There are more holiday traditions at Disney World than you can fit in Olaf’s sleigh. Parades, fireworks, music and more Christmas trees than even your inner elf can imagine and all of them are a feast for the eyes and ears! But are we leaving out a couple of senses here? There is one tradition that stands out as both the most delicious and the best-smelling holiday magic of them all! It’s time for Disney World Gingerbread Houses once again!
2024 Disney World Gingerbread House Displays
The wonderful thing about making time to take in the gingerbread house displays at Disney World is that it necessitates visiting some of our favorite places – the lobbies and common areas of some of the greatest Disney World resort hotels. I know my family and I are often so busy making theme park dreams come true that we sometimes find it tough to find the time to take in these spaces that are so full of memories and are gussied up to the nines getting ready for Saint Nick to boot! But if Disney is going to fill these spaces with massive, stunning displays of baking prowess, I guess we’re going! So we’re going to need a plan of attack:
Where to Find Disney World’s Gingerbread Houses
Here’s where we’re headed. I hope you’re hungry, because we’re not just looking! Here’s a list of participating 2024 locations, with more details below.
- Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney’s Beach Club Resort
- Disney’s BoardWalk Resort
- Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
- CommuniCore Hall at EPCOT
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
If you were only going to visit one gingerbread display this year, it would have to be this one. It’s massive. Stunning. It makes your Christmas-loving heart go floop in ways that have nothing to do with the dangerous amounts of confectioner’s sugar we are about to ingest on this adventure.
Photo by Laurie Sapp
Disney is celebrating 25 years of this king of all gingerbread houses, which takes over 500 hours to bake the gingerbread (all 10,000 pieces of it) and 480 hours bringing all the dazzling details to life, including white chocolate candy canes, edible snowflakes, sugar poinsettias, and an 88-pound white chocolate Santa. In celebration of the 25th anniversary, there are 25 hidden Mickeys to be found.
While we are there, if you’d care to do a little shopping, there is a limited-edition collection of 25th anniversary merchandise including a pin, ornament, cookie jar, magnet, tumbler, t-shirt, and more. Feeling snacky? Let’s eat some or all of these special offerings:
- Gingerbread Mickey
- Gingerbread Shingle
- Stollen Bread
- Brownie Pop
- Gingersnap Cookies
- Gingerbread House Ornament
- Gingerbread House
- Gingerbread Cookie Bags imported from Germany
- Gingerbread Loaf
- Peppermint Bark
- Grand Floridian Gift Box featuring assorted fan-favorite treats, including a Santa Gnome Hot Cocoa Surprise, exclusive to the Combo Box
Disney’s Beach Club Resort
I know, I implied that it was possible to only visit one of these brilliant Disney World gingerbread houses. I was being colorful. You really do need to visit Disney’s Beach Club Resort where for 24 years they have been welcoming Christmas with a life-size gingerbread holiday carousel that really spins! Who are you to resist?
In 2024, this stunning creation is decorated with characters from Mickey’s Christmas Carol, and there’s a limited-edition pin, cookie jar, and holiday ornament available. And what shall we feast upon at the Beach Club Resort? Probably something like this:
- Linzer Cookie
- Spiced Orange and Cranberry Bundt Cake
- Gingerbread Macarons
- Hot Cocoa Brownie
- Hannukah Sugar Cookie
- Stollen
- Gingerbread House
Disney’s BoardWalk Resort
Disney’s BoardWalk Inn will be bringing back the BoardWalk Deli Gingerbread House, themed after the nearby eatery, and filled with an astonishing level of detail in this enchanting and delicious display.
This year, there’s also a limited-edition pin, cookie jar, and holiday ornament available for purchase to bring the gingerbread magic home with you. And while we are there, just in case our strength should wane with hunger, we should probably stop and enjoy:
- Holiday Mickey and Minnie Sugar Cookie
- Mickey Caramel Corn Cookie
- Gingerbread Loaf
- Gingerbread Shingle
Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Starting November 8th, 2024, the Castle Display will be returning to the 4th floor of the Contemporary resort for a 13th year. The Contemporary Bakery team has been hard at work creating this display that stands over 17 feet tall and 25 feet wide. It’s made with 613 pounds of sugar, 1013 pounds of flour, 113 pounds of gingerbread spice, 51 pounds of chocolate, over 4,000 castle gingerbread bricks, and plenty of pixie dust!
Limited-edition pins, cookie jar, and holiday ornaments are available for purchase here as well, provided we are not too busy buying and consuming these delights:
- Linzer Cookie
- Caramel Apple Cake with Gingerbread Streusel
- Chocolate Hazelnut Log
- Pistachio Cranberry and Cherry Cake
- Santa Peppermint Hot Chocolate Tart
- House-made Christmas Tree Butter Cookie
- Winter Berry Freeze (Alcoholic floater available)
- Frozen Hot Cocoa (Alcoholic floater available)
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Starting November 24th, our most delicious holiday tradition returns to Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge for a 4th year, as Ginger, the Life-Size Baby Gingerbread Giraffe, and her friend Debra the baby zebra make their appearance.
Photo by Laurie Sapp
These life-sized displays stand nearly 7 feet tall and are brought to life by the incredibly talented Animal Kingdom Lodge bakery team with a combination of gingerbread, sugar dough, and modeling chocolate. New this year, there is a limited-edition pin, cookie jar, and holiday ornament inspired by Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge available for purchase.
CommuniCore Hall at EPCOT
Unlike most of the Gingerbread houses at Disney World, this one is inside a park, which means you’ll need a ticket in the busy holiday season to appreciate it. If you do find yourself in EPCOT though, this one is a very worthy addition to your day, as a brand-new creation makes its debut starting on November 29 – Spaceship Earth in gingerbread form.
Photo by Harrison Cooney for Disney
Sounds crazy? It kind of is! Standing 8 feet tall, the sphere itself is made up of almost a thousand handcrafted gingerbread triangles to mirror the iconic attraction. The creation took 240 pounds of honey dough, 100 eggs, 55 pounds of dark chocolate, and 100 pounds of royal icing. For a final Disney touch, there are 11 hidden Mickeys to represent the 11 countries of the World Showcase.
Disney World Gingerbread Houses: Tips for Visiting
A Special Event for Christmas Week!
Many Annual Passholders find that visiting the Gingerbread houses is a terrific event to keep in your back pocket for a dose of Disney magic during the long, sad time of holiday black-out days.
With the exception of the Gingerbread Spaceship Earth, all of these special displays can be accessed without a park ticket and therefore as “free” as a Disney outing is likely to get (given that we seem likely to buy several pins, a few Christmas tree ornaments and our body weight in gingerbread.)
Where to Park When You’re Not at The Park
As you plan your outing, you’re likely to run into messages like this:
“Because parking at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is limited to guests with hotel and dining reservations, those visiting this sweet holiday display will need to park at the Transportation & Ticket Center and take the resort monorail.”
…And you could do that. You could. What seems like a lot more fun is parking at Disney Springs and taking the Disney Resort Bus to the Grand Floridian earlier in the day before it gets too crowded. A quick hop on the Monorail will let you check off the Contemporary, and from there a combination of busses from Magic Kingdom are pretty efficient, and your car is waiting for you at Disney Springs when you’re ready to add the Christmas Tree Stroll and other delights of the season.
