Let's Take a Closer Look at the Grand Californian Gingerbread House

Table Of Content

• All of the Incredible, Life-Size Gingerbread Houses at Disney Parks This Year
• Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
• Everything You Need to Know About Disney World Holiday Dining and Events
• Foodie Guide to Festive Gingerbread Houses, Displays 2023
• What happens to the gingerbread houses after the season is over?
• Haunted Mansion Holiday

Both onsite and offsite guests can visit the resorts to check out their displays. This is the 12th year the Contemporary Bakery team created the resort’s gingerbread display with help from lead Pastry Chef Jeff Barnes. The Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort lobby will be remodeled next year. The project was delayed and then officially pushed to 2024 so as not to interfere with the gingerbread house display.

All of the Incredible, Life-Size Gingerbread Houses at Disney Parks This Year

This new Walt Disney World gingerbread house is designed by Pastry Chef de Cuisine Michael Craig and is modeled after the actual blueprints from the lighthouse along Crescent Lake as seen in the photo above. The Disney World gingerbread displays have not yet been announced for the 2024 season, but you can see last year's rankings below for reference. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you can enjoy the new Disney Jollywood Nights, while Magic Kingdom brings back Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. And, of course, the EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays kicks off at the park in late November.

Disney’s BoardWalk Inn

Our Self-Guided Yuletide Tour is a great place to start, and makes for a fun Christmas experience on your day outside the parks. It’s also great for getting a taste of the higher end resorts if you’re staying at Pop Century or the All-Stars. No details have been provided as to when this will debut or what it’ll be. Our Self-Guided Yuletide Tour of Walt Disney World is a great place to start, and makes for a fun Christmas experience on your day outside the parks. The second most impressive Disney World gingerbread house is the life-size holiday carousel at the Beach Club Resort.

Everything You Need to Know About Disney World Holiday Dining and Events

We’re sharing your complete guide to this exciting part of the holidays, including where you can find each of the gingerbread displays for 2023. The largest, and most well-known, is at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. Here you can find a life-size gingerbread house where you can purchase assorted holiday treats, including gingerbread shingles. Other hotels form their own themes and designs for their gingerbread display.

Take a Look at the Grand Floridian Gingerbread House

Guests will need an EPCOT theme park ticket to see these gingerbread houses as they are located within the theme park. The American Adventure pavilion is located in the World Showcase not far from the International Gateway entrance where the Skyliner drops guests off. Below we'll go through rankings of all of the gingerbread houses available at Disney World from the WORST to the BEST Walt Disney World gingerbread house displays so you can decide which one is worth your time. Now heading over to Walt Disney World Resort, we’re stopping by Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa for their life-sized Gingerbread House! This beloved tradition is back again for its 24th year from Nov. 8 through Jan. 1, 2024, and is filled with plenty of sweet delights and decorations.

If it follows that pattern, expect construction to start on this before Halloween. We don’t know if the gingerbread lighthouse is replacing or in addition to Yacht Club’s annual model train and Christmas village. Returning for its 22nd year at Disney World, this year's theme is inspired by Ducktales, with the horses named after Donald Duck and his nephews, Huey, Duey, and Louie.

What happens to the gingerbread houses after the season is over?

Decorations at the resorts go up gradually, typically starting the first week of November and continuing through the days leading up to Thanksgiving. Which resort gets decorated first varies from year to year, with decor at the resorts usually being taken down shortly after New Year’s Day. If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars.

Holiday Wrapping Paper – Green

You can also find limited-time holiday treats at select Beach Club dining locations. Sometimes there are special pin and/or merchandise signings with a pastry chef, but dates and times vary. The house features white chocolate candy canes, edible snowflakes, sugar poinsettias, and over 10,000 pieces of gingerbread. Chocolate Santa, nutcrackers, toy soldiers, and snowmen that are all hand-painted by the Grand Floridian Bakery team led by Pastry Chef de Cuisine Kristine Farmer. Next to the display, you can also typcially purchase holiday drinks and treats, including frozen non-alcoholic and alcoholic drinks.

