Christmas Paradise: World's largest gingerbread village opens in Manhattan

When Jon Lovich set up his first gingerbread village as a teenager in 1994 in Kansas City, he never dreamed of turning his hobby into his full-time job. And even more so that he will show his creations in New York and set a world record for the size and scale of gingerbread houses, writes Time-out.

Fast forward 28 years. Now the Gingerbread Man, who holds the Guinness World Record for the largest gingerbread village, is getting ready to open Gingerbread Lane at the Essex Market on the Lower East Side later this month. The impressive display will return to Manhattan after a two-year absence due to the pandemic.

This year Lovich will make about 1500 gingerbread houses, 500 of which will be on display in New York, Salt Lake City and Kansas City. The New York City Village will be adorned with precious details such as jelly bean tiling, candy cane decor and icing signs. It takes 1500 kilograms of gingerbread and 453 kilograms of glaze to create 3 gingerbread houses. As well as a few hardworking dehumidifiers that keep everything dry.

The process of creation takes the whole year. And in autumn, employment increases to a 100-hour work week. Then the air constantly smells of sweetness, and gingerbread houses are squeezed into every corner of Lovich's basement in Queens.

For Lovich, it's a dream turned profession.

He uses the knowledge and work ethic he has gained as a professional chef working in the kitchens of America's most prestigious hotels.

After each season, he distributes gingerbread houses to everyone so that people can leave them at home. Although the houses are made mostly of food, they are not edible, he warns. Especially considering that many materials expire by the end of the exhibition.

As soon as the holiday season ends, Lovich starts looking for candies and sweets that have expired. He buys them cheap to use for gingerbread houses next year. He happily buys boxes of 2018 lollipops or dragees. Immediately after Christmas, Lovich begins preparing a gingerbread installation for the following year.

Lovich's passion began when he was an apprentice chef at a hotel in Kansas City.

Then the pastry chef baked a gingerbread house. Lovich noticed the enthusiastic reaction of visitors to the creation of the chef. And he wanted to try his hand at making his own house. In 1994, while still a teenager, he made 14 gingerbread houses.

“They looked good for someone who had no idea what he was really doing. And people really liked it,” he recalls. – In the distant 1990s, everyone was always photographing something. And people took pictures of my gingerbread houses. I then felt euphoric.”

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Over the years, when Lovich lived in different cities in the United States, he made gingerbread houses, his gingerbread towns grew larger.

When Lovich moved to New York, he saw an article on the news about the world's largest gingerbread village. And I realized that his village is actually bigger. Therefore, he decided to submit the relevant documentation to the Guinness Book of Records. His epic gingerbread village has been named the largest in the world.

Every year he pretends to be a visitor to GingerBread Lane to see people's real reactions.

“Children are delighted. I saw high school students looking at my creation with tears in their eyes,” he said. “In a world where there is so much negativity, it’s real escapism (an escape from reality) when you come to see the Gingerbread Town.”

You can visit Gingerbread Lane at Essex Market on the Lower East Side from Saturday, November 26 to Sunday, January 15, 2023.