The Gingerbread Man: The Bedtime Story Retold
Quick answer: The Gingerbread Man retold for bedtime: a biscuit leaps from the oven, outruns an old couple, a cow, a horse and the threshers, and meets a polite fox at the river.
A little old woman bakes a gingerbread man with currant eyes, opens the oven door, and he is off across the kitchen before she can catch him. It is a chase with a chant, and it ends at a river with a very polite fox.
The story
A little old woman and a little old man lived in a little old house and had no children. One day the old woman rolled out gingerbread, cut it into the shape of a little man with currants for eyes and buttons, and put him in the oven. When she opened the door to look, the gingerbread man jumped up, ran across the kitchen and out of the door. The old woman ran after him and the old man ran after her, and he called back, “Run, run, as fast as you can. You can't catch me, I'm the gingerbread man.” And they couldn't.
He ran past a cow in a field. “Stop, little gingerbread man,” said the cow. “You look good to eat.” “I have run away from a little old woman and a little old man, and I can run away from you, I can.” And he did. He ran past a horse. “Stop, little gingerbread man.” “I have run away from a little old woman, a little old man and a cow, and I can run away from you, I can.” And he did. He ran through a barn full of threshers, who came after him too, and each time his boast grew longer.
At last he came to a river he could not cross. A fox was sitting on the bank. “Jump on my tail,” said the fox, “and I will carry you across.” The gingerbread man jumped on. Halfway over the fox said, “You are too heavy for my tail, jump on my back.” Then, “Jump on my nose.” When they reached the far bank the fox tossed his head, and the gingerbread man was gone.
“I'm a quarter gone,” he said. Then, “I'm half gone.” Then, “I'm three-quarters gone.” And then he said nothing at all, because he was all gone, and the fox went off licking his lips.
Where it comes from
The tale was first printed in the United States in St. Nicholas Magazine in 1875, as The Gingerbread Boy. Runaway-food tales are older and turn up across Europe, including the Norwegian pancake and the Russian round bun Kolobok. The counting-down ending belongs to the 1875 version.
What the tale is about underneath
It is a story about a boast that gets longer every time it is repeated, and about the one listener who does not chase. Everyone the gingerbread man meets runs after him and fails; the fox sits still and offers a favour. The child hears the escape chant grow and knows, without being told, that something has to stop it. The ending is about being eaten and is somehow not sad, because the gingerbread man narrates his own disappearance with perfect cheerfulness. He was always going to be eaten. He got a run first.
Reading aloud
Let the chant get faster and the list of chasers longer each time.
Write your own
Borrow the cumulative chant, the refrain that grows by one item at every stop. Then borrow the pattern-breaker: after five chasers, a character who sits still. Endings that arrive through kindness that is not kind are the oldest trick in the fox's book, and they work because repetition has taught the reader to expect one more escape.
What writers can take from this
- Say the full list of escaped chasers every time, in order. Children will stop you if you miss one.
- Give the fox the softest voice in the story.
- Move the gingerbread man from tail to back to nose slowly; each step is a small alarm.
- Count down the quarters with a straight face.
- End on the fox licking his lips, and ask if anyone would like a biscuit.
Try it yourself
Write a story with a chant that grows by one line at every stop, about something small that has escaped its maker and boasts about it. Then bring on a character who does not chase, and let the ending come from the one favour your runaway accepts.
Questions
What is the moral of The Gingerbread Man?
The story does not state one. Its plain sense is that boasting and running only get you so far, and that the one who does not chase you may be the one to watch. Many parents simply read it as a lively chase with a funny ending.
Is The Gingerbread Man suitable for a 3-year-old?
Yes. The gingerbread man is a biscuit, and children are quite clear that biscuits are for eating; the countdown at the end usually gets a laugh rather than tears. The chant is easy for very young children to join.
Where does The Gingerbread Man come from?
The earliest printed version appeared in St. Nicholas Magazine in the United States in 1875 as The Gingerbread Boy. Tales of runaway food are much older and are told across Europe, including the Norwegian pancake and the Russian round bun Kolobok.
By the Writory editorial team, reviewed by working writers. Updated September 2026.
Enter a Writory story contest
Enter the Writory Short Story Contest and have your own story read and scored out of 100. Entries close 25 November. That first entry makes you a Writorian.