Gingerbread houses are one of our favorite Christmas traditions, but here's a selection of extravagant masterpieces that look too good to eat.

The baker extraordinaire known as ‘Goodies By Anna’ kicks off the holiday season each year by making an extravagant gingerbread mansion. In 2011 it took Anna a whole week to produce the creation pictured.

Fai Tao Lay showed off her gingerbread house she made in 2016 on Instagram. It was her first attempt and it turned out beautifully with lights and all. She described it as winter magic to set the Christmas mood. It’s an amazing achievement for her first gingerbread house. Definitely looks too good to eat.

Yes, believe it or not this miniature White House is made from gingerbread. The incredible work of art sat pride of place in the State Dining Room at the actual White House during Barack Obama’s presidency in 2011. It’s complete with his dog Bo sitting out the front.

This house created in 2014 was called 'Holiday Cheer State House’ and was created by Connor Architecture. It was made during the Boston Society of Architects (BSA) 3rd Annual Gingerbread Design Competitio at the Community Design Resource Center. Money raised from the sale of the house went to BSA which provides pro bono technical assistance to community groups and nonprofits.

Massachusetts baker Maria Cavaleri-Gilardo (pictured) holds up one of the gingerbread houses she made. The traditional gingerbread house is made with white icing and candy including M&M’s and jellies in Christmas colors. It looks like a tasty treat, candy for the eyes.

It’s tradition to make houses out of gingerbread at Christmas time but in 2013 a Transformers fan dedicated her time to creating a gingerbread Optimus Prime. Caroline Eriksson (pictured) then entered it in a Norwegian Gingerbread House Contest, where she was selected as a finalist.

In 2012 the Discovery Science Museum in Santa Ana presented its Science of Gingerbread exhibit where some of the most artistic gingerbread houses were put on display. Although not quite a house, this boat with penguins is very cute and a great decoration too good to break up and eat.

Playing with gingerbread and icing is a highlight of Marriott Palm Beach executive pastry chef Brittani Szczecina's year. Her 2016 masterpiece stands at eight feet (2.4m) tall, eight feet (2.4m) wide and about six feet (1.8m) deep. It took her and her team about 1000 pieces of gingerbread to make and about a month to complete.

This incredible monstrosity of a gingerbread house is equipped with a drawbridge, lights and a red brick-look finish. The sheer size is impressive let alone the amount of time, money, sugar and patience that would have gone into making it. It must have super strong icing securing all the gingerbread pieces together.

This award-winning cathedral is entirely made out of gingerbread. It took out first prize in the gingerbread house competition at the Scarborough Town Centre Mall, Ontario which was part of a fundraiser for the Scarborough Centenary Health Centre Foundation.

This magnificent work of art was created by Terri Pringle Wood who is “Spreading love and joy one cookie at a time” via Facebook and Instagram. She makes endless amounts of sweet treats and this time of year her specialty is gingerbread houses and gingerbread cookies.

This gingerbread house replica of the Hotel Adlon Kempinski Berlin sits proudly in the foyer of the hotel itself. Its design is simply extravagant and fits the mood of the hotel around this time of year. It’s set to leave a lasting impression on all guests.

This gingerbread Grand Central Terminal was made by the Magnolia Bakery. The creation was part of the gingerbread house display at New York's Le Parker Meridien Hotel in 2009.

Minnie and Mickey Mouse are getting into the Christmas spirit too with all Disney resorts and theme parks going all out. The biggest gingerbread house is showcased at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. The gingerbread recipe came from Austria and calls for 1,050 pounds (476kg) of honey and 800 pounds (362kg) of flour. The creation stands 16 feet (4.8m) high and it took more than 400 hours just to bake the gingerbread.

This rainbow-colored candy factory made from gingerbread and icing is the brainchild of Lynne Schuyler from Idaho. The dog house in the back left corner holds a battery pack that runs the lights, front door sconces, front shop lights and clock. Very impressive. It looks more like a doll house or toy than something edible.

Inspired by the Lord of the Rings hobbit house, this gingerbread abode is a creation by self-taught baker and dessert enthusiast Heather of blog Sprinkle Bakes.

Designer, illustrator and blogger Katie McLurg of Fabre Faction achieved an engineering feet with this gingerbread house she made in 2014. McLurg made a two-story traditional house with an ingenious chocolate-coated pretzel balcony.

