Ginger was one of the spices brought back to Europe from the Middle East by returning Crusaders in the twelfth century. Though it had other uses in medicine and the kitchen it was the baking of gingerbread that made it a popular treat and one eventually associated with Christmas. During the Middle Ages it became so popular that special guilds of bakers were granted exclusive rights to produce the food. When it began to appear at Christmas markets in Germany in the sixteenth century, especially in Nuremberg which was a centre of the ginger trade, it began to be linked in the public mind with holiday eating.
Gingerbread appears in many varieties, light and dark, moist and dry and can be shaped into figures such as the pigs sold in the Nuremberg market or human forms or the famous gingerbread houses that grew in popularity during the nineteenth century. It has long been a custom for gingerbread ornaments to be hung on the Christmas tree and eaten when it is taken down.