Sheraton Gingerbread Village Tours Seattle's Past and Present

If visiting the Sheraton Seattle's Gingerbread Village is a part of your family's holiday traditions, you're in for a treat this year. To celebrate the event's 25th anniversary, this year's theme is particularly close to home. Right in your backyard, in fact: All of this year's gingerbread houses celebrate Seattle.

From the underground city to the Ballard Locks, each of the gingerbread houses explores different areas and aspects of the Emerald City. Like past years, the gingerbread houses will put your homemade graham cracker constructions to shame. But this year's event has a new location: Instead of being located in the lobby of the Sheraton, it's located across the street from the Sheraton in the lobby on the City Centre building. 

For families with younger kids, the new location should (hopefully!) cut down on the wait times and lines. The gingerbread houses are located throughout the lobby, which features not one but two Starbucks to keep spirits up. Plus, for the first time, at least some of the gingerbread houses are visible through the windows of the building in case the crowds get too large for little tempers to stand.

The unforgettable event keeps more than 200,000 visitors coming back year after year, and is free to the public, although donations to the Northwest Chapter of JDRF are accepted and appreciated.

Last year’s Gingerbread Village, inspired by the magical wizarding world, raised a record-breaking $105,000 for the Northwest chapter of JDRF. Throughout the years, Gingerbread Village has raised nearly $1 million for JDRF. The Sheraton Seattle’s staff donates more than 1,000 volunteer hours for this event, and the displays use an estimated 1,200 pounds of dough, 800 pounds of icing, 200 pounds of white chocolate, 250 pounds of almond paste and hundreds of pounds of candy. Yum!

The Gingerbread Village opens to the public on Tuesday, Nov. 21.