The Halloween season is officially in full swing at the Happiest Place on Earth—which means it’s time to enjoy one of Disney’s best Halloween traditions: Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion Gingerbread House. Read on to see all of the spooktacular photos of this one-of-a-kind tradition.
Disneyland is celebrating its 18th season of its Haunted Mansion Holiday. This year also marks the 25th anniversary of the release of Tim Burton’s A Nightmare Before Christmas—which serves as the delightfully creepy inspiration for the Haunted Mansion’s revamped holiday look from Halloween through January of each year.
A gigantic haunted gingerbread house is always part of the ghostly festivities, with the house sitting as a creepy, but tasty-looking, centerpiece on the dining table in the Grand Hall. The house, which features a 5-foot gingerbread spider suspended above it, took 12 pastry chefs at the Disneyland Central Bakery over a month to complete. The team used 90 pounds of gingerbread, 30 pounds of confectioner’s sugar and 45 pounds of fondant to complete this year’s house.
“We wanted to create a monster movie vibe, and a scary spider is a classic and iconic Halloween image,” said Tim Wollweber, associate art director for Disney Parks. But the fun doesn’t just stop at the clutches of one hungry spider.
“With that in mind, we designed a giant 5-foot spider with eerie glowing eyes and moving legs and mandibles. This multicolor spider is suspended above the Haunted Mansion’s Grand Hall table, attempting to pry the edible mansion from its foundation, revealing candy cane rebar and sparking lights. General chaos ensues as gingerbread zombies watch in astonishment and cocoon-wrapped gingerbread zombies wait to become spider snacks.” Whoa!
Visitors to the Haunted Mansion can catch a glimpse of the Gingerbread House from now until January 2019.
—Shahrzad Warkentin
All photos: Courtesy of Disneyland
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