These 4 inch Christmas gingerbread ornaments are cheerful gingerbread men with red and white striped arms and legs attached to the Christmas gingerbread cookie body.
The Christmas gingerbread tree ornaments are holding a birdhouse on a rope and a small red bird. The head and body is a Christmas gingerbread cookie sandwich with white cream filling and a red cinnamon border. The Christmas cookie gingerbread man has a relieved checker design on the gingerbread cookie body, coal for eyes, and a red nose. They are wearing a red and white striped stocking cap which has a white frosting brim and bobble with a sprig of holly on the brim of the cap. There are white frosting cuffs at the wrists and ankles, connecting the Christmas chocolate gingerbread mittens and boots to the rest of the Christmas gingerbread cookie man. The entire Christmas gingerbread decoration is sprinkled with glitter sugar. The Christmas cookie German gingerbread ornaments look tasty, but the warning on the back reminds us that the Christmas gingerbread ornaments are not eatable and only for display. The Christmas gingerbread man ornament hangs by a red ribbon.
Christmas Gingerbread History:
Ginger reached Europe in the 11th century when it was brought back by those who traded with the Middle East. The attractions of ginger were quickly recognized: it could be used medicinally (to treat flatulence, hangovers, and stomach disorders), as a preservative, to flavor food, and the ginger root was soon traded at fairs across continent. The center of the medieval ginger trade was Nuremburg, which became famous for its Christmas gingerbread cakes and cookies baked by a special guild of Lebkuchler. At Christmastime, Christmas gingerbread was a well-loved feature of Nuremburg’s Christkindlmarket, as it is to this day.
Gingerbread can be made hard or soft, dark or light, heavily spiced or mild. It can be cut into various shapes, the most famous of which are “gingerbread men” (the invention of which some attribute to Queen Elizabeth I of England) and Christmas gingerbread houses, which Germans call Hexenhausle, or “witches’ houses,” after the home of the cannibal confectioner in “Hansel and Gretel.” Christmas gingerbread can also be cut into shapes suitable for ornaments and hung from Christmas trees as Christmas gingerbread man ornaments.
The Gingerbread House
By Patricia Mongeau
Deep in the forest where all dreams come true
Is a gingerbread house just waiting for you.
Its roof is a mixture of sugar and spice
And the chimney is made of everything nice.
Bright colored bonbons grow around the front door,
And chocolate cookies are laid for the floor.
Its walls made of cookies are cheerful and gay,
And they make this house seem like a nice place to stay.
The house is surrounded by green sugar trees,
And you may eat just as much as you please…
Deep in the forest where all dreams come true
Is a gingerbread house just waiting for you!