In honor of the holidays we wanted to share some impressive homebuilding skills from those making gingerbread houses.

As featured in This Old House magazine, enjoy these photos of amazingly crafted gingerbread houses. Are you crafting a gingerbread house this weekend? Feel free to share it with us on Facebook.

Enjoy spending time at home this week with those special people in your life. Cheers from your friends at Renaissance Homes.

Gingerbread 1
This house, based on the movie “Up,” earned the first place prize in the teen division of the 2010 National Gingerbread Competition. Created by Skyla D. of Asheville, NC, each character was sculpted from fondant and gum paste. The colorful balloons are pieces of spaghetti topped with jelly beans.
Gingerbread Sugar Castle
Created by Executive Pastry Chef Jean-Francios H. of the historic Westin St. Francis hotel in San Francisco, CA, this European architecture-inspired creation took over 400 hours to complete. A variety of tools were used for this construction, including X-Acto knives, glue guns, and rulers. The piece features a motorized base which allows the castle to slowly rotate. A hole in the base accommodates wires for the lights in the pulled-sugar-paned windows.
Gingerbread My Old Kentucky Home
Crafted by Kenna N. of Louisville, KY, this was made using a classic Victorian gingerbread blueprint. Jelly candy rocks make up the chimney, and chocolate fondant with corn starch snow make up the roof. Yellow edible paper creates the glowing windows for the project titled “My Old Kentucky Home.”
Gingerbread Winter Wonderland
This “Winter Wonderland Victorian Palace” by Stephanie S. of West Palm Beach, FL, took 180 hours to complete. The windows are made of gelatin.
Gingerbread Victorian
Made by Russ R. of Orinda, CA, entirely from gingerbread, this row of houses weighs about 80 pounds and measures 28 inches by 18-inches-by-18-inches. It took a more than two months to build. The Victorian row houses feature shiplap and individual pastillage shingles. The windows are gelatin sheets, and the inside figures are made of marzipan. The trees are fondant rolled in granola, then covered in royal icing.