Disney Just Revealed the Unfrosted Start of Haunted Mansion Holiday’s New Gingerbread House
Disney shared how Disneyland’s 2026 Haunted Mansion Holiday gingerbread house goes from a carpentry frame to the ballroom display.
Disneyland’s latest Haunted Mansion Holiday surprise starts long before any frosting is added. Walt Disney Imagineering has shared a new behind the scenes look at how this year’s gingerbread house for the attraction comes together, tracing it from workshop materials to the finished display guests now see inside the ride.
The update matters to Haunted Mansion Holiday fans heading to Disneyland for the 2026 season, because the new reel explains what changed inside the attraction’s ballroom and how that centerpiece was built. In the clip below, Disneyland cast member Tony walks through the process, showing the house at several points between its bare frame and its completed form in the mansion.
According to Tony, his carpentry team starts with plywood, plastic tubing, and other basic materials. Those pieces form the base structure that the bakery team later covers with gingerbread, fondant, and frosting. The video also shows the house during assembly, beginning with exposed wood panels and roof framing before moving to columns, detailed trim, and a mansion style exterior ahead of the confectionery finish.
How the house gets from shop floor to Haunted Mansion
Tony says planning for Halloween begins in April, when the team receives the gingerbread house design. From there, carpenters work out how to build it, including which parts need to move.
That is a key part of this year’s piece. The finished house stands more than 10 feet tall and marks 25 years of Haunted Mansion Holiday gingerbread creations. Getting it into the attraction takes more than one build. After the first round of construction, the house was taken apart and transported to the park, where stage technician Gary handled its motion and turning systems.
The structure then came apart again so the bakery team could add the edible decoration. After that, it went back to Gary for reassembly inside the attraction’s well known ballroom scene. The completed version includes turning columns and a skeleton ballerina that appears beneath the lifted roof.
Haunted Mansion Holiday has returned to Disneyland for the 2026 season with its usual mix of decorations and characters inspired by Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas. The ballroom gingerbread house changes each year, making this one the latest seasonal centerpiece for riders passing through the scene. A separate YouTube ride through video also shows the final house in motion inside the attraction.
