We’ve Found It: The Prettiest Gingerbread House of 2020

This year, people are looking for ways to channel all of the holiday energy they’d normally exhaust traveling and cooking up a huge feast. As they stay home and stay safe, they are channeling that aforementioned energy into incredibly decorated gingerbread houses, with light shows and over-the-top lawn scenes. One of our new favorites for 2020 was posted recently by baking blogger Constellation Inspiration on Instagram.

The house, almost a gingerbread greenhouse because of its liberal use of gelatin sheet windows, features a peek-a-boo scene of Christmas trees in the snow through the frosted-looking windows, including a wreath-circled round one. While not as intensely complex as some we’ve seen, the simplicity and structural integrity required make it that much more impressive. And the details the blogger offers about making it are both helpful and heartbreaking — in her stories, she shows how she dropped the first version, completely ruining it. “The biggest lesson,” she says in her post, “allow the royal icing to dry for at least five hours before you pick up the house.”

While it’s hard to tell in the original photo, she posted a second photo to give the idea of how big the house is, with her hands offering a scale — and it’s huge. “I could easily fit it over my head if I wanted to wear it as a fashion accessory (?!),” she jokes. 

If you like the idea and want to give it a try, she has a whole tutorial on her blog from last year showing how to make the gingerbread greenhouse, which took her eight hours (and remember she did it twice this year!). The hardest part, she says, is figuring out the measurements — and thankfully, you don’t have to do that if you just use hers. Just remember to let the royal icing dry!