Gingerbread: The Story and Party Ideas

Today on our tour of Christmas around the World, we are learning about an international tradition: Gingerbread! We have partnered with Oriental Trading for his post. All opinions and use ideas are our own.

Gingerbread History:

The story of the Gingerbread Boy is an internationally known story. The retelling often happens at Christmas as many countries have a tradition of baking gingerbread or ginger cookies during the Christmas holidays. Long ago, the queen of England would give decorated ginger cookies to visiting dignitaries, and in Germany, a ginger cookie tied with a ribbon was a token of love for the one you gifted it to!

There are many folk tales of runaway foods from many countries around the world, Holland, Great Britain, and Germany, to name a few. From what I could find, the first recorded telling of the Gingerbread Boy story, as we know it, was in the USA in 1875, when an anonymous author submitted the tale to the St. Nicholas Magazine. The author said the tale had been told to his/her children by a servant girl who had been told the story as a chid.

The Gingerbread Boy:

as told in the St. Nicholas Magazine, May 1875

Now you shall hear a story that somebody's great-great-grandmother told a little girl ever so many years ago:

There was once a little old man and a little old woman, who lived in a little old house in the edge of a wood. They would have been a very happy old couple but for one thing — they had no little child, and they wished for one very much. One day, when the little old woman was baking gingerbread, she cut a cake in the shape of a little boy, and put it into the oven.

Presently she went to the oven to see if it was baked. As soon as the oven door was opened, the little gingerbread boy jumped out, and began to run away as fast as he could go.

The little old woman called her husband, and they both ran after him. But they could not catch him. And soon the gingerbread boy came to a barn full of threshers. He called out to them as he went by, saying:

I've run away from a little old woman,
A little old man,
And I can run away from you, I can!

Then the barn full of threshers set out to run after him. But, though they ran fast, they could not catch him. And he ran on till he came to a field full of mowers. He called out to them:

I've run away from a little old woman,
A little old man,
A barn full of threshers,
And I can run away from you, I can!

Then the mowers began to run after him, but they couldn't catch him. And he ran on till he came to a cow. He called out to her:

I've run away from a little old woman,
A little old man,
A barn full of threshers,
A field full of mowers,
And I can run away from you, I can!

But, though the cow started at once, she couldn't catch him. And soon he came to a pig. He called out to the pig:

I've run away from a little old woman,
A little old man,
A barn full of threshers,
A field full of mowers,
A cow,
And I can run away from you, I can!

But the pig ran, and couldn't catch him. And he ran till he came across a fox, and to him he called out:

I've run away from a little old woman,
A little old man,
A barn full of threshers,
A field full of mowers,
A cow and a pig,
And I can run away from you, I can!

Then the fox set out to run. Now foxes can run very fast, and so the fox soon caught the gingerbread boy and began to eat him up.

Presently the gingerbread boy said,

Oh dear! I'm quarter gone!

And then,

Oh, I'm half gone!

And soon,

I'm three-quarters gone!

And at last,

I'm all gone!

and never spoke again. THE END

Notes: According to Wikipedia, the St. Nicholas Magazine was a popular American children's magazine, founded by Scribner's in 1873, who published work by the country's best writers, including Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Mark Twain and Joel Chandler Harris. Many famous writers were first published in St. Nicholas League, a department of the magazine that offered awards and cash prizes to the best work submitted by its juvenile readers. Edna St. Vincent Millay, F. Scott Fitzgerald, E. B. White, and Stephen Vincent Benet were all St. Nicholas League winners.

A Gingerbread Party:

You already know that we LOVE to have themed holiday parties at house. So it should come as no surprise to you that we enlisted the help of Oriental Trading to pull of a fabulous Gingerbread party!

First, we put together Gingerbread House boxes to hold our goodies and everyone got at least one Gingerbread rubber ducky friend.

Then, we made foam Gingerbread ornaments.