Santa Claus has landed in Houston and he's sweeter than you can possibly imagine.
To celebrate the holiday season, the Hilton Americas-Houston and its award-winning pastry chef Mahesh Weerasinghe created a massive chocolate display featuring Santa and his elves, skillfully crafted from more than 1.5 tons of chocolate.
Located in the lobby of the hotel, the sweet holiday scene is even more spectacular than ever this year with all of the chocolate figures painted in full color for the first time.
Hand-sculpted from over 2,500 pounds of chocolate and chocolate dough — equivalent to 2,160,000 chocolate chips and more than 6 million calories — the larger-than-life chocolate Santa sits in his chair, accompanied by his sleigh, elves, reindeer, a pack of gifts and wagon full of toys. New additions to the sweet scene this year include holiday characters such as the Grinch and Olaf from the Disney film Frozen, as well as a 10-building gingerbread village.
Using his training from award-winning chocolatier Rudy Wieder, combined with his own artistic talent, Weerasinghe crafted the tasty one-of-a-kind creation by sculpting the chocolate just as an artist sculpts clay. It took approximately 1,000 man-hours and four months of creative work and construction to go from the initial conception to the completion of the chocolate scene.
A poured milk chocolate floor sculpted to replicate weathered boards adds to the sugary scene, adding another 1,094,000 calories. Also new this year, a gingerbread village adds 120 pounds and 219,000 calories to the display. An additional 75 pounds and 133,000 calories of sparkling sugar paste pastillage ornaments decorating the Christmas tree finish off the sweetness for a total of almost 3,300 pounds of chocolate and confections — totaling more than 7,636,000 calories.
The holiday display will be on view at the Hilton Americas-Houston through December 29.
A hand-painted chocolate Santa Claus sits with his elves in the wistful display.
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Photo by Becca Wright