Holiday Potter

MONDAY, FUNDAY: We had a lovely Thanksgiving or two this past weekend. Turkey aplenty with all the amazing sides.

Now that that holiday has passed, it is on to ho-ho-ho and holly jolly!

We decided to do the downtown festivities today, thinking since it's early in the season it wouldn't be too busy. It was a good call.

Our first stop today was the Sheraton Hotel, where their annual gingerbread extravaganza is on display. This year's theme: Harry Potter!

I'll let Annabelle tell you a bit more about it ... 

The Sheraton Gingerbread Village is an event held every December at the Seattle Sheraton hotel. The Gingerbread Village is a fundraiser for JDRF Northwest, a foundation dedicated to research of juvenile diabetes. This year the theme was the “Harry Potter” series, in honor of the new movie “Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them.” They had 6 huge gingerbread and candy sculptures, each one based on a different book in the Harry Potter series, from the Sorcerer’s Stone (or Philosopher’s Stone, depending on where you live) to the Half-blood Prince.

You can really see how much work and care went into each sculpture, all for charity. My favorite sculptures where the one representing book 4, The Goblet of Fire, featuring a huge dragon with candy melt scales and glowing eyes, and book 5, The Order of the Phoenix, where the sculpture was a larger-than-life Dumbledore with his pet phoenix, Fawkes, above his head.

The gingerbread displays were truly breathtaking. The icing on the cake, so to speak, is the huge silver Christmas tree with huge harry potter glasses on the front and multiple ornaments featuring the Hogwarts Express, a Golden Snitch, and more. I can’t wait to see the theme for next year!

The display below represents the first Harry Potter book, "The Sorcerer's Stone." 

Below is Hagrid, outside the front of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

The second sculpure was another interpretation of Hogwarts, the theme being book 2's "The Chamber of Secrets."

The main building was covered in green foil wrapped Andes mints, while smaller towers were covered in other candies.

The backside of the main tower revealed a moving staircase - literally. It allows people to move all over Hogwarts. This one was made with pretzels and crackers.

Another view of the book 2 scene, complete with a Christmas tree.

And here is a peek at the Chamber of Secrets scene.

The third book, "Prisoner of Azkaban," featured a clock tower and a triple decker bus prominently.

Here, Harry Potter's Patronus spell takes on a festive reindeer. Not pictured are a few floating Dementors in Santa hats.

"Goblet of Fire" is the fourth book. Below, a mermaid takes on challengers seeking the goblet.

The horn-tailed dragon, another challenge in the story, was amazing covered in colored candy melts here. 

Below, some House Elves hang on for a sleigh ride.

"The Order of the Phoenix" is the fifth book. This sculpture was amazing! Having made sugar for the first time ourselves this month, we have an appreciation for how much work went into this!

The flames were amazing and Dumbledore's face was so well done!

Up next, Book 6, "The Half Blood Prince."

Cinnamon sticks featured prominently in this display. Below, Harry battles Voldemort.

This ssssssnake was the backside of the Book 1 display. When you pushed the red button on its head, it told you which Hogwarts' house you belonged to. Annabelle was declared to be a Gryffindor (like Harry). CJ was the Slytherin (like Snape), and I was deemed a Ravenclaw.

Following is CJ's summary of the show ... 

Since 1993, the Sheraton Seattle Hotel has been the home to an annual art exhibit known as the Gingerbread Village. According to their website, the Gingerbread Village exhibit is a fundraiser for the JDRF, which used to be an acronym for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF is now the organization's official name). According to Wikipedia, JDRF is major charitable organization dedicated to funding type 1 diabetes research.

At the event, to my knowledge, there are usually six large and elaborate sculptures, made out of gingerbread and various other edible materials (for example: I think the second gingerbread house had multi-colored Goldfish crackers on the roofs of one of the buildings). At every different Gingerbread Village exhibition, there is a different theme that the various houses are built around. For example, at last year's Gingerbread Village, the theme was Star Wars, likely to celebrate the release of the then-newest film, The Force Awakens. At that Gingerbread Village, all six gingerbread houses were based around a different Star Wars film released up to that point. For this year's Gingerbread Village, the theme was Harry Potter, presumably to celebrate the release of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, the newest major installment in the Harry Potter film series. At this event, every book in the main series got a different gingerbread sculpture (with the exception of Deathly Hallows and The Cursed Child).

The sculptures are all very visually appealing, and sugarwork and fondant are often used in creative ways (for example, on the gingerbread house for Order of the Phoenix, sugar is used to make fire cast by powerful wizard Dumbledore). The houses all displayed edible renditions of various scenes from the particular installments they were based on, and often have subtle details that you likely won't notice unless you get up close to the houses. The houses that had moving parts (such as one with a building that could open up to reveal another section of the building, or one with a pendulum) were very interesting to look at, and I would like to know how they built the moving sections.