Each holiday season, the Walt Disney World resorts create and display the most over-the-top gingerbread houses for guests to enjoy throughout the holidays.
These holiday displays have become a beloved tradition for guests, with the talented pastry teams spending countless hours masterfully crafting these culinary works of art.
We thought we would share some fun facts about these incredible gingerbread displays!
These are a staple of the most wonderful time of the year, and for good reason.
Gingerbread Fun Facts At Walt Disney World Resort:
The life-sized gingerbread house at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is made with more than 10,000 individual gingerbread shingles. Disney bakers spend more than 500 hours baking the gingerbread and another 480 hours building and decorating the house.
The Grand Floridian gingerbread house is made with 1,050 pounds of honey, 700 pounds of chocolate, 600 pounds of sugar, 35 pounds of spices and 800 pounds of flour.
Clouds of cinnamon actually billows out of the chimney of this life-sized storybook gingerbread house made from a classic Austrian recipe.
This house is adorned with white chocolate, candy canes, edible snowflakes, sugar poinsettias, and 25 – yes, 25 – hidden Mickeys!
Along the porches, you’ll find an 85-pound chocolate Santa, nutcrackers, toy soldiers, and snowmen that have all been hand-painted by the Grand Floridian Bakery team.
Disney’s Beach Club Resort features a life-sized gingerbread carousel in the lobby. Sharp-eyed guests can find 21 hidden Mickeys on it – one for each year it has appeared in the hotel.
Since 1999, this resort has been home to the life-sized carousel, and yes, it actually spins!
This carousel and its horses are masterfully created with chocolate, sugar, and fondant along with hand-painted characters and hand-crafted gingerbread shingles and snowflakes decorating the display.
What makes this year even more special is that all the horses celebrate a different Disney princess. See if you can guess who each one represents!
The gingerbread giraffe at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge is seven feet tall, the same size as an actual baby giraffe.
This year’s display also includes a new, life-sized baby zebra that is also made of gingerbread.
Disney’s Contemporary Resort displays a 17-foot tall gingerbread Cinderella Castle decorated in celebration of the Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary celebration.
This is the 11th year the Contemporary Bakery team has created a masterpiece, the Cinderella Gingerbread Castle is a Mary Blair-inspired castle designed by Walt Disney Imagineers.
The castle was built with more than 4,000 gingerbread bricks. Five-legged goats on the display are an homage to the towering mural in the resort’s Grand Canyon Concourse. Eleven goats represent the 11 years that the castle has been displayed.
The gingerbread display at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn features a gingerbread version of the BoardWalk Deli. Made with 21 gallons of honey, over 500 total pounds of flour and more, it took Disney bakers 200 hours to decorate.
