BARRETT TOWNSHIP -- A holiday tradition in the Poconos has returned to Skytop Lodge.
It's a special holiday treat that visitors can smell as soon as they walk into Skytop Lodge in Canadensis: a life-sized gingerbread house decked out with icing and Christmas candies galore.
"When you come in the door, it's like a magical fantasy fairyland with the beautiful decorations and the gingerbread house and the fire going. What's not to like?" asked Catherine Dowling of Arlington, Virginia.
Dowling and her mother Helen Spratford soaked in the sights and smells of the gingerbread house before they even checked in.
"I just think the idea that it's made with real gingerbread, you don't expect that and it makes such a wonderful smell."
The process of rolling the dough and building this edible house began months ago.
"We started making all of our gingerbread dough back in September, so it's been a pretty long stretch for us. We were making it and freezing all of the dough," explained executive pastry chef Christa Sapone.
It took 3,000 pounds of gingerbread to cover the house. It's the biggest one the bakers have ever built in this lobby.
"We see everybody with their eyes full of life. It's really worth all of the hard work that we've done along the past three months," Sapone added.
The house is decorated with 350 pounds of icing, 150 pounds of candy, and even a gingerbread cookie trim along the fence.
Many have been anxiously waiting for the final product.
"The big strong men were bringing in large panels and they were constructing the outline of the house and I knew what was to come because the gingerbread house is kind of famous," said Dowling.
"It's beautiful, but everything is always beautiful in Skytop. That's why we keep coming," Helen Spratford said.
The gingerbread house at Skytop Lodge is open for visitors now through the entire holiday season.