Abraham Lincoln’s Favorite Christmas Cookie Will Never Go Out of Style

When it comes to holiday food, the less that changes, the better. We want to dig into the same green bean casserole that sat on grandma’s table or keep the legend of grandpa’s milk punch alive. In fact, food is where the “tradition” of the holidays really comes to life, no matter what table you’re celebrating from.

So, it’s really no surprise that a cookie loved in President Abraham Lincoln’s day is still passed around on cookie platters today. What is a bit surprising, though, is how his love for this humble, old-fashioned treat became a thing of legend.

Abraham Lincoln’s Gingerbread Men Cookies

Unlike some of Abe’s other favorite foods—like the vanilla almond cake he once declared “the best in Kentucky,” or the hearty corn dodgers he loved so much he’d “fill his pants pockets” for a midday snack—this cookie isn’t necessarily remembered for its great taste. In fact, we don’t even have a recipe to recreate it.

But what we do have is a story that reveals why it was a meaningful part of Lincoln’s youth—and even his presidency. 

Honest Abe was known for using stories and humor to make a point, and during one of the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858, he lightened the crowd with a short tale that reached back to his childhood in Indiana and his fondness for one simple treat: gingerbread men.

The story, which was captured by biographer Carl Sandburg in “The Prairie Years” and later retold in “The Presidents’ Cookbook” by Poppy Cannon and Patricia Brooks, went like this:

“When we lived in Indiana,” the future president began, “once in a while my mother used to get some sorghum and ginger and make some gingerbread. It wasn’t often, and it was our biggest treat. One day I smelled gingerbread and came into the house to get my share while it was hot. My mother had baked me three gingerbread men. I took them out under a hickory tree to eat them.

There was a family near us, poorer than we were, and their boy came along as I sat down. ‘Abe,’ he said, ‘gimme a man?’ I gave him one. He crammed it into his mouth in two bites and looked at me while I was biting the legs off my first one. ‘Abe, gimme that other’n?’ I wanted it myself, but I gave it to him. ‘You seem to like gingerbread.’ ‘Abe,’ he said, ‘I don’t s’pose anybody on earth likes gingerbread better’n I do—and gets less’n I do.’”

The audience at the debate was charmed, and soon newspapers picked up the story, too. In just a few sentences, Lincoln revealed a side that the public adored: humble, kind, and disarmingly funny—even when talking about cookies. And so, a comforting, old-fashioned gingerbread man, sweetened with sorghum, became a quiet but lasting part of Lincoln’s story. 

Even though Abe’s tale didn’t necessarily take place around Christmas, it still gives us a reason to make sure gingerbread has a place on our holiday tables today—not just because it’s an undeniably delicious, warmly-spiced crowd-pleaser, but because it reminds us of the spirit of the season.

We might not have Nancy Hanks Lincoln’s original recipe, but we do have one or two that will help you keep this little piece of presidential history and family tradition alive.