December is a time of magical snowflakes, soft candlelight, sweet songs and even sweeter gingerbread…
The Swedes love gingerbread, but not gingerbread men with their eyes of icing sugar. No, they put together simple or elaborate houses made of gingerbread, stuck together with burnt sugar and topped with hard white icing. After New Year, they hold parties where they dance around the tree to say good-bye to it and then they break the gingerbread houses made so lovingly – and eat them.
We have a new bakery in town – with the most delightful display in the window. Our old church (nearly 1,000 years old in fact) has been immortalized in gingerbread and icing sugar!
What I love about this picture is that you can see the reflection of the actual physical church in the window.
I wish you all a delightfully sweet Christmas!
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Lady Fi 
What a fun tradition! We make gingerbread houses here too, but ours usually are covered in colorful candies and created to look more like a cottage. 😉 That is a beautiful gingerbread structure!!
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A beautiful capture! And I love the tradition! What a beautiful gingerbread church this is and I do love being able to see the reflection of the real church! I would also love a big chunk of it when the holiday are over!!
Wishing you a joyful Christmas and a very Happy New Year, Lady Fi!
Sylvia
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oh wow, I think I’ll have to convince my mum and sister to build a gingerbread house with me on Wednesday! Or, um, I will sample the sweets and look while they build it!
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Fun tradition – dancing around the tree to say goodbye, then eating your creation!
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Looks sweet! 😉 I haven’t made a gingerbread house since my kids were little. Maybe when there’s grandchildren. 🙂
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Wow! Food seems really important in Sweden, and eating seems really important here in the UK 🙂
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Japp, jag älskar pepparkakshus, dock inte att äta utan att göra och att titta på. De sprider en hääärlig doft också. Familjens är på plats nu, blev klart för tre timmar sedan. Bara hoppas att kissen låter det vara. Han gillar peppisar nämligen ;-). God Jul!
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Merry Christmas! So sweet.
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I’m sure it would be delicious, but it’s just too pretty to eat.
Merry Christmas to you!
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What a great picture, with that reflection! I guess the more gingerbread “ages” the better it tastes….. 🙂
Merry Christmas!
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It does look delicious.
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Lady Fi: Cute photos, we are going to make our gingerbread house tomorrow.
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That is amazing. It looks like a real church with a snowy roof! Beautiful capture. Merry Christmas to you and yours!
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Beautiful traditions. The prepration of church using gingerbread is lovely.
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Great tradition, It looks beautiful.
Wish you too A Merry Christmas!
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I love the reflection of the old church with the gingerbread church. How cool is that!
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How wonderful! I can’t believe that reflection. Wow.
Thank you for sharing and have a wonderful Christmas.
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I love that eating the gingerbread tradition! Great photo.
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This is awesome!! What a yummy tribute to the church!
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I love the dancing around the tree, as they do in Denmark, but my American kids refuse, plus I no longer have Danish relatives close by to help keep the tradition.
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Oh my that’s a lot of icing- but amazing, I have been held back from even attempting a gingerbread house (even though they have kits these days) because I think it looks difficult…can’t imagine making a church!! Cool!!
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brilliant capture of the yummy cheerful season!
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Oh I want a gingerbread house now. That is so cute.
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Oh this is very well done gingerbread house. Very exact and good proportions. There is also surprisingly lot of “snow” and it looks so full. I couldn´t criticize any part of it even if i had to. A real Michelangelo of gingerbreadhouses at work.
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That burnt sugar thing? Not easy!
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Can’t you put this in a giant freezer and save it for next year? Seems a pity to eat all that work. On the other hand, preparing an intricate gingerbread display is a part of the holidays.
Happy Holidays!
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Gingerbread house always look too pretty to be eaten. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
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Beautiful picture, and wonderful tradition.
Merry Christmas, Fi.
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Funny traditions on your place 🙂
Interesting to read.
I wish you and your family
Merry Christmas and a happy 2010
Thanks for being our blogfriends !!
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Beautiful picture, and wonderful tradition.
Merry Christmas to you and your family.
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Ginger bread or cookies are also a typical German Christmas speciality.
Thanks for your comment on the Brussels’ Christmas market, it was the last day before the whole country broke down in snow ! All public transports out of work, people stuck for hours on the streets and children who had to spend the night at school ! No thank you I prefer to live without snow, lol !
We also have up to – 15°C which is quite unusual for Belgium.
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Nice photo of the gingerbread house. Too bad it will be eaten…
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My wife loves gingerbread…I kinda like it myself, truth be told. Our experience, is however, limited to the GM variety. Nice to learn about a new (Old actually, new to us) tradition. The church sure does look yummy.
Best Regards, Galen.
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Lovely to read about Christmas traditions. Ikea here in Dublin are selling DIY gingerbread houses which we bought and made but I can you, it looked nothing like that wonderful creation in your local bakery!
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That has to be one of the best Christmas customs ever. It would even tempt me to visit Sweden…I feel that ‘eating a gingerbread house’ might go on my ‘to do’ list.
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What a wonderful thing to do!!! I would love to take part in something like that!!
C x
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What a very SWEET tradition, this is something this Ozarks farm chick could sink her chompers into. Great pic!
Have a very Merry Christmas, ya’ll!!!
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That definitely makes that photo all the more endearing! Wishing you and yours a very happy holiday season!!! 🙂
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I love gingerbread buildings … though they are so hard to pull off in real life. Best wishes for a wonderful holiday!
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Well I tell ya Lady Fi..I am lost, I cannot for the life of me see the reflection of the church in the window. Maybe my eyes are getting worse..anyway,..dancing and eating..that sounds like fun to me:)
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I had a hard time finding the reflection, but what a lovely tradition and what artistry with gingerbread, Your pictures are really lovely.
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Shame to eat it as it’s so pretty!
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I love the idea of dancing around the Christmas Tree! I ate two sweet almond cakes this afternoon, I need to do some dancing now!
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Vad duktig du är! God jul!
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This gingerbread church is so much more restrained and elegant than the candy-covered houses we make here. It makes me want to build a house next year and decorate it in my own way…. Thanks so much!
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What a wonderful tradition! Thanks for sharing.
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Wow, that is simply amazing!
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