What do witches have to do with Christmas??

Ah Gingerbread. Who doesn't love that spicy sugary cookie smell wafting through the air? From simple gingerbread men (and women!) to extravagantly constructed and meticulously decorated gingerbread houses, gingerbread is synonymous with the holiday season.

I decided to partake in a little of this tradition myself this year.

That got me thinking though. Why do we make gingerbread houses?

Gingerbread making began in Europe around 992, by an Armenian monk, who taught gingerbread cooking to French priests. In the 13th century, Swedish nuns were baking gingerbread to ease indigestion. In Medieval England gingerbread was thought to have medicinal properties and the town of Market Drayton in the UK became known for its gingerbread. The gingerbread bakers were gathered into professional baker guilds and was sold outside churches on Sundays. The decorated gingerbreads were given as presents to adults and children, or given as a love token, and bought particularly for weddings.

Some researchers say that gingerbread houses as they are today, were originally inspired from the Grimm's fairy tale "Hansel and Gretel". The story tells of an abandoned pair of siblings, Hansel and Gretel, who find a house made of gingerbread and candy, belonging to a witch. The witch intends to eat the children but is tricked by Gretel and the pair escape and find their way back home. After the book was published, German bakers began making the sugar decorated houses out of gingerbread and the tradition was passed to America with Pennsylvanian German immigrants to become popular during the Christmas season.

So there you go!