These gingerbread houses are so charming, you'll want them to last all season long.

Sweet details such as piped icicles, boughs of greenery, and a cinnamon-stick woodpile lend realistic charm to a Swedish-style gingerbread cottage. A light dusting of confectioners' sugar mimics freshly fallen snow.

You've probably made gingerbread houses in all shapes and sizes through the years, but have you ever considered creating one that looks like your own home? Use a photograph of your home as inspiration for your gingerbread facade.

Even young children can create this peppermint house and landscape by spreading royal icing  over a piece of sturdy cardboard. Let them gather their new candy friends for a stripy, sugary party of their own.

The caramelized-syrup windows of this colonial house are lit from within by a string of holiday bulbs, which flicker and glow like firelight.

Warm, spicy gingerbread and sweet, sturdy royal icing serve as the brick and mortar for this classic holiday decoration. Here we've assembled the elements for creating a sweet Christmas gift -- a gingerbread house-making kit.

This cookie cottage looks like somewhere Santa's elves might live. Thanks to our shortcut in its construction, it's easy enough for your own little elves to help create.

The cottages on the next few slides are so much fun to make, you may find yourself building a neighborhood. Putting the graham-cracker houses together takes no time, so you can make a few before a holiday party or a playdate, and then let kids adorn them. 

For features such as green gumdrop hedges or a blue jelly bean path, buy sweets in bulk at a candy shop or online. Cover the ground with a blanket of snowy shredded coconut for a wondrous display you can enjoy all season.

The owner of this winsome house has had a busy day, whizzing around on his graham-cracker-and-mini-candy-cane sled and building a peppermint-ball snowman. To make your own little guy, slice off the top and bottom of a white gumdrop, and press it onto a soft swirl candy; use a piece of red gumdrop for a hat and two nonpareils for eyes. The cottage, which is studded with cinnamon candies, has a sour-belt roof, a heart-shape candy-cane window, and a graham cracker door. 

Letters destined for the North Pole are hidden inside a mailbox created with a swirl candy, a piece of a candy cane, and a gumdrop; the flag is cut from a stick of gum.

Construct a basic cottage, and add details such as a wafer-candy roof and icicles made of royal icing. The wreaths are gummy rings with chewing-gum ribbons cut with scissors. The landscaping includes striped-gum paths, gumdrop shrubs, and a lollipop topiary. The snow is a mix of shredded and desiccated coconut.

In this quaint town, the houses feature roofs tiled with yellow and blue candy-coated chocolates and green mint lentils. Windows are made with pillow mints, nonpareils, and wafers; bits of chewing gum are used for shutters and doors, which are dotted with tiny mint knobs. Jelly beans form the pebble paths. 

Streetlights -- striped candy sticks poked into gumdrops and topped with a mini gumdrop or candy-coated chocolate -- ensure Santa Claus will find his way to this hamlet. Arrange the cottages on a "snowy" tray for a cheerful window display or holiday centerpiece.

A bright gummy bird and chubby marshmallow snowman greet visitors to this thatched cottage. To create the look of freshly fallen snow, we used frosted-wheat cereal for the roof, yogurt-covered pretzels for the fence, and nougat candy for the walkway. The double doors are graham cracker sticks with knobs made from mini candy-coated chocolates. The nose of the snowman is a cone cut from an orange spice drop and gently rolled; his hat is a piece of black gumdrop, and his eyes are sprinkles pressed into pinpricked holes. Assemble his feathered friend with a gummy fruit slice, a spice drop, a mini candy-coated chocolate, and sprinkles.

Nestled in a sugar-cone forest, this cozy coffee-and-cream-colored abode has almond slices for roof shingles and a roasted pumpkin seed in its shell for an attic window. There's a fire burning inside, thanks to a pile of cinnamon-stick logs and a chimney made from a stack of caramels behind the house. It's a chilly night, so hurry up the sesame-bar path, grab the jelly bean doorknob, and come in and warm up!

Built in the English Tudor tradition, this cottage boasts a stucco royal-icing exterior, pretzel-stick timbers, and a dark-brown roof and door made with chocolate graham crackers. Hazelnut rolled-wafer logs are heaped against one wall. Alphabet pasta spells out "welcome" on the graham cracker mat, and pasta numbers embellish the door, which has a pretzel knob. The fence -- pretzel sticks glued together with icing -- stands up when buried in drifts of coconut snow.

Set your gingerbread house amidst a winter wonderland inhabited by gumdrop mushrooms and sugar creatures such as peppermint-candy snails.

Place these candy Christmas carolers by the front door of your gingerbread house to add a jolly touch to the surroundings.

These merry fondant snowmen will stand guard outside your cottage no matter how warm it gets in your kitchen!

In the mood for a challenge? Try creating our gingerbread-house-inspired town-square cake, which consists of walnut meringue, gingerbread-spiced buttercream, and spongy cake layers.