Most Incredible Gingerbread Houses Ever Built

Like many fine traditions, gingerbread houses have become more and more extreme as time as gone on. Life-size houses, iterations with lights and working doors, and even entire gingerbread cities are built each year to celebrate Christmas. At the end of the day, the most special gingerbread houses are the ones built by families. The fun that goes into working together, no matter how the end-product looks, is really what captures holiday spirit. But let's face it: the really outrageous and over-the-top versions are so much fun to look at!

Each year, the White House kitchen staff collaborates to create a gingerbread White House. Past iterations include an un-iced version that portrays the house prior to its white paint job in 1798, houses with working interior lights, and, last year, a gingerbread house that sat atop a fireplace made out of cookies. The houses weigh hundreds of pounds and have featured marzipan replicas of the Obama family dogs in recent years. Look out for 2014's version!

An unusual take on the holiday classic, this gingerbread tree house gets extra points for the construction of the gingerbread tree it sits in!

This gingerbread beauty was cooked up by artist Britta Blvd to celebrate a "Year Seven at Hogwarts" party. From the installation of interior lights to creating the hard-candy window panes, the whole castle building process can be viewed here.

This gingerbread castle may not be an immediately recognizable as an icon of architecture, but it still makes our list for its encapsulation of holiday spirit. The sheer size of this castle, turrets, brickwork, and other little details make it a true masterpiece in cookie form.

It may not be a house, but this gingerbread creation is certainly over the top. Detailed scrollwork, functioning doors, and a smiling face make this reindeer plane the coolest support system for Santa ever designed

The Ritz-Carlton Moscow's take on gingerbread houses? Why, a perfectly executed replica of St. Basil's Cathedral, of course. Pastry chef Troman Felizmenio did the original justice in his 2009 creation.

A house this beautiful is worth fighting for — at least it is if you're the witch from Hansel and Gretel. The brilliantly detailed gingerbread house appeared at The Langham Hotel in London in 2011.

This gingerbread creation is a bit less flashy than many others, but we've got to give props for creativity in the inclusion of a licorice swing and the use of green popcorn balls for trees and Red Hots for apples! 

Each year the New York Hall of Science hosts Gingerbread Lane. The display has an entire village of homemade gingerbread houses, including bridges, candy mosaics, and a cookie train.

The Fairmont Hotel in San Francisco is famous for its holiday décor. The lobby is turned into a winter wonderland, complete with a two-story gingerbread house. Composed of thousands of gingerbread bricks, gallons of icing mortar, and hundreds of pounds of candy, this is one impressive expression of the gingerbread tradition.

One of most   in the world has been rendered in gingerbread, complete with candy icicles and a holiday-appropriate Christmas tree atop the first-floor roof. Frank Lloyd Wright's design never looked so sweet!