Merry Christmas from I-Connect007!

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The I-Connect007 offices are closed today, in observance of the Christmas holiday. As part of the Global Electronics Association, the offices remain closed through New Year’s Day. I-Connect007 will still publish daily and weekly newsletters (with the exception of Christmas and New Year’s Day). Some staff members will still be checking email.

Just for fun, we thought we’d share a bit of Christmas tradition about the gingerbread house. You’ve likely built one at some point and perhaps wondered how this tradition originated. For any readers of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tales, you probably have an idea that Hansel and Gretel have something to do with it all.

Gingerbread houses have become something of a global tradition during the holiday season, a  tradition rooted in medieval European gingerbread baking, which itself dates back centuries. Gingerbread evolved into a specialized craft in Germany. Nuremberg, for example, became famed for lebkuchen (gingerbread in German) and gingerbread artistry; at one time, only guild bakers were permitted to bake lebkuchen (with the exception of Christmas and Easter.) But why so particular about who could bake gingerbread?

Food historians note that bakers selected the spices used in gingerbread for reasons that were practical, economic, medicinal, and symbolic, rather than solely for flavor.

Historically, spices such as ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cardamom were highly valued because they were durable, potent, and preservative. These spices masked the taste of marginal ingredients, extended shelf life, and helped inhibit microbial growth. Ginger was prized for its digestive and warming properties, making gingerbread popular during colder months.

Being imported to Europe via long and expensive trade routes, spices signaled wealth and craftsmanship. Gingerbread was often sold at fairs, religious festivals, and holidays, where elaborately spiced baked goods reinforced social prestige and celebratory importance; hence the control exerted by the baking guild.

There was also a medicinal rationale grounded in medieval humoral theory. Gingerbread was frequently prescribed or consumed as a healthful tonic rather than a casual sweet.

Finally, spices carried religious and cultural symbolism. Their exotic origins and aromatic qualities aligned with feast days such as Christmas, reinforcing gingerbread’s association with ritual, celebration, and seasonal tradition.

The practice of constructing decorated gingerbread houses, however, is generally traced to 19th-century Germany and is widely linked to the Brothers Grimm’s Hansel and Gretel, published in 1812, where children find a house made of edible treats in the forest. Bakers began crafting elaborate Lebkuchenhaeusle (gingerbread houses) as a result. Leckerlee (leckerlee.com) notes that fairy-tale inspired, candy-coated gingerbread houses became a German Christmas tradition that spread to America with Pennsylvania German immigrants.

In modern times, making gingerbread houses is a popular family holiday activity. Elaborate displays, contests such as the National Gingerbread House Competition, and giant walk-through gingerbread installations reflect the tradition’s evolution and slow separation from the original fairy tale inspiration.

From our (gingerbread) house to yours, we wish you a happy holiday season.