Gingerbread houses and displays are already going up at Walt Disney World for Christmas 2022, with several brand-new, returning, and newly-returning displays in the resort hotels and EPCOT (plus one at Disneyland!). This post will covers opening dates, details, and food & drink menus for each, plus our hope for a Festivus miracle last-minute addition to the lineup.
If you’ve never seen the various ‘edible creations’ and other displays during the holiday season at Walt Disney World, we would strongly encourage you to make time for them. 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.
Unsurprisingly, a frequent question among Walt Disney World guests this time of year is When Do Decorations Go Up at Walt Disney World?, which we answer in that post. Specifically, many people wonder when their hotel will be decorated—or when the resorts they want to visit will be ready to go. This will provide some specifics–at least when it comes to gingerbread houses. With that said, here’s the official schedule and details from Walt Disney World…
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa Lobby
This stunning life-size storybook gingerbread house with “cinnamon clouds” puffing from the chimney is beautifully decorated with white chocolate candy canes, edible snowflakes, and sugar poinsettias. Treats for sale include house-made Gingerbread Houses and Gingerbread Ornaments.
Grand Floridian’s Gingerbread House officially debuts on November 9, 2022 (no end date has been given, but it stopped on January 1 of this year last holiday season).
As Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary continues, the 2022 gingerbread house at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort will once again feature colors and accents inspired by the signature EARidescent look. You can also purchase limited edition pins, mugs, holiday ornaments, and treats.
Some of the goodies available for sale from the 2022 Gingerbread House at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort include:
Disney’s Beach Club Resort
Over in the lobby of Disney’s Beach Club Resort, the classic carousel has already returned earlier this week. (I believe it went up November 1, which would be the same date as last year.)
Since 1999, this resort has been home to the life-sized carousel that actually spins. This carousel and its horses are created with chocolate, sugar, and fondant along with hand-painted characters and hand-crafted gingerbread shingles and snowflakes decorating the display. For Christmas 2022, all of the horses celebrate a different Disney princess.
Some of the goodies available for sale from the 2022 Gingerbread Carousel at Disney’s Beach Club Resort include:
Here’s hoping the Bon Bons will once again be available at Beach Club Marketplace, which is always a sleeper-spot for great desserts during the holiday season.
Across Crescent Lake, Disney’s BoardWalk Inn the gingerbread display will be returning on November 17, 2022. This gingerbread creation is a miniature, edible version of everyone’s favorite new spot along shore: BoardWalk Deli!
In the past this has been multiple venues from the promenade, and we assume that’ll be true again this year. (If not, probably a good thing this one is debuting after Jersey Week!)
Sweet treats available at the 2022 Gingerbread Miniature BoardWalk include:
This is the 11th year the Contemporary Bakery team has created and edible gingerbread display, and fittingly, it’ll open on November 11, 2022 at 11:00 a.m.
The Cinderella Gingerbread Castle is a Mary Blair-inspired castle designed by Imagineers and will feature a brand-new Walt Disney World 50th Anniversary overlay…complete with 11 hidden 5-legged goats!
Okay, now that is seriously awesome, and I’m not letting my bias for all things goats or Mary Blair color my opinion. Walt Disney World needs to lean into weirdness and history more, and this does both beautifully.
As always, there will be limited-edition pins, mugs, and holiday ornaments to remember Christmas 2022 at the Contemporary.
There are also plenty of treats you can purchase, including:
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
Christmas 2022 at Animal Kingdom Lodge continues the tradition begun last year when a life-sized baby giraffe made a surprise, unannounced appearance in early December at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
This year, the Life-sized Baby Gingerbread Giraffe will be joined by a brand-new Baby Zebra, with both appearing on November 23, 2022. (Starting December 6, you can also purchase a Gingeraffe Cookie.)
Epcot — The American Adventure Rotunda
The EPCOT pastry chefs have recreated classic “monuments” in America and EPCOT with gingerbread versions of the Lincoln Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial, the American Adventure building, Regal Eagle Smokehouse: Craft Drafts & Barbecue, and a Festival Kiosk. (As Sam Eagle would say, there’s no more Distinctly Patriotic “monument” to America than a BBQ restaurant and food booth!)
The American Adventure Gingerbread Display returns on November 25, 2022 and will likely run with the rest of EPCOT’s International Festival of the Holidays through December 30, 2022.
Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel
Bouncing over to the West Coast, the flagship hotel at Disneyland Resort will be home once again to one of its best holiday traditions: the “Grand” Gingerbread House. This returns to Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa beginning November 14, 2022.