Inspired by the Yacht Club lighthouse, this brand-new creation was created by Pastry Chef de Cuisine Michael Craig. Craig used the actual blueprints from the real lighthouse located outside the resort along Crescent Lake. Available for purchase are some sweet delights sold at the Holiday Pop-Up Shop, including the new Lighthouse Fudge, which is a nod to this new offering. The annual gingerbread house is currently under construction at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. The house will open for its 24th year on November 8 and be available through January 1, 2024.

Disney’s BoardWalk Inn will bring back its BoardWalk Deli-inspired gingerbread house, which will be on display from November 17 to December 27, 2023. You can make just one for your family, or build a batch of them and throw a gingerbread house-decorating party, where each child decorates a house and takes it home at the end of the event. The piped crusting buttercream on my pictured gingerbread house hid about 100 mistakes. Finally, make your way over to The American Adventure Rotunda at EPCOT to see The American Adventure Gingerbread Display, which will be available from November 26th through December 30th. This gingerbread house will recreate an edible version of the Lincoln Memorial, as well as the Martin Luther King, Jr.

During busy times of the year (like the holidays), parking at the resorts is reserved for resort guests and those with dining reservations. Ever since 1999 (for 22 years!), Disney’s Beach Club has been showcasing its special gingerbread display — a life-sized carousel that actually rotates. In addition to the treats available for purchase by the gingerbread house, you can find special holiday treats at select Grand Floridian dining locations. We love reading all the ingredients that go into crafting these massive displays, including how much of everything is used. While Disney’s Polynesian doesn’t have a gingerbread display, it’s still worth seeing the hotel’s themed-decorations and Christmas tree. We recommend hopping on the Monorail and visiting all of the Monorail resorts to see their Christmas decorations.

You can see this display at the Jambo House Lobby of the Animal Kingdom Lodge from Nov. 22 through Dec. 31. Next door at Disney’s Beach Club Resort, the life-size Holiday Carousel gingerbread display will return. This year’s is inspired by Ducktales, with the horses themed after Donald Duck and his nephews, Huey, Duey, and Louie. Over at Disney’s Yacht Club, a brand-new gingerbread display will be available for the first time! Pastry Chef de Cuisine Michael Craig used the blueprints from the real lighthouse located outside, right on Crescent Lake to create the display.

Decorations include white chocolate candy canes, edible snowflakes, sugar poinsettias, an 85 lb. Chocolate Santa, nutcrackers, toy soldiers, and snowmen, which are all hand-painted by the Grand Floridian Bakery team led by Pastry Chef de Cuisine Kristine Farmer. The bakery team spent 500 hours baking the gingerbread and 480 hours decorating. In honor of the 24th year of the house, there will be 24 hidden Mickeys on it. If you have time to stop by Grand Floridian during your holiday visit, it’s totally worth it. The items on this list that can sell out are the Grand Floridian gift boxes and gingerbread houses!

PHOTOS: The American Adventure Gingerbread Display at 2023 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays - WDW News Today

PHOTOS: The American Adventure Gingerbread Display at 2023 EPCOT International Festival of the Holidays.

Posted: Sat, 09 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]

It’s possible this would’ve been a one-and-done regardless, but we doubt that. It was a pretty big hit with guests, and made for a popular snack spot at Wilderness Lodge. Of course, we’re biased towards all things Wilderness Lodge (it’s the best place at Walt Disney World during the holiday season!) but we’d really love to see this return. Unfortunately, with today’s announcement about which gingerbread houses will return, Walt Disney World hasn’t released debut dates for the gingerbread houses. However, we do have data from the last couple of years (and precedent from long before) that should help narrow down a window for those visiting Walt Disney World early in the Christmas 2023 season. The life-size gingerbread baby giraffe (Ginger) and zebra (Debra) will return to the Jambo House lobby at Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge from November 22 through December 31.