BEDFORD, Pennsylvania — A highly anticipated Christmas display in Pennsylvania that is both delicious and whimsical is when the Omni Bedford Springs Hotel in Bedford County transforms one of its main entrances into a culinary delight whose aroma hits your sensory palate long before you walk through the nearly 200-year-old front door.
What began as a small decorative house has become a full-scale work of culinary art under executive pastry chef Harshal Naik. Known for his appearance on The Food Channel’s Holiday Baking Championship, he has taken it to the next level over the past five years. Guests and day visitors feel immersed in every display, from sprawling villages to candy cane streets to last year’s functioning gingerbread carousel.
Naik is standing outside of his masterpiece — a 4-foot wide, 9-foot deep, 11-foot tall gingerbread home — trying to get the coconut snow from clogging the train tracks of the Polar Express train that is chugging along inside the window of the life-size gingerbread home.
“Everything is edible, well, almost,” he says with a smile.
The lobby is filled with people, young and old, peering in the window and all around the white picket fence, also edible. A family is gathered around the fireplace waiting to see what Santa will bring them as Saint Nick himself is leaving through the top of the chimney.
Naik points to the fondant clothing, marshmallow and coconut snow, and intricate details that give the display texture, illustrating that yes, everything is edible (except for the train).
“We had several pastry women whose ages span 40 years who worked several hours a day for over a month constructing this,” he explained, adding, “everyone was up for the challenge.”
All in all, they used nearly 400 pounds of gingerbread dough to make over 5,000 bricks held together by 50 gallons of royal icing instead of grout. Naik was adding the final starlight candles and miniature gingerbread men when we visited.
The Bedford Springs resort is one of the nation’s oldest hotels. Its beginnings are traced to our frontier days when people first enjoyed the seven mineral springs that flow through this valley. In 1805, an enterprising doctor turned the center of the springs into America’s first grand resort.
The “Springs,” as it is known both colloquially and by treasured guests from around the country, is drenched in classic Christmas revelry. Blitzes, the resort’s “speakeasy” tucked behind the luxurious indoor pool, is a step back in time, offering unique seasonal cocktails and mocktails. Children love the festive Shirley Temples.
Visiting families can enjoy “Breakfast at the North Pole,” and this week will mark the Grand Illumination, when on Nov. 30, guests and seemingly the entire town of Bedford gather outside the hotel where Santa Claus leads a countdown and lights the towering Christmas tree that sits on top of the space in the center of the roundabout outside the inn.
Since it’s reopening 20 years ago, after sitting dormant for an equal amount of time, Bedford Springs hasn’t just welcomed visitors to its majestic lobby, restaurants, taverns, golf club and cozy rooms; it has changed the fortunes of the community through employing 450 people, revitalizing the picture-perfect small town that is lined with unique small businesses in the Main Street grid with barely a trace of national stores in sight.
There isn’t a shop or restaurant to be found in town that doesn’t credit the Springs for its prosperity — the hotel generously recommends shops and restaurants to visitors.
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Drive through the town, and each post along the street has garland draping along the sidewalks, evergreen bells with bright red ribbons crossing between the telephone poles like a scene out of It’s a Wonderful Life’s Bedford Falls street scape.
If you are looking for a place that evokes a nostalgic sense of place for Christmas, Bedford Springs does just that, whether for a day trip or a night or two spent walking through the halls decorated with trees and dioramas. You can sit in the library and enjoy the rich collection of books, play chess, or sit by the fireplaces in the lobby. Each room tells a story that welcomes you for the day or the night, and it is what small-town America does best: celebrating your presence with a welcome mat that feels like you’ve just come home.