The holiday season is in full swing in the Spa City. As usual, the Arlington Hotel and Spa in Hot Springs is decorated to the hilt, with its traditional gingerbread house sitting front and center in the lobby. A 20-foot Christmas tree also adorns the front lobby, and other decorated trees can be found throughout the hotel.
Scott Francis, director of food and beverage at the hotel, said the gingerbread house officially went on display Dec. 4. He said it has been part of the Christmas tradition at the hotel for more than 30 years.
Francis credits Carmen Jones, the hotel’s front-desk manager, for doing the majority of the work on the gingerbread house this year.
“She spearheaded it this year,” he said.
Jones said she has been working at the hotel since 1997 and has worked on the gingerbread house for the past four years.
“It’s our gift to the community,” she said.
“I try to come up with something different every year,” she said. “I always do the front door. This year, it’s covered in little-bitty jelly beans.
“A lot of little-bitty jelly beans,” Francis interjected with a laugh.
Francis said that each year, the hotel sponsors a “candy-count contest.” Visitors are invited to guess how many pieces of candy are on the house. Winners will be announced Jan. 1, with the first-place winner receiving a free Sunday brunch for four and the second-place winner getting an Arlington T-shirt.
“It’s fun to watch the kids — and adults — try to count each piece,” Jones said. “We have plenty of scratch paper at the front desk for them to use. We give out candy canes, too, at the front desk.”
The culinary team at the Arlington makes the gingerbread house each year. Chef Jean Claude Bridoux leads the team, and baker Tammy Crescini made all of the gingerbread and the icing.
Francis said it took 20 gallons of icing to cover the 8-foot-high, three-story house, which is made of gingerbread baked on 72 hotel-sized sheet-cake pans measuring 2- by 3-feet each. Construction of the house began Nov. 16 and was finished by Thanksgiving Day.
Something different this year for the gingerbread house is the use of boxed candy — “movie theater candy,” if you will.
“We bought candy in boxes, the kind you buy at the movies. We used the candy to decorate the house and then took the boxes and filled in some spaces in the back of the house,” Francis said.
“Everything is edible on the house — except those boxes,” Francis said with a laugh.
Francis said he and Jones begin looking for candy each October and try to buy different kinds each year. Among this year’s candies are old-fashioned wax bottles, gumballs, jelly beans, fruit slices, gummy bears, Swedish fish, Sour Patch Kids, Mike and Ike, Hot Tamales, Runts, Milk Duds and gold-wrapped chocolate coins.
“By the time the candy comes in, our ideas of what candy goes where have changed,” he said. “We really don’t have a plan until it’s time to put the candy on the house.”
Francis said they use the same wooden shell or frame for the house each year.
“The maintenance department stores it for us each year,” he said.
Francis said staff members from the executive office decorate the yard and surrounding areas of the gingerbread house. Those employees include Gaye Hardin, Nancy Gunter and Roberta Barris.
“Our general manager, Bob Martorana, is in charge of the train,” Francis said, adding that the model train is placed in the front yard.
Melanie Hancock and Becky Hamilton of the accounting department assisted Jones with the gingerbread house.
Back again this year is Sawyer the Elf, which is an Elf on the Shelf figure. He sits atop the gingerbread house.
“He’s the first thing the kids notice,” Francis said.
Next to the gingerbread house is a large mailbox where children can mail their letters to Santa at the North Pole. Francis said “hundreds of letters” were mailed last year.
Also making a return to this year’s holiday display is a restored 1890s Portland Cutter sleigh that is on display in the dining room. It is owned and was renovated by Tom and Barbara Hedricks of Hot Springs.
Barbara Hedricks said she first saw the sleigh several years ago when she lived in California.
“A co-worker of mine found the sleigh in New England and brought it back to California,” she said. “They had to take out the picture window of their house to get it into their living room. I was just captivated by it.” She said the sleigh had been packed away in California since about 1994 “when the last major earthquake hit.”
“They got it out of storage, put it in a shipping crate and sent it to us several years ago,” Hedricks said. “When we opened it up, we found that it had not been properly secured for shipping, and it was damaged.”
She said her husband, Tom, restored the sleigh, referring to the Amish community to ensure the sleigh’s authenticity. It took him about six months to restore it.
“He finished it last year, just about three months before Christmas,” Barbara said. “We contacted the Arlington and asked if they would like to display it. We have always enjoyed seeing the Arlington Hotel, especially during the Christmas holidays, and thought they might like to have it there for a while.”
Jones said one new thing the hotel did this holiday season was to sponsor a float in this year’s Christmas parade, held Monday. In keeping with the parade’s theme, “The Art of Christmas,” the hotel’s float was titled “Paint Your Holidays at the Arlington.”
Jones said the staff took recycled brooms from the hotel and turned them into paintbrushes. They filled empty paint cans with the samples of the candy that is featured on the gingerbread house.
A Christmas Day Feast will be offered at the Arlington from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 25 in the Venetian Dining Room and the Fountain Room. The feast will cost $35 plus tax for adults and $17 for children ages 6-12. There will be no charge for children 5 and younger.
This year’s New Year’s Eve festivities will include a buffet beginning at 5:30 p.m. in the Venetian Dining Room, a gala dinner dance beginning at 7:30 in the Crystal Ballroom and a festival party beginning at 8:30 in the conference center.
A New Year’s Day breakfast buffet will be served from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Venetian Dining Room.
For more information on the gingerbread house or holiday activities at the Arlington, visit www.arlingtonhotel.com or call (800) 643-1502.