An excited group of about two dozen people gathered outside Laurel Hill Gardens early Tuesday to witness “Good Morning America" film its second live segment in just two years from Chestnut Hill’s Germantown Avenue, this time featuring Bredenbeck's Bakery and their giant gingerbread sculpture. 

Airing on 6abc, the segment started just before 8:30 a.m. Surrounded by attendees and workers from Bredenbeck's, ABC News reporter Morgan Norwood showed off the gingerbread truck sculpture adorned with Philadelphia mascots and a miniature Jason Kelce at the wheel. 

“When I first pulled up, I said, ‘This looks like a community right out of a Hallmark movie.’ It’s so magical, I have had the best time. The people here are amazing, so nice, so welcoming,” Norwood told the Local. “(The sculpture) is all things Philadelphia right here, I love all of the mascots. It takes some science to put something together like that.” 

Making the gingerbread truck was a complicated process. Decorating alone took three days, according to Diana Anello, head sugar artist at Bredenbeck's.

“This is a huge honor and validation for all the hours we put in and how hard we work to be recognized on the national forum for Gingerbread,” Anello told the Local. “The truck itself took me three days, but it's just me decorating it. We have a whole staff that mixed it, baked it, and I finished it.” 

Tuesday morning’s segment wasn’t the first time Anello has been on TV for gingerbread. She previously competed in a gingerbread challenge on the Food Network. 

“Good Morning America” chose Chestnut Hill last year, also, when it aired its July 4, 2023 segment from the neighborhood – reaching out to Courtney O’Neill, executive director of the Chestnut Hill Business District, to help coordinate the shoot for the morning show’s “Main Street USA” series. The piece showed off Fourth of July celebrations and highlighted some of the local businesses on Germantown Avenue. 

“We stayed in touch with the producer from that segment,” who O’Neill said reached out last Monday and said  “We'd like to come back for the holidays and we're like, ‘okay, yay.’” 

“It showed that they had a great experience with our neighborhood, and that they liked working with everybody, and that they think it's beautiful,” O’Neill said. “It felt good to know that they had a good experience when they came before, and it’s good that they thought of us and would want to come back and film here again.” 

Allie Edwards, a “Good Morning America” producer, said the GMA crew had such a good experience during its previous visit to Chestnut Hill that they wanted to come back. 

“We were like, ‘They have to have something beautiful for Christmas’ and of course, you do! It’s been amazing. Laurel Hill Gardens is the perfect setting for this and Bredenbeck’s Bakery pulled out all the stops for us,” she said. “It’s been a lot of fun.”

Families and kids in attendance surrounded Norwood and Anello, decorating their own gingerbread houses while the broadcast went live. Among them were Mary Sprandio and her son Joe, who decorated one of the gingerbread houses with the other kids in front of the camera. 

“We love Chestnut Hill, we love going to all the shops and any way that we can support Chestnut Hill, we're there,” said Sprandio, who heard about the event through the business association. For Sprandio and her son, the most exciting part was “seeing the gingerbread truck and all the designs with, you know, Jason Kelce on there, and all the mascots.” 

When the camera went live, Norwood introduced Jake Boyd, a co-owner of Bredenbeck's, and Anello, who showed off the gingerbread truck saying “What else can you say? We have Jason Kelce, our unofficial mayor, and then all of our fabulous mascots. Because what do we love in Philly? We love food and we love our sports.”