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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:32:43 PM EDT
[#1]
Merry Christmas, OP
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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:35:07 PM EDT
[#2]
On that note I will have an orange.
Great story. |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:35:32 PM EDT
[#3]
I like those little oranges.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:37:07 PM EDT
[#4]
When I was a little kid, our Christmas stockings had an Orange and Walnuts in it as well as small gifts, a roll of Lifesavers candy, a candy cane and a few small toys. This was the early 60's.
I remember the The Hat song. "My hat it has three corners, three corners has my hat.." thats all I remember. |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:39:04 PM EDT
[#5]
Mom used to stab cloves all over an orange, and it would dry out and shrink down, they smelled amazing, they were always around during the Christmas holiday times as decoration.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:42:37 PM EDT
[#6]
My grandmother still gives everyone an orange as part of their gift every year.
Growing up on a farm in Utah during the 30s and 40s she said that as kids their Christmas oranges were always a special treat. |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:42:44 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: When I was a little kid, our Christmas stockings had an Orange and Walnuts in it as well as small gifts, a roll of Lifesavers candy, a candy cane and a few small toys. This was the early 60's. I remember the The Hat song. "My hat it has three corners, three corners has my hat.." thats all I remember. Mein Hut er hat drei ecken, Drei Ecken hat Mein Hut. Und hab’ er nicht drei Ecken, Den das it’s nicht Mein Hut! |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:45:03 PM EDT
[#8]
Chip beef on toast. The only cuss word my father ever said.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:45:44 PM EDT
[#9]
My mom was raised in her grandparents’ home on a dirt farm in Ashford, a rural town in south Alabama (“LA-Lower Alabama” as she joked). An orange was a treat on Christmas indeed. When we were children, even though we were between middle and upper middle class, there was always an orange filling out the toe of our stocking. My children get one in their stockings too.
ETA @tontogoldstein thanks for posting this. It made me think fondly of my mother, who I lost on 9/1/21. |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 9:57:10 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted: My grandmother still gives everyone an orange as part of their gift every year. Growing up on a farm in Utah during the 30s and 40s she said that as kids their Christmas oranges were always a special treat. My grandparents grew up during the great depress. They always said an orange and a piece of chocolate was their gift. |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:01:19 PM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Mein Hut er hat drei ecken, Drei Ecken hat Mein Hut. Und hab' er nicht drei Ecken, Den das it's nicht Mein Hut! Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: When I was a little kid, our Christmas stockings had an Orange and Walnuts in it as well as small gifts, a roll of Lifesavers candy, a candy cane and a few small toys. This was the early 60's. I remember the The Hat song. "My hat it has three corners, three corners has my hat.." thats all I remember. Mein Hut er hat drei ecken, Drei Ecken hat Mein Hut. Und hab' er nicht drei Ecken, Den das it's nicht Mein Hut! It was from the 2nd grade, probably 1962ish. Back when California wasn't commie. 
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:09:23 PM EDT
[#12]
My Mom was born in Germany in 1929. While growing up she always told us how lucky she was even though the only thing in her sock on Christmas morning was an orange.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:10:30 PM EDT
[#13]
Oma always gave us oranges at Christmas
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:13:54 PM EDT
[#14]
Cool story, used to get an orange in the toe of my stocking every year.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:14:17 PM EDT
[#15]
I still get them in my stocking at my insistance. They serve as a reminder to be thankful for what I receive and that there are many who receive less yet are still very thankful that they got anything at all.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:15:01 PM EDT
[#16]
Thought you were gonna be talking about this.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:24:25 PM EDT
[#17]
Just ate one. I feel better.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:29:56 PM EDT
[#18]
We always had an orange in our stocking as well. Mom said it was because of the children's book "Sweet Smell of Christmas". Sounds like it is a tradition that goes back quite a ways, which is why it was in the book.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:31:08 PM EDT
[#19]
It was the only time we got mandarin oranges. Our farms had small gardens with navel oranges.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:41:34 PM EDT
[#20]
My Dad ( born 1922. ) got an orange for Christmas one year, and was happy to get it.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:50:39 PM EDT
[#21]
My brother and I throughout the 80s and 90s always got oranges as part of our stockings and never understood the significance until we got older. It made us a lot thankful for what we have now.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 10:53:35 PM EDT
[#22]
Cool story, OP. And I mean that. It is an actual cool story.
