The Complete History of Gingerbread Houses

Ginger was used as a medical treatment for centuries. Later, people discovered it was also an excellent preservative and started adding it to bread.

While the real roots of gingerbread houses are hard to track, we know for sure that they originated in Germany.

The tradition then spread across all of Europe and was brought to the US by colonists.

Today, baking gingerbread is a fun and bonding family tradition.

Kids love decorating gingerbread biscuits with frosting, and adults are just as excited to participate in gingerbread fairs and gingerbread house-building contests.

Gingerbread Baking Origins

Ginger root was first cultivated in China about 5,000 years ago and was mainly used as a medical treatment rather than a baking ingredient. It later spread to the Middle East through the Silk Road.

The first known gingerbread recipe dates from around 2400 BC Greece. However, the actual date and place ginger began to be used in baking are nearly impossible to trace.

The first records of gingerbread baking in Europe date to the 11th century. Ginger, along with other spices, was brought to Europe by crusaders from the Middle East.

It quickly became popular due to its capability of preserving bread.

We don’t know for sure when European bakers started baking gingerbread biscuits with elaborate designs. Throughout the 13th century, the gingerbread biscuit recipe spread across entire Europe, from Sweden to Belgium and Italy.

The first gingerbread biscuits shaped as human figurines were made for Elizabeth I of England. They were meant to resemble her important guests. People bake gingerbread men to this day.

The First Gingerbread Houses

At about the same time as English bakers made the first gingerbread men for Queen Elizabeth I, German bakers came up with the idea of making gingerbread houses.

Some suggest such a design was chosen because gingerbread is sturdy enough to be used in complex constructions.

German gingerbread houses were similar to modern their modern version: they often featured roofs covered in sugar to resemble snow and walls adorned with intricate ornaments.

Brothers Grimm tales played a major role in popularizing the gingerbread house tradition. In the story of Hansel and Gretel, the main characters stumble upon a gingerbread house in the forest.

A witch who lives inside the house wants to fatten the children before eating them, but Gretel outwits her. After killing the witch, the kids return home with her treasures. Happy end.

Some historians suggest that gingerbread houses first appeared in the Hansel and Gretel tale, and German bakers borrowed the idea, not vice versa. If this is true, the origin of gingerbread houses is rather dark and twisted.

The thing is, Brother Grimm didn’t come up with Hansel and Gretel tale’s plot out of the blue. The tale was published in the 19th century but was based on a German folk story that may date back to the 14th century.

In the 14th century, Germany was undergoing a great famine when parents turned children out to fend for themselves. Considering this, the connection of gingerbread houses with Christmas seems strange.

Gingerbread Becomes a Christmas Symbol

At the end of the 16th century, gingerbread baking became an acknowledged profession. Bakers started gathering into guilds. By the 17th century, only professional bakers were permitted to bake gingerbread biscuits.

At that time, gingerbread was often involved in religious ceremonies. Biscuits were molded into images of saints.

Depiction of religious symbols, even in edible form, was considered a sacred practice and thus was only allowed to the guild members.

Gingerbread biscuits were sold outside churches on Sundays, especially on religious events. Decorated biscuits often served as gifts or love tokens and were particularly popular at weddings, where they were issued to each guest.

A gingerbread figure of a patron saint was given to people on their name day. Some carried gingerbread biscuits as talismans to battles or to ward off evil spirits.

Only on Christmas and Easter were regular people allowed to bake gingerbread. That’s how gingerbread baking became a Christmas tradition.

Most people, however, weren’t skilled enough to make gingerbread houses and instead made biscuits in simpler shapes.

A Christmas Legend

Some theologists suggest that ginger was a gift to Jesus from the fourth Magi who couldn’t complete his journey to Bethlehem. This elaboration on the Gospel of Matthew is based on an 8th-century Greek document.

According to the legend, the fourth Mage became sick along the way and had to stay in Jerusalem. Before he died, he gave his chest of ginger roots to a rabbi who took care of him during his illness.

