Business & Tech

Going All Out on a Gingerbread House in Lakewood

Hotel and Leisure Advisors is one of about two-dozen participants in the Gingerbread House Tour, the second-annual holiday event sponsored by Downtown Lakewood.

is an industry-leading consulting firm for hotels, amusement parks and water parks all over the country.

However, the Lakewood-based business is getting pretty good at making gingerbread houses, too.

A half-dozen of the company’s employees spent nearly 50 hours building the one on display at on Detroit Avenue.

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Appropriately sticking with the hotel-and-leisure theme, the company built an elaborate ski lodge made of gingerbread — with all the trimmings. Last year, the team built a holiday-themed gingerbread waterpark.

These aren’t your run-of-the-mill gingerbread houses.

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The roof of Elf Mountain Lodge is layered with chocolate Necco Wafers; Nerds are crafted as coals in the fireplace; the elves skis are made of Fruit Stripe gum; and pretzels bits are used for ornamentation.

The entire display is edible except for the battery-powered “fire” and the cable line of the ski lift.

Using an architect’s drawing board in the firm’s fourth-floor space of the Detroit Warren building, the team started in October.

They drew up the plans; then baked the gingerbread; and then got to work. 

Dremels, drills sandpaper and a blowtorch are just a few of the tools they used.

“It was Saturdays and early mornings,” said Eric Hansen, the company’s director of development services — and leader of the company’s band of gingerbread artists. “Skiing and ski lodges is one of our specialties.”

“The cool thing is how innovative (our) people are.”

Hansen, who is trained as an architect, said one of the most time-sensitive portions of the project was crafting the elves, one by one, out of gum paste. 

The H&LA crew has picked up some lessons on gingerbread-house-construction along the way.

“For example, don’t try to make three different gingerbreads in three different ovens because it never comes out consistent,” he said.

As a consulting firm — with clients that include Great Wolf Lodges, hotels and amusement parks across the country — Hotel and Leisure Advisors doesn’t benefit from foot traffic or having a visual presence in the city.

“But we are in Lakewood and we do support Lakewood businesses,” Hansen said.

“We enjoy it every year. We haven’t even started thinking about next year yet.”

Other gingerbread houses?

Hotel and Leisure Advisors is one of about two-dozen participants in the , the second-annual holiday event sponsored by .

But since H&LA falls into the business category, it’s not eligible to win the contest. 

Gingerbread houses are set up in businesses all over the city.

A panel of judges — Mary Anne Crampton, Dan Deagan and Eric Lowrey — are hitting streets tonight at 6 p.m. to pick the best one.

Winners will be selected in the three deisgnations: Most Creative Use of Materials, Best Execution of a Theme and Best of Show.

Prizes, donated by Downtown Lakewood Business Alliance, will be awarded on Dec. 22.


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