String Lights

• Colored string lights help give a house a gingerbread effect during the holiday season. Use the strings with large bulbs for the most gingerbread-like look. String the lights from the eves of the house and along the base of the roof. You can also place the colored lights around windows or doorways. Hang a strand of lights across the top ridge of the roof and around the chimney. You can also use the lights to line walkways or flower beds.
  
  

Embellishment Lights

• Gingerbread houses have a lot of decorations around the walls of the house. Hang candy cane lights, sprigs of holly lights and light wreaths around the walls of the house or in windows. A candle or other bright light in each window gives an approximation of a gingerbread house. You can also hang peppermint circle light wreaths or hang regular wreaths around the house. Hang garlands over doorways or balconies, or even under the eves.
  
  

Yard Decorations

• Gingerbread houses have a lot of yard decorations on trees, snowmen and flowerbeds. Use candy canes, snowmen, fake trees and other lighted decorations in the yard. Place 3D decorations around walkways to simulate a gum drop path. You can also decorate trees and other plants with large colored lights to look like candy pieces. If you can find a gingerbread yard decoration, use them in the yard to complete the look.
  
  

Other Décor

• There are a few other ways you can make your house look like a gingerbread house. Try making large plastic candies from Styrofoam and covering it in colored plastic to make fake candy. Hang the candy from trees, place it on bushes or use it around the house to transform your house into a gingerbread paradise. Use a large gingerbread themed wreath on the door so that all visitors know your theme for the year.