Spooky does it! Easily change holidays and decorate your gingerbread house for Halloween!

A Gingerbread House for Halloween? I mean, think about it. Halloween is all about candy, so wouldn't it be a great holiday for spooky gingerbread house creations? If people have Halloween "Christmas Trees," then a Halloween gingerbread house isn't that weird of an idea. In fact, you can use it as part of your Halloween decoration, family activity, or for your Halloween party! We're here to give you some ideas on how to decorate your Halloween gingerbread house on All Hallows Eve!

The key to a great Halloween-themed house is creativity. You can easily turn a beautiful, traditional Christmas gingerbread house into a spooky, haunted house. Here are some ideas for inspiration to get your started.

Candies to Decorate:

Halloween is all about candy so there are so many different candies that can be used to decorate your house. We made a list of some of our favorites for the perfect spooky house of the season.

Candy Corn:

Candy Corn is the candy of the season. You can use it to decorate the "garden" around the house or to turn the house into a monster with candy corn teeth. You can also use the candy corn to create "icicles" around the roof. They can also be used to create a fence around the house.

Chocolate Candies:

Chocolate candies can be used to decorate cookies at any time of the year. They are also versatile and come in many different shapes, which makes them the perfect decorating candy. We recommend peanut butter chocolate cups, small round candies, chocolate bars, or even pumpkin-shaped chocolates.

Candy Pumpkins:

During Halloween, you can find small pumpkin candies. They are perfect to create a pumpkin patch. They can add that element of trick-or-treat/jack-o-lantern, or for a fall-themed house.

Sour skittles:

Sour candy is great to decorate the house, and it can add a little trick to your gingerbread treat. They can be used to add color to the house, decorate the roof of the house, or for small details.

Halloween-themed candies:

During Halloween, you can find almost any spooky-shaped candy you can imagine. Here are a few of our favorites:

Ghost marshmallows: Perfect to save you time baking more gingerbread cookies. They are also fluffy and more ghoul-like.

Candy Bones: You can use these to sprinkle around your cookie graveyard.

Candy Bats: You can use these to decorate the graveyard or the roof of the gingerbread house.

Candy eyeballs: Candy eyeballs are great to add small details around the house. You can use them for a Frankenstein's Monster themed house, or to add eyeballs to the house. You can also place them in the windows to make it look like ghouls peeking out,

Black Candy Wafers:

Black candy wafers can be melted and used to dip cookies, candies, or even pretzels so that you can easily turn them black in a way that you couldn't do with frosting or even icing. Just melt them in the microwave, stir, and then dip whatever candy or cookie you want to cover, and voilá!

Halloween House Ideas:

Frankenstein House:

To create a Frankenstein house, use grey, black, and slime-green icing for assembling and decorating. Use black royal icing to assemble the gingerbread house. You can find out how to assemble it here. Use grey frosting on the sides of the house. Use black frosting to decorate the roof of the house. Use candy eyeballs and place them on the roof pieces. Ground chocolate cookies, and spread them around the base, to create the illusion of dirt. You can use slime-green icing to pipe around the roof, or the door to give the illusion of oozing green goo.

You can also use green hard candy pieces to create lifelike glass windows. Learn how to make them here. Use black licorice to line the sides of the house and the corners of the side panels.

Optional: Create little Frankenstein Monsters using green marshmallows. Microwave black candy melts and dip the top to make the hair. Use icing or cookie pen to create his facial features, and scar.

Tip: Cut out rectangles in different sizes to give the illusion of mismatched/broken windowpanes. You can also tilt the door slightly to make it seem like it's broken after Frankenstein's monster became alive.

Pumpkin Patch House:

Going to a pumpkin patch is one of those fall traditions that we simply love. You can bring that tradition to your home with a beautiful pumpkin-inspired house. Use brown, orange, green, and yellow as a color palette.

Use orange royal icing to assemble the gingerbread pieces together. Decorate the roof with green and orange candies. Place candy corn along the sides of the roof as "icicles." Decorate the sides of the house with pumpkin-shaped candies. Ground up gingerbread cookies or cinnamon cookies and sprinkle them around the base create the dirt in the pumpkin patch. You can also use the extra gingerbread dough to make pumpkin-shaped cookies. Use chocolate squares to create a path to the house.

Ghoulish Haunted House:

This house is all about ghosts. Assemble the house with white or grey icing. Use black icing or frosting to fully decorate the roof and sides of the house. Use the same technique as the Frankenstein house and cut out mismatched square gingerbread pieces to create the illusion of broken windowpanes. Slightly "glue" with icing the door slightly tilted. You can add a ghost cookie peeking out through the main door.