Sometimes, it's those little things that take us back to simpler times; to when we were children. Had less, then, than I do, now. But back then, I think I was happier. Hell, I think EVERYONE was happier. At least it seemed that way. |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:02:20 PM EDT
[#23]
Quoted: I was born in 1955. In 1962 I entered the 2nd grade at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Temple, TX. I was the youngest of four kids. Mom took care of us at home. Dad was a career Army NCO. The pay back then was about $400/month. Dad was stationed at Fort Hood, but we lived 25 miles away in Temple. My little German mother told Dad that she wasn’t going to raise her family in Killeen, a town she considered full of bars, prostitutes, and pawn shops. That is the setting of my little story. Come Christmas each class would prepare a song for the school Christmas pageant. I recall that we didn’t sing a Christmas song but rather a German tune called Mein Hut or in English, My Hat. We sang it in English and German probably because most of the nuns at school were German. When we finished we sat with the audience in the big parish hall. When all was done we kids lined up so we could cross the stage and be given an apple and an orange. As impossible as it may seem to people today, getting an apple and an orange was a big deal to a little kid. Most of us kids were from the much-less-well-to-do side of town. If doctors and accountants were middle class, we weren’t there economically. Yes, an orange was a big deal to a little kid from the south side of the tracks. The only thing we didn’t eat was the rind itself and of course the seeds. Frankly it still is special 60 years later. Mrs Rabinowitz didn’t understand at first. She would quarter an orange and then cut away the peel leaving some of the good parts still attached. I would grab the peel and pull the good stuff away from the peel and eat it happily. “You don’t need to do that. We have plenty of oranges,” she said. I explained to her how special an orange was and that I couldn’t waste any of it. Mrs Rabinowitz was raised in a Navy officer’s family. They never did without. I was the son of an old cavalry trooper. We never had too much. We did have enough. To this day an orange is a special treat. It takes me back to happy times. Heck, I consider chipped beef on toast to be a delicacy. That’s another story for another time. Merry Christmas to all. Enjoy an orange. My dad was a truck driver and mom stayed home and milked the cows. Getting an apple and an orange from the church at Christmas was a special treat. I well remember those days. kwg |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:05:16 PM EDT
[#24]
Any kid that grew up going to a Dutch Christian reformed church would associate chocolate and oranges with Christmas time. My kids are now 18 and 22, and every Christmas I get them one of those orange flavored chocolate oranges like someone posted above.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:06:25 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted: My mom was raised in her grandparents’ home on a dirt farm in Ashford, a rural town in south Alabama (“LA-Lower Alabama” as she joked). An orange was a treat on Christmas indeed. When we were children, even though we were between middle and upper middle class, there was always an orange filling out the toe of our stocking. My children get one in their stockings too. ETA @tontogoldstein thanks for posting this. It made me think fondly of my mother, who I lost on 9/1/21. 14 October 2022 for my mother, and this story made me think of her and the oranges she put in our stockings. I miss her tremendously. |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:06:55 PM EDT
[#26]
Very well written and a great story OP.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:14:53 PM EDT
[#27]
Cool story. I was born in '79, went to Catholic elementary school. I also learned the German hat song early on. I have long forgotten about it until now. Memory unlocked.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:22:43 PM EDT
[#28]
Quoted: I was born in 1955. In 1962 I entered the 2nd grade at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Temple, TX. I was the youngest of four kids. Mom took care of us at home. Dad was a career Army NCO. The pay back then was about $400/month. Dad was stationed at Fort Hood, but we lived 25 miles away in Temple. My little German mother told Dad that she wasn’t going to raise her family in Killeen, a town she considered full of bars, prostitutes, and pawn shops. That is the setting of my little story. Come Christmas each class would prepare a song for the school Christmas pageant. I recall that we didn’t sing a Christmas song but rather a German tune called Mein Hut or in English, My Hat. We sang it in English and German probably because most of the nuns at school were German. When we finished we sat with the audience in the big parish hall. When all was done we kids lined up so we could cross the stage and be given an apple and an orange. As impossible as it may seem to people today, getting