Taking the Kids: Getting creative with gingerbread in new ways this holiday season

Eileen Ogintz, Tribune Content Agency on Dec 17, 2020

Construct a designer gingerbread house with a just-launched kit from The award-winning Mah-Ze-Dahr Bakery in New York and Washington, D.C., $(80 plus shipping) with all the ingredients you need.

The young National Gingerbread House Competition winners, meanwhile, demonstrate that what you need most is plenty of creativity. Their entries included mermaids, minions, elves storming a castle to save Santa, Arctic wonders complete with polar bears and a safari-inspired “Santa Stop,” with zebras pulling the sleigh past thatched gingerbread houses and a balboa tree. (See their entries and those from adults here.

“Plan to do things a lot of times,” said Adair Carey, 9, who with her brother Bennett, 11, won first prize for their Africa-themed Santa Stop by the Sugar Squad. The North Carolina brother-sister team have been creating houses since they were in preschool. Things will break and you have to practice to figure it out. We made like 20 zebras this year to get three!”

The most important ingredient: Fondant. “You can do anything with fondant,” said Bennett. “Have fun and don’t get too stressed out,” he added.

“Making houses is boring … try some crazy stuff!” said The Toccoa Titans, (Lucas Thompson, Kinsley, Tyler, Teeghan and Kaitlyn), cousins from Toccoa, Ga., who won second prize for their Arctic scene. Rice Krispie Treats, they suggested, under the gingerbread, can bolster your structure.

In case you are wondering, Americans have been enjoying gingerbread since before the American Revolution. Colonial Williamsburg historians note that gingerbread, popular in England, came to Virginia with the first settlers but wasn’t considered a holiday treat nor was it made into houses. Instead, it was cut into shapes like hearts or diamonds and then stacked into large sugar-covered pyramids.

It didn’t really evolve into a holiday staple until the retelling of The Brothers Grimm Hansel and Gretel tale in the 19th century when the house was specified as being made of gingerbread, said Cornell University food historian Adrienne Rose Bitar. She added that architectural gingerbread actually dates back to medieval Germany.

Just don’t expect to eat your creation or one you’ve seen at a hotel after the holidays. “They are not to be eaten,” said the Toccoa Titans. “We have a smash party.”

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(For more Taking the Kids, visit www.takingthekids.com and also follow TakingTheKids on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram where Eileen Ogintz welcomes your questions and comments. The Kid’s Guide to Philadelphia, the 13th in the kid’s guide series, was published in 2020, with The Kid’s Guide to Camping coming in 2021.)