Behold! One of our favorite holiday traditions here at French Lick Resort is now on display. And judging from the oooohs and ahhhhs by folks stopping to see it, our holiday gingerbread house is bigger and better than ever.
This house is a feast for the eyes and it’s a lot to take in. Find it on the upper level of the Event Center all throughout our 50 Days of Lights celebration. Before you come see it yourself, hear from our bakery chefs who collectively spent 352 hours (!) creating it, and learn some of the sweet, sugary details that make this house so special.
A labor of love, lasting all year:
“January 1st, 2024, literally, we started baking gingerbread,” says Princess McCallister, one of the bakery chefs who helps head this confectionary masterpiece. “We are determined to make sure it’s an all-year project so we don’t feel pressured around the time it comes out. You know, we all want to be home for the holiday season, too, and enjoy time with our family and not be here super, super long days. It’s been a lot easier on all of us doing it that way.”
The “shell” of the house gets reused year to year, but the configuration, theme and look always change:
“This year we wanted it to give a cabin vibe, and then the roof, I wanted it to be a Christmas quilt. That was our general idea. Little by little, we just feed off each other and this is what we came up with.”
“It is a bit of a different setup this year the way the house is shaped – we don’t have a porch, so we made a door and we have the fireplace by the cabin. Just testing out a few different things, trying to make it different. We’re trying to play around with making walls and breaking down walls – we feel like a little construction company.”
Each bakery chef who works on the house tends to have a specific part of the house they take ownership of decorating. And everyone has a personal favorite part of the house:
“I’m being biased, but I like the roof because it’s the one thing I got to do this year,” says Princess. “This is my first year as a mom so I’ve had to juggle being at home and not being able to stay at work a hundred hours a week. I’m happy that I got to contribute a decent amount to the house, but the team did great with it. I think everything is absolutely gorgeous.”
Tiffany Dampier joined the bakery team late in 2023, so this is her first go-round with the gingerbread project:
“I also like the roof, and probably the cobblestone – I don’t know what it is…but it’s just so cute,” Tiffany says. “I did the dog house, that was like my project, then helped do anything that needed to be done.” Anything, meaning everything: “She helped with the windows, which was huge, and some of the piping (of the icing),” Princess adds. “So many little things everywhere.”
And it always bears repeating: Everything you see on the exterior of the house is 100% edible:
“This year we made close to 300 pounds of gingerbread — and we used way more icing sugar than anything else,” Princess says. “I ordered about 425 pounds, which was way more than any other year. It’s a lot, and it goes into all the little things like the bulbs. Brittany (another pastry chef in her 8th year helping create the gingerbread house) made all those bulbs by hand. She’s great at doing delicate things like that.”
After all these years, there still new textures and new ideas to add on the house:
“Another fun thing we did this year was the edible moss on the side of the house. Brittany found the recipe for it: it’s baked in a microwave, and it bakes really quickly so you get all these air bubbles that make it look real. And the fireplace – we were just thinking, ‘Oh we should have a fire since it’s a cabin.’ Brittany said, ‘OK, I’m just going to melt some sugar.’ And within 15 minutes, she had that ready — I thought that was so amazing. We feed off each other, and things just come to life."
Look for a few “Easter eggs” hidden on the house, including a lovable pest:
“That’s Henry,” Princess says with a laugh. “So, we’re a wild bunch, and we have a Christmas cockroach. He’s not real, but he’s been with us for the last three years. And he’s always on the house. He usually goes unnoticed. But he’s a sweetheart.”
You’ll also find a few of your favorite movie and TV characters and a sign reading “Forever Animated in our Memories”:
“We’re all a little older (laughs) and a lot of our childhood cartoon characters, their voice actors passed away this year, and we just wanted to remember them in a little way.”
Moving the house from the kitchen upstairs to the Event Center means maneuvering through tight quarters, but no gingerbread was harmed:
“I think we’ve finally mastered it. It was all clear, everyone was here to help, it took about 10 minutes which I think was record time. It’s awesome.”
Now comes the fun part. Just like all the families who make it a tradition to see French Lick Resort’s gingerbread house, Princess will bring her daughter and show her what mom created:
“She’s really into lights and bright colors, so she’s going to love it. She’s going to want to try to touch it, but, you know, can’t do that (laughs). I think she’s going to absolutely love it. I’m excited to show her her name on the house. (Names of the bakery team members who helped on the project, plus a few special others, are displayed on the house.) I can’t wait to see when we take her to the tree lighting here at the hotel, because it’ll be fun to see it through her eyes.”
