One of the best holiday traditions at Walt Disney World is the annual gingerbread houses located at the Disney resort hotels. These displays feature a variety of themes often tied to their resorts, with past houses including a working carousel and a life-size baby giraffe.
However, one of the most iconic gingerbread houses is not returning again this year, and this continues to be news that disappoints guests, as it was the most popular one. Guests might even plan an entire afternoon going to the resorts to see this one house and take holiday photos. Mickey Visit brings you the latest Disney news and planning resources, including a growing problem of bad guest behavior on Disney rides and a Disney World hotel change.
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Disney Resort Gingerbread Holiday Traditions
The gingerbread displays at Disney World are one of my favorite traditions. Multiple Disney resorts feature detailed gingerbread displays in the lobby of their resort hotels, which are often inspired by the history of the resort itself. Previous years included gingerbread displays at:
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
- Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
- Disney’s Beach Club Resort
- Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
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Viewing these gingerbread houses is a popular activity for many resort guests, especially since most of the resort transportation for the deluxe resort hotels is fairly easy to access either by Disney Skyliner, Monorail, or bus transportation.
Each gingerbread display changes slightly from year to year, with the most popular and largest displays featuring snacks coordinated with their individual gingerbread houses.
Unfortunately, the most iconic display will not be returning again this year. The gingerbread house at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa has been permanently discontinued, and there are no signs of this change being reversed for the upcoming holiday season.
No Grand Floridian Gingerbread House Again This Year
The highest-ranked Disney World gingerbread display has always been the life-sized Grand Floridian Resort & Spa gingerbread Victorian-style house. This has consistently been the most popular gingerbread display each year, and guests flocked to the lobby of this Disney resort hotel to take in this fantastic gingerbread house.
The display was a huge draw for guests to visit this Disney resort hotel to view the house and line up to purchase snacks from the stand inside it. Disney would sell a selection of holiday treats, including Grand Floridian exclusive gingerbread house ornaments, directly inside the gingerbread house.
The popular gingerbread display did not return in 2025 due to construction taking place in the resort hotel’s lobby. However, the construction is now complete, and the result has been the new Grand Floridian Lobby birdcage-themed bar called The Perch. When the lobby bar was first announced, fans questioned how the gingerbread display would coexist alongside the new bar with such limited space. However, many hoped that this was a temporary setback for the popular gingerbread display.
Unfortunately, Disney confirmed last year that this popular holiday offering would not be returning.
For the 2025 holiday season, Disney updated its website to read:
“This holiday season at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Guests can enjoy elegant seasonal décor and festive offerings, along with new miniature gingerbread displays featured throughout the Resort. To help keep the lobby flowing smoothly for Resort Guests, the traditional large gingerbread house will not be offered this year.”
There has been no indication that this change will be reversed for the 2026 holiday season. This gingerbread display was very popular, and it created large crowds of locals and guests coming from other hotels to view it. While I loved this gingerbread display, it’s hard not to see Disney’s point about the crowding issues it caused in the Grand Floridian lobby.
Along with that drawback, Disney World has now put permanent restrictions in place to prevent guests without a resort, dining, or experience reservation from accessing resort hotel bus and boat transportation. While guests without these reservations can still access the Grand Floridian easily by monorail, this could have created issues at Disney Springs if guests were frustrated by being blocked from viewing such a popular holiday display.
So with the new transportation policy in place and the now more limited space in the lobby, it does make sense why Disney is not bringing back the popular gingerbread house.
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While nothing can truly replace the grandeur of the Grand Floridian gingerbread display, other displays at Disney World remain great options for viewing, including the intricate displays at the Contemporary Resort and Beach Club Resort, which are also among our favorites.
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