Perhaps the real spice in ginger is its magic, similar to the sparkle more in evidence this time of year than during other seasons. Resembling ginger’s spice, there is a warming of hearts and sometimes, even the healing of them. Of course, that’s where the magic is.
Ginger, and in particular gingerbread, has been associated with Christmas since the 17th century when gingerbread became a popular art form across Europe. It was in the 1800s when the Germans began baking and building gingerbread (lebkuchen) houses.
The popularity of these houses coincided with the publication of a Grimm’s fairytale about “Hansel and Gretel,” two children who could not resist eating a gingerbread house. Very few people ever have, young or old.
Gingerbread houses are still associated with the holidays, a remembrance of one way the magic is celebrated. After all, gingerbread houses have their own kind of magic, rather like the hearts of children in any season but during Christmas, well….
You can see it in their eyes every day of the season, reflected in the soft glow of colored lights, mirrored in the round, red baubles hanging from the branch of a Christmas tree.
If you are fortunate enough to catch a child’s image in a bulb, you might also look more closely into what the ornament reveals for you. It is not as if the magic excludes.
It is as if we are once again that child in stolen moments wondering just what awaits us. Perhaps wishing for a certain gift or just being dazzled by the sparkle of everywhere we look. The scent of the freshly cut tree, an aroma reserved for one time of year only.
As an adult I may be mostly Buddhist but I delight in remembering the Christmases of holiday seasons past. Also, I
am almost child-like in enjoying the wonders of this giving season, be it gingerbread houses or their creators with their works in progress.
For me, there is no greater love than in the eyes of these two children, my great-niece and great-nephew. In their home, they carry on their family tradition of celebrating Christmas. They share it with me—some 2,000 miles away—courtesy of their grandmother’s love—and her camera.
Every time I look at these photos, it is Christmas.
And yes, there is my naïve hope that the heart of the giving season—the magic that the heart of a child knows—will stay as the heart of the world this year and not be boxed up with the shiny bulbs and colored lights.
We can hold onto the spirit of the season—there is no need to keep it locked away for another year—its spice will sustain us, heal us like the ginger so necessary for a gingerbread house.
The spirit opens our hearts in ways we find difficult—even impossible–during other seasons. Increasingly, we are weary of the shininess of the season yet we thrill to the glow of colored lights, imagining lives behind windows in gingerbread houses, as if magic only lived in the imagination.
It does not. It lives within our hearts.
Any child can remind us on any day. It is for us to return to a moment in our lives–maybe it’s Christmas or maybe it’s not–when we believed in magic, the spice that heals.
KM Huber's Blog 
I missed this post before Karen – lovely. It is definitely a time for childish things so it is handy to have some to turn to! Best wishes for the season!
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Hi, Diana! Hope you and yours enjoyed the holiday season. As you say, it is a time for childish things. For me, that can me quite a change in perspective, and once again, it has.
Karen
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Such a sweet gift to your readers, too!
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Thanks, Ann! 🙂
Karen
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Nice. I can feel the warmth of the kitchen.
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Thanks, Tim! As you can tell, these two are quite special to me.
Karen
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We make a gingerbread house every year. Not a tradition in my house growing up, but my boys still love to do it. And I pulled out my mother’s recipe for gingerbread–one she never got around to trying– that I rescued from the heaping pile of recipes to be recycled after her death. Something about homemade gingerbread with whipped cream that just says the holidays . . .
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I agree, Kay! Gingerbread, though not a tradition in my house either, is always a part of my holidays now. Thanks!
Karen
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i still remember living in a child’s world of magic. i distinctly remember thinking at the time “all the adults have forgotten about this, but I will not forget”. thanks for reminding us about it in your wonderful blog.
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It is a wonderful world, isn’t it, Craig? More and more I am convinced we need to remember magic heals hearts. Thanks so much, Craig.
Karen
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You should see the magic of gingerbread at the Front Porch Library! Gingerbread, or any cookie-like enterprise will be decorated as if by Jackson Pollock. Talk about joy that is too big to contain in a box, or even the heart!
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I can just imagine, Adrian! In fact, I did think of the Front Porch Library as I wrote the post. That is a place where joy is never contained. Thanks, Adrian.
Karen
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What a delightful post and pictures… and the memories they bring.
Last night I went Caroling with a bunch of Baptists (who are really nice people!), a few Methodists, and some Catholics… hmm, let me say they are all nice people… they all know I am a Buddhist, but I put together this Caroling every year with my ulterior motive of getting the different church groups together in a cooperative venture (that does not include sports or violence). I do this because I have hopes for them. They do it because they have hopes for me! LOL! But it is all good!
Great post, fun.
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For me, the season is about your caroling venture that you put together every year. In hopes of bringing all of us together, we find some common activity like singing! It is a point of beginning, a memory that may become more. As you say, it is all good. Glad you enjoyed the post, and thank you for this lovely comment.
Karen
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