Gingerbread men often become a staple in our diets at this time of year but one cafe has ditched the traditional treat in favour of a more inclusive biscuit.
When a customer at The Tannery in Auckland questioned why the human-shaped snacks were called 'gingerbread men' and not 'gingerbread people', owner Andre Cettina was inspired to make a change.
The label on the jar has now been changed to read 'gingerbread gender-neutral person'.
The jar of biscuits on the front counter has caused a stir, with customers taking photos and sharing them on social media, as well as sparking a debate on the cafe's Facebook page.
"It was completely tongue-in-cheek at the start," said Andre, as reported by Stuff.co.nz . "But it's become a really good conversation piece in the cafe.
"We've had a lot of people commenting saying 'stop being so pedantic, it's just a biscuit'. I had to reply to them going, 'did you miss the whole point?'
"It used to be that 90 per cent of the time we sold [the gingerbread biscuits], it was to kids. There's a lot more people buying them now, which is quite funny."
Andre added the cafe had received positive feedback from customers who saw 'humour' in the name change.
The Tannery posted a photo of the jar on it's Facebook page with the caption 'A little something for everyone' with a winking face.
Not everyone agreed with the change with one saying: "PC gone mad, always been gingerbread man, why change now. It's a biscuit, not a living creature. I find this all so sad!!"
Another replied to the comment to say: "Me too! Soon we won't be able to use the term human, we'll all be hupeople."
Arguing against the points, a third replied: "Not sure why people getting so mad. This is a conversation starter, and these issues won't be dealt with until we are open to talking about them.
"People getting mad about this completely miss the point of what it could achieve.
"It isn't 'PC gone mad', it's an opportunity to take a good hard look at yourself and your feelings around a sensitive topic and do some real introspective work on why you feel the way you do."
It's not the first time retailers have shunned the gingerbread man, with the Co-op last year also baking up its own gender neutral version .
The store gave the gingerbread person a gender neutral outfit and eventually called the character 'Crumbs' after encouraging customers to come up with a name.