This giant gingerbread replica of the hotel is a holiday highlight and can’t-miss stop in the lobby. Standing 7 feet tall and 12 feet wide, the structure is created from more than 600 pounds of gingerbread, 600 pounds of powdered sugar, 250 pounds of fondant, 1 pound of pixie dust, and features 25 hidden Mickeys.
Along with the Grand Californian’s “Grand” Gingerbread House, the GHC Holiday Cart will serve up treats, including:
In our experience, the gingerbread displays at the resorts are built or installed over the course of several days, and reach finished form a few days before their official start date.
For example, construction on the Grand Floridian gingerbread house has started immediately after Halloween in recent years and taken about a week to be built. (Most of the others go up much quicker–that’s by far the most elaborate.) It’s also often been the case that the Contemporary Resort’s Mary Blair/Cinderella display is up several days before its grand opening, which is seemingly being held back this year to coincide with the “11” motif.
The good news is that this marks the return of every major gingerbread display that was previously shown in the last “normal” Christmas at Walt Disney World–plus one at Animal Kingdom Lodge and minus one at the other lodge. So the exact same number as in 2019, if my count/recollection are correct.
Unfortunately, the absolute place place at Walt Disney World during Christmas-time doesn’t sound like it’ll have an edible creation this year. Of course, we’re talking about Wilderness Lodge–which is well worth a visit in the evening to see the resort at its festive best. We already know the normal decorations will return this year, as the icon tree and the antlers in all of the decorating were back last year.
The question mark is Humphrey the Bear’s gingerbread cabin, which debuted three years ago. 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. On the other hand, there’s the possibility that this was simply too good and made Wilderness Lodge way too awesome at Christmas. Could be a safety issue with minds being blown as guests were overwhelmed by the spirit of the season or something of that sort.
Ultimately, that’s the biggest question mark for us when it comes to Christmas 2022 gingerbread displays at Walt Disney World’s resort hotels. I’m still holding up a sliver of hope, as the Humphrey Bear Gingerbread Log Cabin at Wilderness Lodge never was announced the year it debuted, nor was the Gingerbread Giraffe at Animal Kingdom Lodge last year. So perhaps Walt Disney World’s culinary chefs and Holiday Services team still have some surprises up their sleeves, and will treat us to a last-minute Festivus miracle!
Regardless, the return of all or most gingerbread displays should crank the Christmas cheer up a notch, and make for a more festive and fun experience when touring the resorts. With Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party back at Magic Kingdom and most other entertainment returning, 2022 is going to be an almost entirely normal holiday season at Walt Disney World (with one conspicuous omission beyond the gingerbread log cabin). We can’t wait!
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What do you think of this Walt Disney World gingerbread house news? Excited to see more of these edible displays return for Christmas 2022? Hoping the Humphrey Bear Gingerbread Log Cabin at Wilderness Lodge will also make a surprise return? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
On our upcoming visit, on an off day, we are hoping to dine at Geyser Point to close our evening. It’s one of my husband’s favorite restaurants and we love watching the light parade and getting there early enough to purchase s’mores kits for the kids. Would they say no to park there since they don’t offer reservations at Geyser Point? We are staying on property, at AOA. Do we need to find a way to arrive by boat instead?
Thank you for this guide. We always stay off property, so not familiar with the Disney resorts. Looking forward to seeing all the holiday displays. Have an ADR at Grand Floridian on 11/10. Plan to brunch there and bar hop our way to MK for MVMCP. Best places to stop along the monorail?
How long will the gingerbread house at GHC be up? We will be at Disneyland in early January, and you have noted previously many of the holiday decorations and specials will be going on until Jan. 8. Will the gingerbread house be included in that extended run? Most of your blogs deal with WDW, which is disappointing to us on the West coast. We look forward to hearing more updates about Disneyland and CA in the future.
They are stunning but how do they keep the ants away?
If you aren’t staying on property and just want to see the displays, is there any chance of parking at these hotels? In the past, we did that on a number of occasions but many things have changed! What is your best advice on getting to see everything at the resorts without going to the parks or staying at said resorts?
You’ll definitely want to take Disney transportation from the parks (or walk, where relevant). Alternatively, have an ADR and dine at one of the restaurants.
During the holiday season, they will absolutely turn you away from Grand Floridian, Wilderness Lodge, etc. without an ADR.
To see the Easter eggs at Grand Floridian we had to make a dining reservation to park for free. I’d imagine it’s the same now.
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