The nuts did come out at ours. I asked Sue about it, and it was the same for her. The difference is that Sue thought it quite the treat, but I just said nuts to it. Neither of us remember when the tradition stopped, but I can't recall us continuing it after we were married. If we did, it couldn't have been for long.
Another tradition from my youth was having a box of Cadbury Dairy Box. Now, that was much better than nuts, eh? I am pretty sure that this is not how the box looked all those years ago, but the name is the same.
Sue reports a similar tradition, but it was always Pot of Gold at hers. I still see Pot of Gold in the stores, but I don't know when I last spotted a Dairy Box.
You must have your own unique memories of Christmas treats. Fess up.
Pot of Gold was on the east coast too, AC. The nut bowl too! Great memories of chocolate and nuts! So good.
ReplyDeleteBoxes of chocolate, yes. Nut bowls or platters, no.
ReplyDeleteIt was the only time of the year when I was subjected to fruitcake. Never liked it.
ReplyDeleteMy Mom made fruitcake, which was actually very tasty. She made jillions of cookies, including mincemeat cookies. Does my kid like them? Nope. Linda in Kansas
ReplyDeleteIt's Quality Street chocolates, and the bowl of nuts with all the little tools. And always the Brazil nuts nobody could crack left over. I did the nuts for a few years into our marriage, but I don't think anyone noticed when I stopped.
ReplyDeleteI've seen the Dairy Bar selection in the British shop.
ReplyDeleteWe love the nuts. I always buy a couple of mixed bags when they show up. A nice healthy snack. Clementines/Mandarins are another treat that only shows up this time of year. Apparently they are better if we buy them later in December into the New Year. The ones hitting the stores right now are shipped to green according to an article I read by a fruit buyer.
My grandmother-in-law used to make a very sweet treat called divinity, but only at Christmas. I remember it being sickly sweet, but all her grandchildren loved it. I haven't seen it in years.
ReplyDeleteWe in Hawaii don't have those brands, but we used to receive a box of See's Chocolates at Christmas. Quite expensive and always a treat.
ReplyDeleteI guess for us, it was always frosting and decorating sugar cookies, and we still do that. We've added on building gingerbread houses as well which the kids enjoy doing as long as I hot glue the gingerbread together. Frosting as glue can sometimes lead to collapses and tears.
ReplyDeleteMy Mum always had a bowl of nuts.
ReplyDeleteI buy cookies and have a couple of advent calendars which will start to be opened today. Hurray.
Would you believe I have a bowl of nuts and the nutcracker out on the kitchen table? It was tradition at my house growing up that I never really thought about until you wrote this. I noticed that the bag of mixed nuts was very heavy with walnuts and spare with pecans and only a very very few Brazil nuts. Filberts or hazelnuts were about the same as usual. One granddaughter loves to crack them. Shells go all over the kitchen floor for her and me too!
ReplyDeleteI love nuts but they have too much calories
ReplyDeleteMy grandpa had one of those nut thingies, but only with walnuts. I wasn't very good with the nutcracker and always ended up with some shell in my mouth. A not-so-fond memory was my younger brother making himself sick eating so many walnuts, then throwing up all over his pancakes. The tradition here was Almond Roca which is locally made. Now I think I would break my teeth on it!
ReplyDeleteNuts were a big deal at our place at Christmas. there was a bowl and nut cracker like in your first photo. Everybody helped themselves and not all shells landed in the bowl.
ReplyDeleteThe bowl of nuts and the nutcracker. My dad loved this.
ReplyDeleteThe nuts and the nutcrackers are memories of mine. I remember Cadbury's chocolates from my visits to Saskatchewan as a youngster. Now I can get them at the local supermarket. They're owned by Hershey's now but the formula is still the same. They're a special treat.
ReplyDeleteRibbon candy. Not the stuff that you get now, but the boxes of very thin ribbon candy. You can't find that stuff anymore.
ReplyDeleteDo you know about Village Treats in Lanark Village? Chocolate truffles are the best I have ever had. And, at Christmas, they sell chocolate mice. But the family tradition is chocolate oranges - the ones that you find in a box, looking a bit like an orange. in the stocking, there must be one of those.
ReplyDeleteI honestly don't remember any special Christmas treats from the store, although chocolate covered cherries do ring a bell. And candy canes, of course. The real treats came from mom's kitchen!
ReplyDeleteThe nut bowl with tools. Those picks were the only way to remove the meat of the hickory nuts! Grandmother's home made perogi & sausage were only made during holidays.
ReplyDeleteYes, of course we had those.
ReplyDeleteMom worked for Rotary Club of Toronto. Mr. Christie would give her cookies and crackers. Another man, three bottles of various liquors. I forget his company.
It used to be a good haul.
Growing up, my parents never had chocolates out for the holidays, but always a bowl of nuts and the nut crackers too. Brazil nuts were always a challenge to see if we could crack the shell and get an intact nut; filberts were another favorite.
ReplyDeleteNothing that you could get at the store ... although I have never met a chocolate-covered cherry in those rectangular boxes, that I could resist. No, at Christmas when I was a child, it was two things: My Mamaw's homemade divinity candy, and my Papaw's homemade fudge. Nothing before or since has tasted anything like either of these candies. They were my mother's parents, and they could cook like angels -- and not just candy. My papaw could make cornbread that tasted like cake, and butter beans, and crunchy okra fried golden brown, and little fish filets fried up with a corn meal breading. He had caught the fish himself. Mamaw made the most wonderful cornbread dressing and giblet gravy at the holidays. I miss both of them so much. xoxo
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