How Did Gingerbread Become a Christmas Essential?

Photo by American Heritage Chocolate on Unsplash

Whether you like it or not, gingerbread has been associated with the holiday season for centuries. Gingerbread houses and gingerbread men are a holiday tradition that we remember doing with our families growing up. But how did the tradition come to be?

The story of The Gingerbread Man was first published in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1875 and it was about a gingerbread man who runs away from a cow, a horse, and a chicken, before getting eaten by a fox.

There are reports that cakes made with ginger and molasses or honey were introduced to Western Europe by the 11th-century crusaders returning from Mediterranean countries. In addition, fairs in medieval France and England had ginger-flavored treats calling fairings. Prior to tournaments, knights got a piece of the ginger-flavored treats for good luck.

In fact, legends trace gingerbread men to Queen Elizabeth I, who had her cooks mold pastries into the shapes of courtiers and that she gave guests ginger “biscuits” that were edible caricatures.

The city of Nuremberg was known as the “gingerbread capital of the world” in the 1600s. In Germany, gingerbread cookies called lebkuchen were heart-shaped and had romantic messages.

Gingerbread houses may have been inspired by the early 1800s Brothers Grim story Hansel and Gretel. So how did we start making gingerbread houses? Well, immigrants are said to have brought gingerbread to America and the houses became popular Christmas decorations among the Pennsylvania Deutsch.

Regardless of where and when exactly gingerbread originated from, we can all agree that it’s a holiday tradition we love doing with our families year after year.