Disney announced the cancellation of a popular Disney World Hotel holiday staple…and we’re struggling to understand why.
Grand Floridian
The holiday season at Disney World is truly magical — packed with ride overlays, special events, and festive theming. We’re accustomed to seeing giant gingerbread houses at the hotels, but in 2025, one major resort is bucking the trend and not featuring its iconic gingerbread house this winter.
According to Disney World, the famous gingerbread house at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa WON’T be on display in this holiday season.
Grand Floridian Gingerbread House
Disney’s reasoning is that the hotel lobby is still undergoing its lengthy refurbishment, and, therefore, the gingerbread house will be without its traditional home. Still, we don’t understand why the Grand Floridian can’t get creative instead of cancelling a tradition that has gone on over the last 25 years.
Grand Floridian tree and gingerbread house
In the past, the lobby drew massive crowds as they gazed upon this festive feature and chowed down on tasty seasonal treats. We can’t help but feel that not bringing back this tradition in some capacity is a huge miss on Disney’s part.
Gingerbread shingle
Why not relocate the gingerbread house to somewhere else on property, like the convention center? There’s certainly enough space!
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort
Per Disney, the lobby refurbishment is set to run through November 2025, and the space constraints will limit the hotel’s ability to build the large gingerbread house. Unfortunately, no alternative space was recommended, and that’s that. We’d rather the hotel put the gingerbread somewhere else in the massive resort instead of breaking with tradition, but we digress.
Can you believe that’s gingerbread?
Fortunately, the gingerbread castle at Disney’s Contemporary Resort, the Beach Club gingerbread carousel, and the BoardWalk’s mini gingerbread model will all still be on display this year.
Gingerbread BoardWalk Deli
JUST CONFIRMED: One of the BEST Christmas Traditions Will Return to Disney World This Year!
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My family used to always go to WDW at Christmas, but now it’s just too crowded. Every once in a long time we will still go at Christmas for tradition’s sake, but ugh. I love our Disney traditions, but I’m about ready to give that one up. I agree that it’s surprising that they couldn’t find a different way to deliver this incredibly popular feature. But I wonder if the lobby bar is a red herring, some kind of peace offering, or an excuse. Maybe they couldn’t do the gingerbread house this year anyway, in anyevent, and figured as long as they couldn’t, it was time to move forward with the lobby bar. Would explain why they didn’t find a different place for it.