Gingerbread Decorating Day Date in the current year: December 12, 2024

Gingerbread is a generic term for a broad category of baked goods that are flavored with ginger and sometimes also other spices (for example, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg) and sweetened with sugar, honey, or molasses. They can vary from thin, crisp cookies to soft, moist loaf cakes.

The term gingerbread hasn’t always had its current meaning. It originally referred to preserved ginger and then to a sweet confection made of ginger mixed with other spices and honey. Since around the 13th century, however, it has been primarily associated with a type of pastry made in many European countries.

Although gingerbread was a popular treat as early as the Middle Ages, it didn’t become widely available until the 18th century. Since then, fun-shaped decorated gingerbread cookies have become a staple of the winter holiday season. Gingerbread men are arguably the most popular type of gingerbread cookies, but decorated Christmas cookies also can be shaped like stars, Christmas trees, hearts, etc.

Gingerbread cookies are most commonly decorated with royal icing because it is made with very few ingredients that can be found in almost any kitchen. Royal icing consists of beaten egg whites, powdered sugar, and sometimes lemon juice. Normally white, royal icing can be dyed different colors with food coloring. Gingerbread cookies also can be decorated with chocolate glaze, sprinkles, and other types of frosting and decorations.

The origins of Gingerbread Decorating Day are unclear, but it is one of the many unofficial holidays designed to help us prepare for Christmas. The best way to celebrate the holiday is, of course, to make and decorate gingerbread cookies. It is the perfect occasion to experiment with hew dough or icing recipes - even if the cookies don’t turn out quite right, there’s still enough time until Christmas to perfect the recipe. If you have kids, decorating Christmas cookies together is a great bonding activity that will boost your children’s creativity.

To make things even more interesting, you can throw a gingerbread decorating party or a gingerbread house contest for your family and friends. A friendly competition will keep you on your toes; just don’t get too competitive because holidays are meant to bring you closer together as a family rather than the opposite. If you end up making too many cookies (although we’re convinced there is no such thing as too many cookies), you can always donate them to charity.

Gingerbread Decorating Day coincides with Gingerbread House Day, so you can celebrate the two holidays together. Other gingerbread-inspired holidays include National Gingerbread Day, for some reason celebrated on June 5 even though gingerbread is commonly associated with the winter holiday season, and National Gingerbread Cookie Day that takes place on November 21.