Gingerbread house tradition; anyone know where this is from?

[chemiseblair]

Hello all,

My family have a tradition of making a gingerbread house (in what's in name a Bavarian style but not sure it's actually recognisable) which all house guests over Christmas/New Year take away a part of, eg: figures from the outside, decorations, parts of the house once it's near the end of the season, etc.

Talking about Christmas traditions with colleagues, none of them have mentioned this. My family have quite a lot of traditions either from our various backgrounds or appropriated from places along the way but honest I'm not sure whether this one is from anywhere in particular or just an odd habit. It feels like it should be an older tradition from somewhere but could just be made up.

Our gingerbread house is quite aggressively secular (although our Christmas isn't entirely- my dad is aetheist, mum is religious) if this would help identify it?

I have Swedish friends and gingerbread features large with them at Christmas, including a gingerbread house.

At a Christmas party at their house a few years back gingerbread was handed around with the drinks.

Some were willy and balls shaped. My friend mentioned that the British don't know how or at what end to pick these up.

I did this in the USA with friends of German/Jewish descent. Had never heard of it before & don't know anyone else who does it. It was fun though & I plan on doing it with my kids when they're older.

I'm in Scandinavia and we do this, it's lovely. As to the origins, I've always assumed Germany - there's a gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretl, isn't there?