Best Gingerbread House Displays In Historic California Hotels

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Gingerbread is delicious any time of year, but gingerbread houses are uniquely intertwined with the winter holidays, adding whimsy and awe with sweet flourishes.

Historic Hotels of America came up with a list of the top 25 gingerbread houses at its properties across the United States, with three here in California. (See the full list below.)

It is believed that gingerbread houses are a German creation, inspired or popularized by the fairytale "Hansel and Gretel" in early 1800s. Immigrants brought the tradition to this country.

While many families try their hand at decorating gingerbread houses as a holiday activity, often using kits — hotels, resorts, and inns create magnificent displays to delight and inspire guests and visitors. These "displays are the result of thousands of hours of culinary, pastry, confectionary, engineering, and carpentry teams working for weeks and even months to design, create, mix, bake, build or set up, and, of course, decorate. Collectively, the displays’ ingredients add up to thousands of pounds of sugar, eggs, and flour; hundreds of pounds of spices; more than 10,000 individual candies; and hundreds of gallons of molasses and honey. "

A recipe shared by The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs includes "3 ho’ ho’ ho’s, 2 shakes of a nutcracker and 6 uh ohs!"

Here in California, the three featured displays are in San Francisco, Solvang and San Diego. Here are the descriptions from Historic Hotels of America.

The Fairmont Hotel San Francisco (1907) San Francisco, California

For over a century, The Fairmont Hotel San Francisco (1907) has enchanted guests with its joyful holiday festivities and seasonal ambiance in the “The City by the Bay.” One of the hotel’s most-spectacular annual traditions is its stunning gingerbread house. At the end of November each year, the hotel lobby transforms into one of the world’s most beloved holiday destinations, where cherished memories for locals and visitors alike are created. The highlight of this awe-inspiring exhibit is the glowing, two-story Victorian-style gingerbread house, adorned in hundreds of pounds of See’s Candies iconic sweets, located in the hotel’s grand lobby. Lovingly built with a completely edible exterior, the delectable abode was constructed by the Fairmont Hotel San Francisco’s talented culinary team, led by Executive Chef Michael Quigley. The house stands at over 22 ft. high and 23 ft. wide and includes thousands of baked gingerbread bricks. The hotel partnered with See's Candies to decorate its gingerbread house and holiday displays this year. Hundreds of pounds of See’s Candies—including their iconic lollypops, sour candies, and chocolate confections—were artfully placed on the breathtaking build, creating a true work of art. The house itself contains more than 7,750 pieces of gingerbread, 1,500 pounds of royal icing, and hundreds of pounds of candy. The culinary team spent approximately 375 hours creating the gingerbread house and the engineering department worked 520 hours to construct its framework. The hotel, which was inducted into Historic Hotels of America in 2001, maintains its commitment to the environment each year by ensuring the display’s framework is recycled and the edible ingredients are composted. Guests and visitors are invited to come experience the aroma and vision between November 26, 2022, and New Year’s Day 2023.

Alisal Ranch (1946) Solvang, California

Alisal Ranch (1946) in Solvang, California, partners each year with Solvang Bakery to create charming gingerbread replicas of the ranch’s barn, front office, library, boat house, and a guest cottage. The houses are each about a foot wide and they are arranged in a display of fluffy “snow,” illuminated with fairy lights, and embellished with sparkling baubles and fir boughs. The houses are accompanied by charming ranch details, such as miniature hay bales, horses, friendly golden retrievers, and barn cats. These ranch-inspired gingerbread houses are on display in the resort’s dining room starting December 12. For construction, the Solvang Bakery used approximately 100 pounds of gingerbread dough and 75 pounds of icing to produce the display, which involved the labor of six people who worked for about three weeks to produce the sweet, miniature dude ranch. In addition to an eye-catching festive display, each guest staying at Alisal Ranch between December 23-25 will also be gifted a personalized gingerbread house decorating kit, providing a fun family activity to do on-site, or to take home as a celebration of holiday memories made at Alisal Ranch.

Rancho Bernardo Inn (1963) San Diego, California

The magnificent gingerbread house display at Rancho Bernardo Inn (1963) in San Diego, California, is a relatively recent tradition for the 58-year-old retreat, but it has become much-beloved part of the resort’s annual celebration since 2009. While the gingerbread house is a little different each year, with its own style and delights, the display is always built with the mission of bringing whimsy and joy to the hotel staff, guests, and visitors around the holidays. The 2022 gingerbread house was designed to illustrate the magical, over-the-top joy and fun of the holidays through a child’s eyes. Playful pinks, blues, and yellows dominate the decoration color scheme. The house is a perfectly over-the-top exhibit of colorful dessert walls and candy-crusted gables. The gingerbread is decked with ice cream cones, candy canes, lollipops, and pinwheels, and other fanciful sweets—all surrounded in fluffy white cotton snow. Streamers hang around the display to simulate snow falling. Over 400 pounds of candy, fondant, meringue, and food decorations are used to adorn the display. The total estimated weight is 2,828 pounds. Construction of this eccentric display required a team of about six, including bakers, pastry cooks, and resort engineering team members working over 300 hours. Construction took four days. The edible house is off-limits to hungry visitors, of course, but the public is invited to purchase “gingerbread bags,” samples of treats from the house, at Café Granada. The Rancho Bernardo Inn gingerbread house is centrally located near the main lobby and the resort’s two main restaurants, AVANT and Veranda Fireside Lounge & Restaurant.

Hotels in other states include The Omni Homestead Resort (1766) Hot Springs, Virginia; Woodstock Inn & Resort (1793) Woodstock, Vermont; Willard InterContinental Washington, DC (1818) Washington, D.C.; The DeSoto (1834) Savannah, Georgia; French Lick Springs Hotel (1845) French Lick, Indiana; Grand Hotel Golf Resort & Spa (1847) Point Clear, Alabama; Wentworth By The Sea Marriott Hotel & Spa (1874) New Castle, New Hampshire; The St. James Hotel MN (1875) Red Wing, Minnesota; Hotel Colorado (1893) Glenwood Springs, Colorado; The Otesaga Resort Hotel (1909) Cooperstown, New York; JW Marriott Savannah Plant Riverside District (1912) Savannah, Georgia; The Omni Grove Park Inn (1913) Asheville, North Carolina; Chatham Bars Inn (1914) Chatham, Massachusetts; The Broadmoor (1918) Colorado Springs, Colorado; La Fonda on the Plaza (1922) Santa Fe, New Mexico; Historic Americus Hotel (1926) Allentown, Pennsylvania; Hilton Chicago (1927) Chicago, Illinois; Hilton Milwaukee City Center (1928) Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Skytop Lodge (1928) Skytop, Pennsylvania; Williamsburg Lodge, Autograph Collection (1939) Williamsburg, Virginia; Hotel Captain Cook (1965) Anchorage, Alaska; The Lodge at Nemacolin (1968) Farmington, Pennsylvania.