What does a 6,800-brick gingerbread house look like? Bedford Springs can show you.

When you enter the historic Omni Bedford Springs, the inviting smell of gingerbread immediately surrounds you. There’s a good reason why: One of the largest gingerbread houses we have ever seen greets you at the entrance. This annual gingerbread house tradition is always a crowd pleaser. But this year, it’s even bigger and more impressive.

Resembling the town of Bedford itself, this gingerbread extravaganza is made of 6,800 bricks built from 240 pounds of gingerbread dough, 60 pounds of royal icing, 40 pounds of marshmallow, 360 chocolate bars, 100 peppermint patties and 1,400 peppermints.

The sheer size of the gingerbread village is remarkable. It measures 34 feet wide, 8 feet deep and 12 feet high.

This artistic creation is designed by Chef Harshal Naik, who has competed on The Food Network’s Holiday Baking Championship. To create the wood framework of the village, Chef Harshal partnered with Steve Sellers and 45 students from the Building Construction program at Bedford County Technical Center. They spent 10 days designing and building the framework, customized to the lobby entrance.

Chef Harshal and his team of five pastry chefs worked for 20 days preparing the bricks and then assembled the gingerbread village in just one week.

If you’re looking for a fun day trip to keep kids busy next week (find more ideas on keeping busy over break right here), go visit this life-size gingerbread village in person.

It’s an annual tradition, so if you can’t catch it this year put it on your calendar for next December. We can’t wait to see what to see what holiday magic Chef Harshal dreams up for 2024. In the meantime, enjoy this segment from WTAJ on the making of this gingerbread village.