor
Gingerbread men decor are primary used outside the house. Its common to have a gingerbread couple or family with every gingerbread house. Its best practice to find smaller gingerbread men and women so that they are proportional with the house size.
9. Snow Frosting and Confetti
Snow frosting and confetti can add an elegant touch of winter to any gingerbread house. The Snow frosting design is usually applied to the roof and walls to the gingerbread house and can be anywhere from a very simple pattern to a very intricate design.
Confetti is a simple way to add color and simple shapes to your creation.
10. Red & Green Sour Tape
A newer candy, red and green sour tape is a great way to add texture to your gingerbread house. The sour tape is mainly used on the walls, but could also be used as grass.
11. Chocolate Pretzels
if you are considering a cabin style gingerbread house, chocolate or regular pretzels can be used to create a wooden design. By adding frosting to the pretzels and placing them on the walls and roof of the house, you can have a log cabin style in no time.
12. Marshmallow Snowmen
By stacking a few marshmallows together, its easy to turn this candy into a cute snowman marshmallow. Think about adding a few of the pretzels for arms and small drops of chocolate for buttons as well.
13. Red & Green Licorice Candy
Red or Green licorice can be used for roof lining or general roof decor. By cutting small pieces of licorice and adding them to the roof, it can create a type a unique texture.
14. Fruit Loops and Crunch Berries
Fruit loops can be used for window decor and bring a colorful pop to your gingerbread house. Crunch berries can be used for Christmas lights and to highlight the outline of the house.
15. Kit Kat Bars
Kit Kat bars make great roof designs and could also be used to create a wooden log cabin designs. Another creative way to use Kit Kat bars for a gingerbread house would be to purchase both white and regular Kit Kats and make a creative wall pattern on the house.
16. Smarties or Nerds:
These small, colorful candies can be used to add texture and detail to your gingerbread house.
17. Jelly beans:
These come in a wide range of colors and can be used for decorating the house or creating colorful landscapes around it.
18. Tootsie Rolls:
These can be softened and shaped into various elements, such as logs for a log cabin-style gingerbread house.
19. Chocolate chips
Miniature chocolate chips can be used as decorative roof shingles or to create a chocolatey pathway.
20. Shredded Coconut
Shredded coconut is a popular choice for creating realistic ground textures. It is most commonly used to represent a blanket of snow, especially when dusted over the roof and yard. It can also be dyed green with food coloring to create the look of a grassy lawn.
21. Wafer Cookies (Rolled or Flat)
Wafer cookies, such as Pirouettes, are popular for adding architectural structure. The rolled varieties are perfect for creating pillars, log piles, or fence posts. Flat wafers are often used to create doors, window shutters, or even sections of a wall, adding a clean, biscuit-like texture.
22. Gummy Bears
Gummy bears are a fun, popular addition, especially for houses with a more playful theme. They are primarily used as “inhabitants” of the gingerbread house, placed in the yard or looking out windows. Their bright colors add a whimsical touch, and they can be set up in little scenes around the house.
23. Rock Candy Sticks
Rock candy is most popular for its crystalline, icy texture, making it perfect for winter-themed houses. The sticks are often used as icicles hanging from the roof or as gleaming ice shards in the yard. Broken-up pieces can also be used to create sparkling, “frozen” windows.
24. Necco Wafers
Flat, round candies like Necco Wafers are a classic and popular choice for roofing. Their uniform shape and size make them ideal for creating a perfectly overlapping “shingle” effect on the roof. They can also be used to create a clean, cobblestone pathway leading to the front door.
5 Candies That Are Not Good for Gingerbread Houses
While you can use any candy you like, some are less ideal for decorating because they present challenges.
Gummy or Chewy Candies
While the provided document mentions jelly beans, larger gummy candies (like gummy bears or worms) are often a poor choice. They are heavy and can slide off the frosting, especially on a vertical wall or sloped roof.
Large or Heavy Lollipops
Large, heavy candies like full-sized lollipops are difficult to attach. Their weight will pull them right off the house unless you have extremely fast-drying, structural icing.
Powdery Candies
Any candy that is essentially just loose powder or sugar (like Pixy Stix) is not practical for decorating. It won’t stick to the house, will make a mess, and will dissolve if it gets damp, ruining the look of your frosting.
Hard-to-Cut Candies
Candies like jawbreakers are very difficult to use. You cannot shape, cut, or alter them, making them very limiting. Their extreme weight also makes them a poor choice for attaching to any part of the house itself.
Very Delicate Candies
Cotton candy might seem like a great idea for snow or a chimney puff, but it has a very short lifespan. It will absorb moisture from the air and the frosting, causing it to shrink, wilt, and dissolve into a sticky puddle within a day.2