Bama Dining Delights With 7-Foot-Tall Gingerbread Denny Chimes

A University of Alabama landmark has been reimagined as a seven-foot-tall gingerbread clocktower that looks hand-delivered from the North Pole.

Each year for the last four, the team at Bama Dining - not Santa's elves - has recreated a gingerbread replica of the Capstone's most famous sites, and did not disappoint this year with a towering Denny Chimes made up of the baked masonry.

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Bruce Mcveagh, a district manager for Bama Dining, said the replica also boasts a hard-to-believe number of extras and can take days to assemble.

"With gingerbread and about 200 pounds of assorted candies, about 80 pounds of fondant icing and a little creativity and magic, you get a beautiful production," he said. "From start to finish, it usually takes us about three days to get the whole thing together."

The Bama Dining team has already built a gingerbread Bryant-Denny Stadium and said next year, they plan to tackle the architectural challenges of UA's Presidential Mansion.

Their work honors the buildings they replicate, but also brings holiday cheer to the campus and those who see the gingerbread displays.

I think everybody who has visited the Dining Hall, who has come by and seen this, is in awe," Mcveagh said. "They stop, their eyes light up and I think it brings you back to your childhood a little bit."

For more coverage of news and holiday cheer in West Alabama, stay connected to the Tuscaloosa Thread.