The rabbi then told him about the prophecy of a great king who shall come to the Jews. The king would be born in Bethlehem, translating as “House of Bread” from Hebrew.

This theory counteracts the widely accepted version of the Star Prophecy, which states that the three Magi who made their way to Christ found out about his birth from the appearance of the Star of Bethlehem in the sky.

The same document mentions that Jewish acolytes would make houses from bread as a symbol of their faith in Jesus, who was born in Bethlehem.

Gingerbread Houses Arrive in the US

Like many Christmas traditions, gingerbread baking arrived in America with British colonists.

The first-ever American cookbook, American Cookery, written by Amelia Simmons, features three gingerbread recipes, including soft and crispy varieties.

The soft gingerbread recipe stated: “No. 2. Rub three pounds of sugar, two pounds of butter, into four pounds of flour, add 20 eggs, 4 ounces ginger, 4 spoons rosewater, bake as No. 1.”

This version of gingerbread was especially common in the US. Another popular gingerbread recipe was attributed to George Washington’s mother, Mary ball Washington.

Historical records state that Mary Ball Washington served her gingerbread to Marquis de Lafayette in Fredericksburg.

This way, her recipe became known as Lafayette gingerbread. Lafayette gingerbread recipe features cinnamon, clove, allspice, orange juice, and orange zest.

However, some argue the Lafayette gingerbread origin is no more than a legend. What we know for sure is that in Virginia, gingerbread cookies were used to sway voters to favor one candidate over another.

Gingerbread Traditions Around the World

Today, gingerbread houses are involved in numerous Christmas traditions in the US and Europe. December 12 is celebrated as Gingerbread House Day.

As the name suggests, on this day, families gather together to bake gingerbread houses.

The house roof is often made from frosting or candy, and the yard and roof are usually covered in frosting resembling snow. Icing also works as a great adhesive, keeping house pats together.

A gingerbread house doesn’t necessarily have to be a house, after all – it can be a cabin, museum, car, or any other building.

Germany can justifiably be called the real land of gingerbread. Gingerbread markets and entire gingerbread stores are extremely popular not only at Christmas time but throughout the year. However, gingerbread markets weren’t invented by Germans.

Gingerbread fairs were quite common in medieval France and England. In fact, the modern American gingerbread house-building contests also bear some resemblance with this Middle Age custom.

In Sweden, gingerbread houses are made on Saint Lucy’s Day. It’s celebrated on December 13 and commemorates Lycia of Syracuse, a 4th-century virgin martyr who brought food to Christians hiding in Roman catacombs.

In a small Norwegian town Bergen, people have built a gingerbread village each year before Christmas for over 30 years.

At some point, it was named the largest gingerbread village in the world. However, the record has since been broken.

Fairmont and St. Francis hotels in San Francisco have a similar tradition, displaying rival gingerbread houses during the Christmas season.

World’s Largest Gingerbread House

The world’s largest gingerbread house was created in 2013 in Bryan, Texas, by Traditions Club. Measuring 60 feet in length and 42 feet in width, it weighed nearly 3,000 pounds.

You could easily walk into such a house and experience yourself in Hansel or Gretel’s role. If that’s not impressive enough, its estimated calorific value was nearly 36 million.

The title of the largest gingerbread village in the world once belonged to Pepperkakebyen in Bergen. But in 2015, the record was broken by Jon Lovitch, executive sous-chef at the New York Mariott Marquis hotel.

The village includes 135 houses along with 22 commercial buildings, as well as cars and trains – of course, also made from gingerbread. The village was displayed at the New York Hall of Science.

Lovitch’s gingerbread village deserves attention not solely for its impressive size. It also featured intricate workmanship, as any traditional gingerbread village should.

The houses were decorated with frosting, candy, and even tiny realistic signs. Such a level of detail made the village look just like real.

While you can only see the largest gingerbread village in pictures, a real-life gingerbread town Dinkelsbuhl in southern Germany, is always open for tourists.

Its well-preserved historic center has gabled half-timbered houses in brown, peach, orange, and pistachio colors resembling decorated with frosting biscuits.

Sources