Does your family have a gingerbread house decorating event every year? And let us guess, you’re super used to dominating this event, in fact, it’s a tradition at this point, but now the kids are getting older and those little rascals are getting more artistic and your significant other does everything they can to attempt to sabotage you and you’ve decided that this year is the year for your big comeback. We heard you loud and clear, let’s get started.
First things first, we think it wise to drop some knowledge on your family this year by hitting them (not literally) with some quick fun facts about gingerbread cookies. They’ll be so shocked and intrigued by your tidbits we guarantee you’ll sidetrack them enough to get a good strong lead. Here are our favorite fun facts about gingerbread cookies:
- Gingerbread houses originated in 16th century Germany, and the first ones were decorated with foil and gold leaves; gingerbread men are said to have come from Queen Elizabeth I of England.
- For quite some time folk medicine practitioners used gingerbread as a way to help women find the love of their lives. It was said if a woman could get a man to eat her gingerbread cookie, he would soon fall madly in love with her.
- While gingerbread houses have been around since the 16th century, they became widely popular after The Brothers Grimm wrote the fairytale, Hansel and Gretel.
Okay, that should bide you enough time to have started gathering your materials and throwing everyone else off of their game a little bit (well, annoying them, same thing…) Let’s start thinking design. We’ve compiled a few of our favorite gingerbread house designs that we think will be way better than anything the rest of your family could do!
Gingerbread Cabin
(image via: three pixie lane)
Suck it, family! Err, this is cute, we mean. All you need to achieve this gingerbread cabin is some cinnamon sticks, graham crackers, Chex cereal, and pretzel sticks. Oh! And candy rocks for that stone chimney, it’s a must to win.
Gingerbread Cottage
(image via: cuisine at home)
If a gingerbread cabin is a bit rustic for you, we recommend going the cottage route. What we adore about a gingerbread cottage is that you can be as extra as you want with the color coordination of the candy, and if that’s not a guaranteed win, we don’t know what is.
Gingerbread Barn
(image via: taste of home)
If you’re planning on executing this gingerbread barn, the rest of your family might as well just put their frosting tips down now. And while this barn may look like it would take a lot to complete, it really doesn’t, in fact, the devil is in the details – the very details that will get you a win!