Add some cookies decorated as gravestones, and glue with icing to the base. Ground up chocolate cookies to create dirt. Sprinkle all around the base. You can add marshmallow ghosts around the graveyard. Sprinkle candy bones around the graveyard too.

Optional: Add powdered sugar to the chocolate cookie "dirt" to give a creepy misty look to the graveyard.

Vampire House:

To create the vampire house, you will need red royal icing and black food coloring. Add black food coloring to your favorite gingerbread recipe, to turn the cookie pieces black. Use blood-red icing to assemble the house. Use white candy melts and dip the candy corn in them. Use them to create vampire fangs and place them in the back panel of the house. You can also cut the front door in the shape of a casket. Use grounded chocolate cookies and sprinkle them around the base of the house to make dirt.

Add bat candies and place them around the roof and windows of the house. Use the red icing to give the illusion of blood oozing out of the windows of the house.

Monster House:

It's time to bring your gingerbread haunted house to life! Create a monster house by using candy corn around the door so that it looks like an open mouth with sharp teeth. Use two squares of gingerbread and pipe black icing to cover them completely. Glue them on either side of the front panel, above the door and candy corn teeth to create the eyes. You can add candy eyeballs to make them look realistic. Use long, thin chocolate bars to create eyebrows. Point them down so the house looks angry. Use black frosting to decorate the roof of the house.

Use chocolate rectangles to create tombstones. Ground some chocolate cookies or even brownie crumbs to create dirt, and sprinkle candy bones around.

Icing to Decorate:

For Halloween houses, we suggest changing the traditional white icing by adding food coloring to the royal icing to add details to the house, or to assemble the house. Black icing, orange icing, green icing, or purple icing are perfect for making a gingerbread haunted house. You can find our Royal Icing recipe using Meringue Powder here.

You can also use frosting to decorate. However, DO NOT use the frosting to assemble the house. It will not hold the pieces together. Purple frosting or black frosting can be used to decorate the roof panels or the sides of the house. It can also be used to decorate the base of the house, instead of using grounded chocolate cookies.

Important notes about the icing:

1) The icing is the right consistency when stiff peaks form, and when it looks nice and glossy. To assemble the cookie house, you need to make sure the icing is the right consistency so that the roof panels and house base will hold and not break apart.

2) When it comes to decorating, if you will be piping details with the icing on the gingerbread pieces/panels or even for the gingerbread cookies, you want to make sure that the icing isn't as stiff. You can add a few tablespoons of water to the icing to make the consistency slightly more liquid so that it's easier to pipe.

3) Use your favorite gingerbread recipe or buy a gingerbread house kit to make things easier.

4) You can also use buttercream icing to decorate but NOT to assemble the house.

Tips for Decorating:

Add food coloring to the gingerbread

You can add food coloring to the gingerbread itself. You can dye the gingerbread black for example so it's more Halloween-y. You can play with different colors, and dye different gingerbread pieces different colors. Don't be afraid to get creative!

Use different cutters to change the shape of the house

Not only can you play with the colors of the house, but you can also change the shape by using different cutters to build the gingerbread cookie house itself. You can use the cutters for the basic houses or use cutters that change the shape completely to make it look more like a haunted house.

Use small toy figurines

Not all components of the gingerbread house must be edible. You can use small toy figurines of your favorite Halloween movie and add them around the house.

Grind some chocolate cookies

You can grind some chocolate cookies (such as Oreos), to make edible dirt to sprinkle around the base of the house. You can add some gingerbread cookie tombstones or gingerbread ghosts.

Use leftover dough to make cookies in different shapes

You can use leftover dough from the house and using cookie cutters, you can create ghosts, pumpkins, tombstones, black cats, witches, or even vampires! Use royal icing in different colors to decorate the cookies.

Fall House Ideas:

If Halloween isn't for you, you can always make a cute fall gingerbread house. Use autumn colors for your icing. Brown, orange, red, and yellow make a beautiful fall color palette. You can also use brown frosting to decorate.

For fall, candy corn is 100% a must. You can also use cookie cutters in the form of leaves, or small leaf candies to make a wreath. Use chocolate rectangles to create a path to the house, and line the sides with pumpkin candies. Use round chocolate candies in orange, brown, and red to line the roof.

It doesn't have to be Christmas to make an amazing gingerbread house. All it takes is a little creativity and a lot of candy. We hope you loved our ideas, and feel free to send us some of your own. Don't forget to tag us in your next gingerbread creation!