Every month of the year is filled with ‘national days’ dedicated to all manner of weird and wonderful things, and among those in December is National Gingerbread Decorating Day.
You may think that this is why gingerbread has become part of the Christmas tradition, but the truth is a lot murkier.
Most people who have studied the origins of our various festive traditions think that the gingerbread legacy comes from Europe. However, gingerbread is actually traced back to China roughly five millennia ago, where it was a type of medicine. It was first used to make cookies so beloved by the sweet-toothed at Christmas in 13th century Poland, and was known as Toruń gingerbread.
This then spread to other European countries like Germany and Sweden, before being adopted in the UK and US, but quite how they became a festive staple is where it gets complicated.
A lot of people think that it derives from the gingerbread house in the Hansel and Gretel fairytale. The idea is that this might have led to people putting decorated gingerbread houses on their Christmas trees, alongside the fairy lights and tinsel.
The story was first published in the early 19th century, but the Brothers Grimm had adapted it from an existing folktale. Others believe that the Christmas tree gingerbread houses came first and inspired the story. We may never know for sure, but what is generally accepted is that the delicious cookies we eat at Christmas are an adaptation of those original gingerbread tree decorations.
