These Christmas Gingerbread Girls Ornaments
Are 5 inches long, 3 inches wide, and are dressed outlined with line of icing around the edge of the entire body. The icing is filled with red and white candies, there are two hearts which serve as cheeks, and in the center of the gingerbread girl are two redhot candy buttons. The Christmas gingerbread girl is attached to a red ribbon about 3 inches long (overall length while hanging is approximately 7 ½ - 8 inches).
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 the 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 the 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.