The World's Largest Gingerbread Village Is Here!
Chef Jon Lovitch and NYSCI’s Gingerbread Village (Photo: NYSCI)
When we heard about the world’s largest gingerbread village, we assumed it was tucked away in a hamlet in the Alps or perhaps on display in a rural mountain town in the Rockies somewhere. Turns out it’s actually smack in the middle of New York City. And like so many other things in the Big Apple, it’s giant and wildly impressive.
On Thursday, the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI), debuted its second annual gingerbread exhibit, called Gingerbread Lane, a colorful, winding, wintry display totaling a whopping 5,000 pounds of cookie, candy, and icing (cue the mouth watering). And while every single piece of the village – other than the platform it’s sitting on – is edible, visitors are only allowed to enjoy the display with their eyes, not their mouths.
Icing, and candy, and cookies, oh my! Photo: Facebook/NYSCI via 5boros.com
The endeavor isn’t just about enchanting those passing through the New York Hall of Science, however. Those behind the project are also looking to break the Guinness World Record they set last year with their first village. And they’ve put in plenty of effort. This year, the village includes 152 gingerbread houses, 65 trees, four gingerbread cable cars, five gingerbread train cars, an underground candy subway station, candy trees, and sugar signs.
A few of the homes on Gingerbread Street (Photos: NYSCI)
"There’s definitely a science behind it," Jon Lovitch, the chef who built and created the exhibit says in a video released by NYSCI, where he also touts the fact that the village is indeed handmade, a feat that’s become more and more rare in our electronic-driven society. "There’s no machinery involved beyond the mixer to mix. The rolling it out and cutting it and baking it and putting it all together is my bare hands."
According to Lovitch, the display will be several hundred feet wide and about 7-feet tall at its highest point.
Visitors check out the new village during the exhibit’s preview on Thursday. (Photo: NYSCI)
"To me it’s sort of the ultimate, DIY maker project," Elizabeth Slagus, NYSCI’s director of public programs says in the video. "it’s a way for us to inspire young people to be makers to sort of follow their creative abilities to the farthest end."
And the best news for gingerbread lovers (or at least those who live within a drive of New York City)? The center will be breaking that no-eating rule on January 11, the end of the exhibition’s run. Gingerbread houses will be given away on a first-come, first-serve basis until every single piece of Gingerbread Lane is out door … or, better yet, gobbled up.