an apple and an orange was a big deal to a little kid. Most of us kids were from the much-less-well-to-do side of town. If doctors and accountants were middle class, we weren’t there economically. Yes, an orange was a big deal to a little kid from the south side of the tracks. The only thing we didn’t eat was the rind itself and of course the seeds. Frankly it still is special 60 years later. Mrs Rabinowitz didn’t understand at first. She would quarter an orange and then cut away the peel leaving some of the good parts still attached. I would grab the peel and pull the good stuff away from the peel and eat it happily. “You don’t need to do that. We have plenty of oranges,” she said. I explained to her how special an orange was and that I couldn’t waste any of it. Mrs Rabinowitz was raised in a Navy officer’s family. They never did without. I was the son of an old cavalry trooper. We never had too much. We did have enough. To this day an orange is a special treat. It takes me back to happy times. Heck, I consider chipped beef on toast to be a delicacy. That’s another story for another time. Merry Christmas to all. Enjoy an orange. I am back in Ellis Co KS near your mom’s childhood stomping grounds. I remember many a tale of christmas oranges, popcorn, and of course, der belsnickel |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:24:01 PM EDT
[#29]
I was born the year before you, OP. My mother was British. Every Christmas our stocking would have an apple, an orange, a dime and some nuts, along with the small toys & such. It was always a special thing.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:26:01 PM EDT
[#30]
Used to always get an orange at the bottom of my Christmas stocking. I miss that.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:26:35 PM EDT
[#31]
Thanks for sharing that story.
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:30:27 PM EDT
[#32]
A Very Merry Happy and Healthy Christmas to you OP and all of ARFCOM!
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:38:50 PM EDT
[#33]
Quoted: I was born in 1955. In 1962 I entered the 2nd grade at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Temple, TX. I was the youngest of four kids. Mom took care of us at home. Dad was a career Army NCO. The pay back then was about $400/month. Dad was stationed at Fort Hood, but we lived 25 miles away in Temple. My little German mother told Dad that she wasn’t going to raise her family in Killeen, a town she considered full of bars, prostitutes, and pawn shops. That is the setting of my little story. Come Christmas each class would prepare a song for the school Christmas pageant. I recall that we didn’t sing a Christmas song but rather a German tune called Mein Hut or in English, My Hat. We sang it in English and German probably because most of the nuns at school were German. When we finished we sat with the audience in the big parish hall. When all was done we kids lined up so we could cross the stage and be given an apple and an orange. As impossible as it may seem to people today, getting an apple and an orange was a big deal to a little kid. Most of us kids were from the much-less-well-to-do side of town. If doctors and accountants were middle class, we weren’t there economically. Yes, an orange was a big deal to a little kid from the south side of the tracks. The only thing we didn’t eat was the rind itself and of course the seeds. Frankly it still is special 60 years later. Mrs Rabinowitz didn’t understand at first. She would quarter an orange and then cut away the peel leaving some of the good parts still attached. I would grab the peel and pull the good stuff away from the peel and eat it happily. “You don’t need to do that. We have plenty of oranges,” she said. I explained to her how special an orange was and that I couldn’t waste any of it. Mrs Rabinowitz was raised in a Navy officer’s family. They never did without. I was the son of an old cavalry trooper. We never had too much. We did have enough. To this day an orange is a special treat. It takes me back to happy times. Heck, I consider chipped beef on toast to be a delicacy. That’s another story for another time. Merry Christmas to all. Enjoy an orange. Thank you, sir. This is a story from my youth too. Have told my kids many times. Grew up Catholic (C&E, lol) in the UK and Scotland. Went to a Catholic school. Every year at Christmas we’d get an orange in our stocking, and it was kind of a big deal. Citrus in the UK in Dec? In the 60’s and 70’s? Supply lines weren’t like modern days. Stuff was expensive because it had to be shipped from Southern Spain, or maybe even further. I looked forward to it. A really special treat then. Life was simpler. And harder. But we still enjoyed it. |
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Posted: 12/20/2022 11:53:44 PM EDT
[#34]
Thanks for the reminder; lost my mom July 17th, 2020 to Breast Cancer.
Everyone always had a mandarin orange in the Christmas stockings as kids; along with a pack of pencils with our names on them. |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 8:29:10 AM EDT
[#35]
Thanks for the story.
