Each year around this time, a team of talented bakers at the Turning Stone Resort and Casino create a masterpiece in gingerbread and sugar. I, like countless others no doubt, always snap a few photos of the finished products.
They come in the shape of farms and barns, churches and more.
There’s typically a sign displayed when the team is done declaring how many pounds of sugar, frosting, and pretzels – all manner of candy.
Somehow I seem to see the display every year, at least ever year since I discovered the town of Verona. Surely many folks look forward to the elaborate creation, I know I always enjoy it.
This year I found it in a new location and still under construction. I’d gone down a rarely visited corridor to look out a window at the casino and there they were, a team of bakers piping bags in hand.
I guess the resort has installed a new concourse of shops in the space previously occupied this time of year by the gingerbread village. I didn’t even take a look. I spent my minutes looking at the creation – and for the first time, smelling the sugar, which has usually solidified by the time I see it.
One of the creators told me her husband laughs about how sweet she smells at night this time of year – though she no longer notices.
Years ago, when I still lived in my hometown of Brooklyn/NYC I made an annual pilgrimage to see ‘Macy’s windows’ which were decked out for the holidays with elaborate creations.
At another point, I journeyed each Christmas season to the tree at Rockefeller Center with a friend I’ve long lost touch with. I’m sure we did it many times, though perhaps it was just two or three. But I digress
Traditions change with time and location. For me a newer tradition is taking an annual peek at the sugary construction at Turning Stone, code name “Verona.” The new location is a bit haphazard, though perhaps it will expose new audiences to the restaurants and clubs on that end of the property.
Perhaps that’s the idea, or perhaps they just needed a big hallway to put it in.
It would be fun, even satisfying to spend some real time taking serious photos of the process behind it – or the windows at Macy’s Herald Square for that matter.
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