During the month of December, people enjoy a variety of holiday treats including eggnog, mince pie, yule logs, Panettone, and peppermint bark. While all of these treats are delicious and beloved, there is one treat that not only makes people’s mouths water but also sparks their imagination.

That treat is gingerbread. Whether it’s shaped into the form of a person or used to make gingerbread houses, this treat is one that is fun to play with as well as to eat.

If you’re a fan of this Christmas treat and want to try your hand at making gingerbread houses, then you might want to observe Gingerbread House Day. A day that falls on December 12th and gives children and adults aged 3 to 99 a chance to work their imagination.

The History of Gingerbread

Unable to uncover the history of Gingerbread House Day, we decided to turn our attention to the history of gingerbread instead. What we discovered is that gingerbread has been around for a long time.

According to some food historians, an early form of gingerbread was made as far back as 2,400 B.C. However, while this may have been a “gingerbread-like” food, it most likely didn’t contain ginger. That’s because ginger was first cultivated in ancient China, and the Greeks wouldn’t have had access to it until Alexander the Great invaded Asia Minor during the 4th century B.C.

Gingerbread was made in Asia during the 10th century, and with the opening of several trade networks between Asia and Europe, including the Silk Road, ginger became increasingly available to Europeans.

During the Middle Ages, an Armenian monk named Gregory of Nicopolis allegedly brought gingerbread to Europe and taught French Christian bakers how to make it. As was the case in Greece and Asia, gingerbread was originally used for religious ceremonies and to make molded images of the saints.

As the Middle Ages progressed, however, people began to use gingerbread less for religious purposes and more for secular ones. In Germany during the 16th century, gingerbread houses began to be made, and in Russia, gingerbread men and women were created.

Eventually, people began to make elaborate gingerbread house creations for Medieval Fairs. Some of these were scenes of entire villages adorned with gold leaf. People have had a fascination with gingerbread and gingerbread houses ever since.

Observing Gingerbread House Day

If you’d like to put your gingerbread house engineering skills to good use, then you can take the time to build a gingerbread house with your family. You can make a simple house or a complex village scene; it’s all up to you.

Once you’ve erected the gingerbread house of your dreams, take a picture of it and post it on your social media accounts for all the world to see. When you do, make sure to use the hashtag #GingerbreadHouseDay so that other people can find your creation and marvel at how you made it.