Not to get political... I think one of the biggest problems in the USA today is we don't appreciate the oranges in life. Everything is taken for granted. |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 3:29:28 PM EDT
[#36]
Oranges with a billion cloves stuck in them hanging around. Also all the baptists in the family made run soaked fruitcake for the holidays lol.
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Posted: 12/21/2022 3:36:20 PM EDT
[#37]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Mom used to stab cloves all over an orange, and it would dry out and shrink down, they smelled amazing, they were always around during the Christmas holiday times as decoration. my wife still does this. |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 3:39:15 PM EDT
[#38]
We used to sing "Mein Hut" too. I can still remember the tune but forget the words if I ever actually knew them. Now the kids get drag shows instead.
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Posted: 12/21/2022 3:40:35 PM EDT
[#39]
Merry Christmas!
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Posted: 12/21/2022 3:57:59 PM EDT
[#40]
I always got an orange and a quarter in my shoes for Nikolaustag.
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Posted: 12/21/2022 3:58:32 PM EDT
[#41]
To this day, the smell of an orange being peeled takes me back to Christmas of my youth. About the only time we got oranges was in our Christmas stockings. I was born in 1957, and Dad retired as a CW2 in 1960.
Thanks for the memories, OP. |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 4:08:29 PM EDT
[#42]
I remember that when I would go to the UAW Christmas events in Indiana as a kid. They would rent out the movie theater and play 1 or more christmas movies/shows and I distinctly remember getting oranges.
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Posted: 12/21/2022 6:05:42 PM EDT
[#43]
Born 1962, always got an orange in my stocking.
German heritage. |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 6:19:04 PM EDT
[#44]
My kids still get an apple, an orange, and walnuts in their stockings, just like I did, the generation before me, and the generation before that.
Of course, the two generations preceding me that was likely all that they got. I have, of course, told my children why they get an apple, and orange, and walnuts in their stocking. Hopefully it’s sunk in over the years |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 6:25:34 PM EDT
[#45]
My kids get oranges in their stockings, same as I did, and my dad before me.
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Posted: 12/21/2022 6:35:58 PM EDT
[#46]
We'd get fruit in our stockings.
Merry Christmas all. |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 6:53:35 PM EDT
[#47]
I can relate Tonto.
 I started 1st grade in '63 at our St. Mary's School, where I met the future Mrs. Powderfinger (we didn't date until our mid 20s). Dad was a meat cutter at Safeway. We didn't dine on roast beef much but we ate well. Mom made a green salad every night to go with dinner. My grandma went to a nondenominational church that put on a Christmas show that we went to. They would pass out a small paper sack afterwards to the kids with an orange, nuts in the shell and a candy cane. Oranges were an uncommon treat for some latitudes and demographics, I guess. My dad mentioned that recently also and that one for Christmas was a big deal, but he grew up poor and neglected. Merry Christmas! |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 6:59:07 PM EDT
[#48]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Mom used to stab cloves all over an orange, and it would dry out and shrink down, they smelled amazing, they were always around during the Christmas holiday times as decoration. My wife just made one. She's done it before but it's not really a tradition for us. My ancestry is German Catholic and I never came across the orange thing. St Nicholas would bring us nuts and hard candy on Dec 6, St Nicholas day. |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 7:06:42 PM EDT
[#49]
We got pecan's as well. But the oranges were kind of special - they were from the Texas Valley. They don't produce a huge number, but they wait till very late to pick them and were very sweet. I just wish it was easier for me to get them now. When a store gets them, it tends to be one shipment and they are gone for another year.
We also got pecans in our bag with the orange and apple. Neither oranges or apples grow well here. Oranges can not take a freeze, Apples need hard freezes - we generally only have a short freeze or 2 a winter. |
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Posted: 12/21/2022 7:10:03 PM EDT
[#50]
Quote HistoryQuoted: We got pecan's as well. But the oranges were kind of special - they were from the Texas Valley. They don't produce a huge number, but they wait till very late to pick them and were very sweet. I just wish it was easier for me to get them now. When a store gets them, it tends to be one shipment and they are gone for another year. We also got pecans in our bag with the orange and apple. My mother makes candied pecans that are stupid good. I like oranges in my wassail. |
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