Gingerbread Houses History?

I'm making a gingerbread house for the italian restaurant I work at and I need some ideas for the decorating.
It's fine dining so I want it to look really nice, not with jube jubes and the like.

Sometimes they make me explain the food I serve to the people, I know how it sounds but that's how the place works.
If asked, what's the history of Gingerbread Houses? Where do Gingerbread Houses come from?

Making a gingerbread house is no simple task (unless of course you get one of those pre-fab houses, in which case these notes will be of little help). These houses took several gatherings, one to make the dough and the pattern pieces, one to roll out the dough and bake the pieces, one to assemble the pieces, one to decorate. The joy is really in the making.

A bit of history.
Ginger is a spice from Indo- Malaysia. The ginger root was believed to sooth an upset stomach or to prevent a cold. In 2000 B.C. wealthy Greek families sailed to the Isle of Rhodes to get spiced honey cakes. In the eleventh century, pilgrims and soldiers introduced ginger to the Europeans. The English created ginger candy. Two hundred years later, bread crumbs were added to the mixture and gingerbread almost as we know it was born.

They started to make lots of designs with Gingerbread and houses become very popular for their cute shape.