This coming Sunday is December 12, also known as Gingerbread House Day. The family tradition of creating gingerbread homes for the holidays is well-known around the world and our families are no different in their creativity and edible creations.

On display here are some of the charming gingerbread homes created and decorated in 2020 by a few of our young residents in Anaheim, California. This friendly holiday competition created stronger bonds with families and neighbors alike.

The famed fairytale authors of the Brothers’ Grimm (known for Cinderella, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Rapunzel, Little Red Riding Hood) are directly responsible for popularizing the idea of a gingerbread house through their story of Hansel and Gretel, where the tale’s evil witch resides in a house of candy and gingerbread. Through the decades the popular opera version of Hansel and Gretel by Engelbert Humperdinck perpetuated the idea of a gingerbread house and slowly the concept was adopted as part of our winter holidays. 

If you want to help “Spread the Joy” of the season beyond a simple gingerbread house, here’s your opportunity. You can help bring holiday fun and whimsy to Project Access youth year-round by making a 100% tax-deductible contribution: www.project-access.org/donate.