Gingerbread Town was the theme for 2020 which included 5 businesses:
- Community Center
- Movie Theater
- Church
- Gym
- Hair and Nail Salon
Because of the pandemic in 2020 these are the places that I’ve especially missed because they’ve been closed, so the idea was “In Gingerbread Town, all the businesses are OPEN”. You’ll notice “OPEN” signs next to all the buildings. Of course, I could have added many more places that were closed (Disneyland, bowling alleys, restaurants, etc.), but we limited it to the top five.
The most fun part is creating the scenes INSIDE the structures! Some of the windows and doors are too small to see, so here are more photos of the inside. All the floors are created from rolled fondant with wood or brick imprints.
Community Center
I like to add extra candy in hidden places so when the structure is broken into, it’s a surprise!
Movie Theater
Church
Gym
This was the funniest inside scene! But it was so hard to see so I’m glad I took photos before the roof went on. The little guy laying down on the Hershey bar is lifting M&M weights. The other weights are made from white piping that I colored with black food coloring gel. The large yellow candy was actually too big for the front reception desk, but the front gingerbread person is handing out white towels.
Hair and Nail Salon
This one also made me laugh! The little silver scissors are made of white piped icing and colored with silver dust. The mirror was not edible – just a little aluminum foil on the wall.
There were over 60 pieces used in the Gingerbread Town. After they’re baked, we use a big file and dremel tool to straighten the edges. That makes it easier to pipe them together with royal icing.
Any piece can be colored with food color gel and a paint brush. This is what I used on the weights in the gym:
I made these little gingerbread guys out of brown fondant and small cookie cutters. Some of them I made sitting down so they could be sitting at the movies, church or at the hair salon.
We built up the base with wood blocks then filled in the gaps with aluminum foil to make it look like hills.
Garrison created a snowball fight between two of the gingerbread guys. See the one in front that is falling down with the hit of a snowball? Funny!
Total combined hours from beginning to end was about 40 hours.
Because of COVID we couldn’t have the whole family over for Christmas like normal, but my brother still managed to eat a big bite out of the roof!
The total destruction day was a few weeks later…two very happy girls discovered candy treasures throughout the Gingerbread Town!
Total destruction…tornado and earthquake combined!
