Gingerbread cookies are one of my favorite Christmas treats! I bought my son the book, The Gingerbread Pirates, because it looked cute and combined both my love of Christmas stories and gingerbread cookies. This book started us a gingerbread stories journey, where we read all that we could find! We’ve put together a list of our favorite gingerbread stories to share with you. At the bottom of the post, I’ve added some other gingerbread-themed activities so you can add to the fun!
12 Gingerbread Stories:
1. Tough Cookie: a Christmas Story by Edward Hemingway–
This book is so funny! Get ready to laugh your way through this updated gingerbread man story, featuring a tough cookie. Cookie claims to be a delicious sugar cookie, but he isn’t sweet and cookie isn’t fast. Cookie taunts Fox, who immediately catches Cookie. Fox tries to take a bite, but hurts his tooth! What a tough cookie! An unlikely friendship forms between the two and Fox sets out to help Cookie be his best cookie-self in this hilarious picture book.
2. The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup–
Cookies and pirates together in one sweet Christmas story! A boy and his mom make gingerbread pirate cookies for Santa. The boy’s favorite is Captain Cookie and he takes the captain to his room. After the boy falls asleep, Captain Cookie goes in search of his cookie crew, who he needs to save from being eaten by Santa! Along the way, the cookie discovers Christmas wonders and finally meets Santa himself. Captain Cookie challenges Santa in a daring attempt to save crew. Santa promises not to eat the gingerbread pirates before delivering a bit of his Christmas magic to the cookies. Pirate-obsessed and imaginative kids will enjoy this book and its magical ending!
3. The Gingerbread Man Loose at Christmas by Laura Murray–
Lisa Murray’s Gingerbread Man has a whole series of adventures! In this rhyming Christmas book, the Gingerbread Man learns about the spirit of giving. The kids make cards, sing songs, and bake treats for their community. The Gingerbread Man knows just who he wants to make a card for and he sets out with his class to give their gifts. The Gingerbread Man gets separated from his class and his little cookie legs get hurt in the snow. He doesn’t give up and he hobbles up to the shop with his card to give out. Read this book to find out who the Gingerbread Man’s special card is for! This little cookie has many other stories too. Be sure to check out The Gingerbread Loose at the Zoo and The Gingerbread Man Loose at School.
4. How to Catch a Gingerbread Man by Adam Wallace–
In this storybook-themed adventure in the “How to Catch” series, author, Adam Wallace, brings us a rhyming story of the Gingerbread Man. One day during story time, the Gingerbread Man leaps off the page of his book and takes off through the book store. The kids make a whole bunch of traps to catch him, but the Gingerbread Man’s storybook friends come to his rescue! The Gingerbread Man escapes all of the traps, but notices that the kids are sad that they can’t finish the book. The cookie leaps back onto the page so that everyone can finish the story. Grown-ups will enjoy seeing their childhood book friends come to the Gingerbread Man’s aid.
5. The Gingerbread Bear by Robert Dennis–
I love this twist on the classic folktale! In this version, at mom bakes a gingerbread bear cookie for her daughter. But before it can be eaten, the Gingerbread Bear escapes! It runs all over Woodlands National Park, escaping everyone who traps to trap it. A clever park ranger manages to trick the cookie and put an end to the chase. This story prompted us to learn more about Woodlands National Park.
6. The Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett–
I absolutely love Jan Brett’s books! Her illustrations are fantastic and the gingerbread baby is so cute. In this twist on the classic folktale, a family makes a gingerbread baby who jumps out of the oven and runs through town. One after another, the people and the animals give chase. The boy, however, has a plan. He bakes a gingerbread house and the cookie, looking for a place to hide from everyone, runs inside. Now the gingerbread baby lives safely inside his gingerbread house.
7. Ten Tiny Gingerbread Men by Tiger Tales–
This book is lots of fun to explore thanks to the peek-though windows revealing the gingerbread cookies. In this story, ten gingerbread men love bouncing everywhere. Turn the pages and follow these cute gingerbread men as they count down from 10 to 1. My son loves counting the gingerbread men and all of the glitter accents!
8. Gingerbread Mouse by Katy Bratun–
One day little mouse’s home is destroyed by a falling branch, so she sets off to find a new home. Little mouse explores a human house where she discovers the perfect home for her — a gingerbread house! Little mouse makes a cozy rug for her new house and adds a dresser. Mouse settles into her new home and falls asleep. She’s awakened by Santa, who has brought her a new house to live in. This new house will last longer than a gingerbread house! Mouse adores her new doll house and quickly moves in. To mouse’s surprise, a little girl knew she was there all along and leaves mouse a present of a gingerbread cookie in the shape of mouse. My son loved that mouse got a new house all of her own!
9. The Gingerbread Boy by Paul Galdone–
My son loves Paul Galdone’s retelling of folktales! In this tale, a woman makes a gingerbread cookie in the shape of a boy. When the woman opens the over, the cookie jumps up and runs away! As the cookie runs, it comes across a cow, a horse, some men–none of who could catch him! “Run, run, run. Catch me if you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the the gingerbread boy, I am, I am!” The overconfident cookie meets a a clever fox, who manages to trick the cookie and eats it up! Paul Galdone’s rhymes are lots of fun, as well as the subtle humor in the story.
10. Gingerbread Christmas by Jan Brett–
Gingerbread Baby and his friend, Matti, take his gingerbread band to the town’s Christmas Festival. The gingerbread band are a huge a hit! Everything is going great until the children start smelling the yummy gingerbread and get hungry. Yikes! Run away, gingerbread band! Matti uses snow to disguise the gingerbread instruments while Gingerbread Baby leads the audience on a merry chase. Gingerbread Baby finds a great spot to hide in the Christmas tree where he is safe from the hungry crowd. Fantastic pictures and lots of humor make this book a great choice for Christmas stories.
11. Catch the Cookie! by Hallie Durand–
Cookies can’t come to life and runaway, can they? A boy named Marshall and his class are surprised when their cookies disappear. Now they have to solve rhyming clues to find the missing cookies! This story is lots of fun and a great mystery.
12. The Gingerbread Pup by Maribeth Boelts–
A girl named Evalina desperately wishes for someone loyal to be her friend. She gets a great idea to make a puppy out of gingerbread. However, the gingerbread pup springs to life and runs right out the door! Evalina chases the pup and soon the other villagers join in the chase. Will anyone be able to catch the cookie? Like in the classic folktale of The Gingerbread Boy, the cookie runs to the edge of a river, where he hitches a ride. This time, the cookie partners with a shaggy dog, who isn’t a trickster, and safety gets the cookie across the river. Turns out the dog is stray and Evelina adopts it! In a fun twist, Evalina bakes a gingerbread boy to befriend the gingerbread pup and everyone lives happily ever after!
Check your library for these and other gingerbread stories. To help cover the costs of this site, I joined Amazon’s Affiliate program. If you buy a book through one of my links, then I get a small percentage of the sale (at no additional cost to you). Thank you for your support! Happy Reading 🙂
More Gingerbread Fun!
Find the Differences: My son loves “find the differences” activities and he asked if he could design one. He made this cute gingerbread themed Find the Differences (free downloadable PDF) worksheet. Can you find all 5 differences?
Gingerbread Math Worksheet: count the number of gingerbread cookies in each box and circle the number.
Mosaic Gingerbread Man Craft: make a cute gingerbread man out of construction paper.
Cookie Activities!
Read some more COOKIE STORIES together! I’ve gathered 10 great cookie stories for you to read with your child.
Cookie Cutter Craft: We turned some of our cookie cutters into stencils and made paper Christmas cookies!