Executive chef Kevin Goodwin (pictured) unveiled 'The Jawbreaker Express' he created for the Adam’s Mark Hotel in Denver in 2007. The 3,000 pound (1360kg) holiday structure was made from 1,400 pounds (635kg) of icing, 350 pounds (158.7kg) of gingerbread and 550 pounds (249kg) of candy.

Although in black and white, this picture shows how impressive chef Martin Howard Stabbs’ (pictured) gingerbread creation is. Created in 1994, it displays some of Brooklyn’s most famous landmarks.

For Barrack Obama’s final Christmas in the White House, a replica of the monumental building was erected in the State Dining Room, as in 2011. The 2016 gingerbread house features 150 pounds (68kg) of gingerbread on the inside, 100 pounds (45kg) of bread dough on the outside frame, 20 pounds (9kg) of gum paste, 20 (9kg) pounds of icing, and 20 (9kg) pounds of sculpted sugar pieces. Sunny and Bo are both front and center of the edible structure.

Pastry chef Anna Polyviou (pictured) and her team assembled this life-sized gingerbread house in the Lobby Lounge of Shangri-La Hotel Sydney in 2016. As an award-winning pastry chef, Polyviou designed the house to have gingerbread bricks and icing as mortar, keeping the impressively-large structure in place. It took more than two months to build, 3306lb (1500kg) of gingerbread dough, (300kg) of lollies and (200kg) of icing.

The Le Meridien hotel in Ahmedabad displayed its gingerbread house for all guests to enjoy over the holiday season in 2010. The house was made up of 700 ginger biscuits and it took seven days to prepare with the help of three chefs, two of whom are seen here putting the finishing touches together.

In 2015 the Lord and Taylor store on Fifth Avenue in New York City displayed this amazing gingerbread house as big as the window itself. The enormity of it attracted tourists from far and wide who posed for pictures in front of it.

Having been around since 1820, Dunn’s Bakery in London has produced some gorgeous gingerbread houses in its time. This traditional-looking gingerbread house is a classic that exudes a white wintry Christmas spent cuddled up by the fire drinking eggnog and listening to Christmas carols.

This gingerbread Christmas village model was on board Cunard’s cruise ship Queen Victoria in 2012. The Duchess of Cornwall (pictured) approved of the elaborate feature.

A replica of the Toji Tower in Kyoto, Japan was created by Kyotufo in 2012 and was put on display in the lobby of the Le Parker Meridien hotel in New York. It was exhibited with other eccentric gingerbread houses from city restaurants in an annual display to benefit City Harvest, a food rescue organization for feeding the needy.

The lobby of the Fairmont hotel in San Francisco was transformed into a Christmas haven in 2010 when a 22-foot high gingerbread house was assembled. It was made with 5,500 pieces of gingerbread, 850 pounds (385kg) of icing, 425 pounds (192kg) of candy and eight gallons of chocolate. Each day chefs had to make repairs to the holiday creation because people couldn’t resist and would break off pieces.

Routine Bakery staff put together a gingerbread Chrysler Building in 2009 as part of the house display at New York's Le Parker Meridien Hotel. Next to a mirror, the work of art could be seen from all angles in all its glory.

Inspired by sewing and fabric, Ottawa sugar artist Catherine Beddall made this mini gingerbread house. It’s the last in a collection of four small houses she made for the 2016 holiday season. As the author of The Magic of Gingerbread, Beddall is a self-confessed gingerbread lover.

This gingerbread castle has its own watch towers, arched windows and medieval-era gate.

A giant sphinx is not what first comes to mind during Christmas but this creative ‘gingerbread house’ from North End Grill represents the global reach the Christmas spirit can have. The landmark creation is equipped with its own Christmas tree and Santa hat.

Bakers from the Butterfly Bakeshop made this mini Chichen Itza out of gingerbread complete with iced stairs and trees.

On top of a massive iced mountain sits a tall gingerbread house in the lobby of Regents Singapore hotel. The house is so big it doesn’t fit in the picture. At the bottom of the mountain there are more gingerbread houses and even a train that travels around and through the mountain itself.

Australian baker Katherine Sabbath loves anything sweet and sugary. So when she decided to make her own gingerbread house she did it the only way she knows how, with plenty of color, sugar and sweets.