Gingerbread house takes up sweet spot at Spa City hotel

Decorating the gingerbread house at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs are Carmen Jones, left, front-desk manager, and Becky Hamilton, payroll clerk. The hotel will host the Gingerbread House Celebration, Tree Lighting and Caroling in the Lobby event from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Friday. It is free and open to the public.
Decorating the gingerbread house at the Arlington Hotel in Hot Springs are Carmen Jones, left, front-desk manager, and Becky Hamilton, payroll clerk. The hotel will host the Gingerbread House Celebration, Tree Lighting and Caroling in the Lobby event from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Friday. It is free and open to the public.

— The Arlington Hotel is ready for the holidays.

Employees have decorated the 20-foot tree in the lobby and have finished the gigantic gingerbread house that has been a holiday tradition for more than 30 years. They will show off the results of their hard work during the Gingerbread House Celebration, Tree Lighting and Caroling in the Lobby event from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Friday. It is all free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served, and Santa Claus will be there to visit with the kids.

“We’ve condensed our colors this year,” said Scott Francis, director of food and beverage at the hotel. “We’re using more red, green and white than last year; plus we’re using lots of peppermint. We’re also using smaller candies, trying to get more on the house than ever before.”

Francis said the hotel sponsors a “candy-count contest” each year. Visitors are invited to guess how many pieces of candy are on the house. Winners will be announced Jan. 2, with the first-place winner receiving a free Sunday brunch for four, and the second-place winner, an Arlington Hotel T-shirt.

“We had 13,317 pieces of candy on it last year,” Francis said. “We will have more this year.”

He said last year’s first-place winner, who was from Austin, Texas, guessed 13,283 pieces. The second-place winner, who was from Tampa, Florida, guessed 13,111 pieces.

Francis said staff members don’t have a design plan when they start decorating the gingerbread house.

“Whatever looks good, works,” he said, laughing. “We go by a majority consensus among those who are working on it.”

As was the case last year, Francis credits Carmen Jones, front-desk manager, for doing most of the work. Assisting Jones were Sheila Howell, assistant general manager, and Becky Hamilton and Melanie Hancock of the accounting department.

Chef Jean Claude Bridoux and his culinary team at the Arlington make the gingerbread house each year.

Tammy Crescini, baker, makes the gingerbread and icing.

“Tammy made at least 20 more pans of gingerbread this year,” Francis said.

He said it normally takes 20 gallons of icing to cover the 8-foot-high, three-story house, which is made of gingerbread baked on 72 sheet-cake pans measuring 2 by 3 feet each.

Jones said among the new candies used to decorate this year’s house are PEZ Candy

dispensers, Peeps in peppermint bird nests and Rice Krispies Treats. She also melted

various candies and made “bricks” with which to decorate the back of the gingerbread house.

Francis said the culinary staff started baking the gingerbread Nov. 1, and they finished decorating the house before Thanksgiving. He said staff members from the executive office decorate the yard and surrounding areas of the gingerbread house. Those employees include Gaye Hardin and Nancy Gunter.

Francis said the hotel will also be accepting “letters to Santa” from the children who visit the lobby. A large mailbox is set up near the gingerbread house for the children to mail their letters.

“We have a lot of school groups come for tours,” he said. “We let them enter a guess on how many candy pieces are on the house and mail their letters to Santa. We also serve punch and cookies.”

Jones said the employees will once again enter a float in the Hot Springs Christmas parade, which is set for Dec. 5.

“In keeping with the theme ‘Visions of Christmas Past,’ we will call our float ‘Sweet Dreams Since 1924,’” Jones said. “We will have a bedroom set up as it might have been in 1924 with a four-poster bed, fireplace and kids in pajamas … visions of sugar-plums dancing in their heads.”

The gingerbread-house celebration “just gets bigger every year,” said Bob Martorana, hotel manager.

“People look forward to it every year,” he said. “I look at it as a promotional opportunity rather than a cost. People start coming at Thanksgiving. We sold out our Thanksgiving buffet way before Thanksgiving.”

The hotel also offers a seafood feast on Dec. 23, a Christmas Day feast on Dec. 25

and several meals on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. More information on those events can be found on the website arlingtonhotel.com or by calling (501) 623-7771 or (800) 643-1502.

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