Our fantastic gingerbread house is best admired from a wide view.
Take a step back and take it all in: all 700+ pounds of real gingerbread, sweet decorations and accents that our resort bakery chefs spent the last 10+ months building into another confectionary masterpiece. It’s more than 5 feet tall. And this house is practically big enough to live in. (Though you’d get too hungry and want to eat the walls, so we don’t advise it.)
But take a closer look, and it’s the little details that make this holiday tradition so grand. So let’s zoom in for a closer look about what makes this 2025 gingerbread house so special.
Our pastry chef, Brittany Fisher, is the brains behind this sugary operation. She comes up with a new theme each year, and “Santa’s Sweet Shoppe” is officially open for business.
“The theme for the house this year is kind of this all thing sweet: cakes and pies, and all things that you would see from a bakery,” Brittany says. “I just liked the idea of a lot of like very bright, rainbow colored palette kind of style with a lot of sweet things.”
Baked goods on baked goods: it’s quite the meta theme.
“It also kind of reminds me of The Hungry Little Caterpillar, if you think about the fruit and lollipops and all the little things that he ate,” Brittany says. “It wasn't really my intention, but we were kind of looking through the trays of stuff. And I was like, ‘This is very The Hungry Caterpillar.’ And kind of Candy Land a little bit, too.”
Like your favorite holiday baked goods, the recipe for the gingerbread house is standard year to year. The same recipe has been used for upward of 15 years (likely more) and is stored in a binder along with the rest of the bakery's signature recipes.
Of all the sugary treats on the house, which would be Brittany’s pick in real life?
“Well, sadly, I was recently diagnosed with not being illegal gluten anymore, which is kind of a really horrible joke from the universe for the job that I have (laughs). But before I wasn't able to eat (gluten): probably cinnamon rolls or cupcakes. Now, it’s a lot more fresh fruit and things like that.”
Biggest challenge of all the gingerbread house decorations?
“The windows were a little bit of a challenge more than usual, because when I went to pull up my isomalt sugar from last year, the whole entire tub was flooded with water, because I guess our ceiling had a leak. I had to throw some of it away and start fresh. It was just a challenge that I was not expecting, but I think the windows came out really well after everything.”
Personal favorite little details on the house?
“This little bakery shelf, I think I had a lot of fun making this bread with all the pretzels and baguettes. It’s fun to have a few savory kind of things in it because everything else was sweet.
We've got hundreds and hundreds of rainbow meringues all over. And then the little ice cream sandwiches. I think they're one of my favorite things. I don’t know why, but I just love them.”
Everything you see on the exterior of the house is made from real, edible products — even things like the mini sugar pearls that look too perfect to be real.
“The little lollipops and ice cream decorations, we made all that stuff from scratch. They are just gym paste and fondant mixed together, and I bought some molds that had some sweets themes, and then we painted them with like an edible gold paint.”
Oh, and be watching for a special Easter egg hidden on the gingerbread house … because it’ll be watching you.
“I will say there is an eyeball hidden on it. We like to joke that the eyeball is there to watch kids — and adults — you know, to make sure they don't take anything off and eat it (laughs).”
Perhaps the most difficult detail on the house is something that looks so simple: the little wrapped candies.
“That was one of the things that drove me crazy. The marbling of the fondant for the middle parts where the color is, that wasn't so bad because you're just cutting like little disks. But all these little wrappers I had to individually cut and then attach them with water to the back of this middle piece of fondant and then let them dry before we can do anything with them. They took a lot longer than I wanted them to, but I really wanted little candies. After I made them, I was like, ‘You know, maybe I could have ordered these.’ ”
But it’s all about those little details … and they’re worth it in the end because they add up to something great.
“They really make it worth coming and seeing, just little things that all go together. I think little details are just really important.”
See this gingerbread masterpiece for yourself all throughout our Season of Lights, which just got started and lasts through January 6 with plenty of holiday cheer to enjoy this season.
