Niagara Falls, N.Y. (WBEN) - The Niagara Falls Culinary Institute's gingerbread house tradition is back, but this year, with a twist.
Niagara Falls Culinary Institute's Baking and Pastry Coordinator, Cathy Barron, says the students used to make a life-sized gingerbread house each year, but this time, they wanted to focus on the smaller houses.
"Our goal was to get 75 houses, and I think we ended up with about 115 houses," stated Barron in an interview with WBEN. "What's different this year is that they're all over the building, and it's just so festive. There's so much for people to to see. We realized over the years that people come because they want to see the little houses. They want to see the creativity that kids and adults alike come up with. It's just amazing. This year takes us to a brand new inventing of our gingerbread wonderland, if you will."
The Gingerbread Village is also offering various holiday-themed activities for the whole family to enjoy. Visitors can experience live music, face painting, cookie decorating and so much more.
"I think one of the greatest things is that it has slowly grown over the years to become quite a community event," Barron said. "What's nice is that people can come, families can come. And what we're hoping for is that they come and they can enjoy, you know, a couple hours. We have live entertainment. We have a face painter, of course, we have Santa, we have a scavenger hunt. We've really kind of tried to make it a fun filled family event, where a family could come and stay for a couple hours."
Some features will cost money to participate in, but Barron says it's relatively inexpensive.
"I just think it gives back to our community. And we are a community college, so I think it works really well, and the students are very excited about volunteering and being a part of it, even, you know, for the weekend," Barron noted.
The event continues Dec. 14-15 from 11 a.m. until 5 p.m. EST.