Why do we build gingerbread houses at Christmas? (2024)

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Why do we build gingerbread houses at Christmas? ›

The reason why gingerbread houses are synonymous with Christmas has to do with gingersnap cookies and how it was a highly popular tradition to bake a large assortment of ginger during the holidays. This was when gingerbread houses became a common practice with Christmas.

In the late 17th century, gingerbread became associated with Christmas. Russian bakers prepared gingerbread men and women, usually as replicas of those people attending parties. Gingerbread houses were introduced about 200 years later, when the Grimm brothers wrote Hansel and Gretel. A new holiday tradition was born.

It is thought that gingerbread houses morphed from functional and for professionals only to a common Christmas decoration after Grimm's fairy tale “Hansel and Gretel” became popular. The sibling pair are lost and hungry in the woods and stumble across an edible house.

Because the gingerbread walls will be under stress from the roof, there needs to be sufficient resistance to avoid cracking or total collapse. Dough with a tough, springy consistency and decreased moisture content is ideal, and can be achieved by using flour with high protein content, such as bread flour.

Gingerbread houses likely originated in Germany between the sixteenth and eighteenth centuries, spreading to England at some stage in the nineteenth century.

One family tradition that many Americans do during Christmas is build gingerbread houses together, a symbol of family and of home. Although not a religious tradition, it does remind us that being together as a family is God-given and something to be thankful for.

Food historians trace the origins of gingerbread back to the ancient Egyptians, who used it for ceremonial purposes. The ancient Greeks followed suit with the first known recipe for gingerbread around 2400 B.C.

According to certain researchers, the first gingerbread houses were the result of the well-known Grimm's fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel" in which the two children abandoned in the forest found an edible house made of bread with sugar decorations.

One theory holds that since the "men" are really more toddler-shaped than adult, they came to represent the baby Jesus at Christmas. And the spices involved are sometimes thought to represent the exotic gifts of the Magi.

A comforting way to stay warm, their popularity in the colder months led to ginger cookies becoming common Christmas tree decorations. Their role continued to evolve, and the ginger cookies moved from the tree to the family cookie competitions we know today, though we now enjoy the cookies afterward with milk.

What is gingerbread explanation? ›

noun. a type of cake flavored with ginger and molasses. a rolled cookie similarly flavored, often cut in fanciful shapes, and sometimes frosted.

​Superstitions about gingerbread flourished in the 17th century. Witches supposedly made gingerbread figures, ate them, and thereby caused the death of their enemies. Dutch magistrates went so far as to declare baking or eating molded cookies illegal.

Fit Everything Together with Melted Sugar or Royal Icing

The second way is to use burnt sugar as your glue. Just melt C&H® Pure Granulated Cane Sugar in a pan on the stove, dip the gingerbread parts in and hold them together for a few seconds. Then, presto! You've created a solid house.

Under ideal conditions, a gingerbread house can last for several weeks without becoming stale or spoiled.

Many also decorated their Christmas trees with gingerbread men or houses, leading to an increase in their popularity. Others however, believe gingerbread was eaten due to the calming influence of ginger – a key ingredient amidst the festive feasting!

Gingerbread demolishing has become a touching underground tradition for some families. On New Year's Eve, they gather together and destroy their creation as a team. Some have called it a way to symbolically clear the slate before the New Year. Others call it like it is: fun.

Chilling it for at least two hours or overnight gives the ingredients a chance to absorb one another, making it a whole lot easier to roll out the dough without it cracking. Follow this tip: Let the dough chill in the refrigerator, well-wrapped, for at least two hours or overnight before rolling it out.