Hungry for Holiday Thrills? Try Dining in a Life-Size Gingerbread House

(Nov. 9) -- When Hansel and Gretel stumbled upon a gingerbread house, they nearly got eaten by a witch. Now there's a real-life house of candy where the only thing boys and girls need to worry about is whether someone's already licked the frosting on the front door.

The Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls, Canada, is preparing its third annual giant gingerbread house, complete with more than 600 pounds of gingerbread, 1,000 pounds of icing, 2,000 chocolate wafers, 750 cookies and 4,900 pretzels.

Construction of its two-story-high wooden frame began Monday, and today a culinary team will begin applying confections to the life-size candy cottage. Three full-time bakers, an executive chef and one sous chef will be dedicated to the project for the next two weeks.

In previous years, the gingerbread house has been a favorite feature of the Great Wolf Lodge, which also includes an indoor waterpark complex, mini-golf and other family-themed entertainment.

"You can smell it when you walk into the building," general manager Keith Simmonds said. "You can smell the gingerbread and chocolate -- and it's lit up and glitters."

Naturally, it attracts a lot of children who struggle with the urge to snack on the house.

"People stop in their tracks, the kids' eyes open up, and they just stand awestruck at this thing," Simmonds told AOL News. "And then when they figure out that it actually is made of candy, we see them secretly and discreetly trying to sneak away and get a piece of icing sugar that's hanging off to eat or grab a piece of licorice that's on a door. And that would be kids of all ages."

He said it happens about every five minutes.

"We do a lot of repairs on the fly and overnight. We try to keep people off as much as we can, but it's part of the fun. I mean, it is a totally edible structure."

Once the house is finished in early December, it will accept reservations for one table of six. Families will be able to order off the same menus offered in other restaurants inside the lodge, including breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets. And of course, there's a dessert menu -- separate from what's seen on the surrounding walls.

Between mealtimes, Santa will be taking pictures with children inside the house.

In the spirit of the holidays, the gingerbread house isn't just festive, it's also charitable. Each reservation costs $20, which goes directly toward the Child Advocacy Centre Niagara, a group that helps abused children in Niagara's 12 municipalities. Since the first gingerbread house was baked and built, more than $8,700 has been raised for local charities.

The house will stand through the first part of January before being taken down for the year. And while it sounds like a perfect job for a team of sweet tooths, the lodge sticks to traditional methods.

"With the amount of hands and such that have been around it, it goes into the composting," Simmonds said. "We save the structure, then have to compost the consumables."