There was Tiny Tim, and then the Little Drummer Boy - but they had nothing on the microscopic gingerbread house believed to be the smallest in the world and unveiled Wednesday by a Canadian researcher.

About half the size of one made in France last year, it was cut and etched from silicon, complete with sharply defined bricks and trim, and a Canadian flag for a welcome mat. 

McMaster University researcher Travis Casagrande said he used a beam of charged gallium ions that acted like a sandblaster.

Images provided by the Hamilton, Ontario school's Canadian Centre for Electron Microscopy showed the house sitting atop a cap on the head of tiny winking snowman made from materials used in lithium-ion battery research.

The pair of decorations is barely taller than the diameter of a human hair.

The center's suite of 10 electron microscopes and other equipment are used mostly for materials research.

AFP