Stockings in the 60's Christmas

[sasywtch]

My BF and I just found out that we got the same stuff in our stockings when we were kids. We did not grow up in the same area and are in our mid 50's. I'm just wondering if anyone else would get an orange, nuts in the shell and hard candy along with a few dollar store type toys? I'm just wondering what the significance was of the orange and nuts, anyone know?

 

[Tinkh]

I was born in the 70s and our stockings all had an orange, hard shell mixed nuts, an apple, a thick candy cane stick. Like an inch thick. Those things were huge! No clue what the significance was, but man this question sure brought back some memories.

 

[DVCLiz]

Same here - I was born in 1958 so all the Christmases of my growing up years were in the 60s. I remember "nuts and fruits and candy" as the mantra for our stockings - my mom said that every year. We always had a few small things tucked in, but nothing like I do for my daughters now - no iTunes cards or hundred dollar bill tucked in the toe!!

 

[tvguy]

I always got an orange and nuts in my stocks, and Googling it, it seems to be a common tradition that nobody can trace and exact reason for, except that oranges ripen in December.
I know Walmart and the grocery stores all have huge bins of nuts now so it must be a common thing for people to do.

 

[marybet]

I grew up in the 50's, we didn't get fruit in our stockings but some of my friends did. My mother always came up with great little stocking gifts!

I think getting fruit goes back to the Great Depression when people didn't have much and fruit was maybe all they got. Plus fresh fruit in the winter was probably a real treat back then.

 

[DeaverTex]

Yes! That's pretty much what I got (born in 1950). And I can't stand oranges! Plus there was always a bowl of mixed nuts on the coffee table, so I was never really sure why it was supposed to be special to find some of 'em transferred into my stocking.

 

[arminnie]

My mother told me that the orange that she got was special because it literally was the only one she would get all year.

She would be 90 if she were still here so this was in rural Arkansas in the 1920s.

Christmas was the only time of year that we had nuts (and they were in the shell) because they were expensive.

 

[Belle0101]

The '60's? Santa must have been ripping me off!! I was still getting an orange, walnuts and a giant pepermint stick up until the mid '80's. And, no Dollar Tree type gifts.

Hmpf! No cookies for the jolly old fat man this year!

 

[lemondog]

I was born in 1972 and always, always had an orange in the toe!

 

[Janepod]

Same here! (Born 1969.) And like someone mentioned above, my grandmother (born 1915) told me the orange was something they only ever got on Christmas and she looked forward to it all year. She was so excited to retire to Florida and have fresh oranges every day!

 

[*JoGo*]

I remember my grandma telling me they would get an orange in their stocking, from their dad's boss, and it was all they got. This would've been in the 1930s. So I think it was an inexpensive (seasonal) treat.

I will have to ask my mom what she got in her's.

I'm an 80s baby and never got an orange. Lots of trinkets, candy, jewelry - anything that would fit.

Dh (70s) would get toys, crayons, pencils. No orange.

My kids get toys. Sometimes bubble bath bc it takes up a lot of room! And some candy. It is getting harder as they get older. And I don't like putting things like a ds game in the stocking, that costs so much it's a "regular" gift.

 

[canopynut66]

My BF and I just found out that we got the same stuff in our stockings when we were kids. We did not grow up in the same area and are in our mid 50's. I'm just wondering if anyone else would get an orange, nuts in the shell and hard candy along with a few dollar store type toys? I'm just wondering what the significance was of the orange and nuts, anyone know?

Yep had a stocking with tangerine and hard candy and a candy cane and nuts in the shell as well and we got one big gift that we had told Santa we wanted and were thrilled to death and could not barely wait to tell our cousins Xmas day at our Grandmas (as they us) and I can almost tell you to this day each year what I got. today kids get so much they can not name them all. I remember when my first boyfriend gave me a Paper Mate ink pen and I thought I had wen to heaven.. I really thought I was Queen of the walk. and the year I got "Evening in Paris perfume" oh my gosh...that was the life this was in the 50's.

 

[pogo791]

Same generation (born in the early 1950s), same story: oranges, candy and some dollar store type toys. (No nuts, though.)

Marybet and Arminnie are probably right. My parents are from Scandinavia, and they've mentioned now and then that they very rarely got fruit when they were young. Oranges were very much a seasonal treat, and when they moved to California, it took a while for them to get used to see oranges in the store the year 'round.

As for why oranges, candies and small toys in the stocking: with a lot of kids in the house, each stocking had to have pretty much the exact same contents, otherwise there would be hurt feelings. And we were happy to get some candy to munch on and small toys to play with - after all, the bigger packages would still be waiting under the tree, and the parents wanted to keep us busy for at least a few minutes more ...

 

[cheermom1]

My mother told me that the orange that she got was special because it literally was the only one she would get all year.

She would be 90 if she were still here so this was in rural Arkansas in the 1920s.

Christmas was the only time of year that we had nuts (and they were in the shell) because they were expensive.

I grew up in Arkansas too and I was born in the 70's always got an orange and nuts and a candy cane. I do believe it was the depression that got a lot of people to put those things in stockings. My mom said that was what she got growing up too.

I don't put that is my kids stocking I always hated that stuff in my stocking.

 

[shaylyn]

I was born in the early 70's. We always had an orange at the bottom of our stocking and nuts on top of that. Can't remember what else was in there. Guess it was tradition, my grandparents put the same thing in my mom's stocking. I should start doing that with my kids!

 

[YodaGirl]

Pretty much it here, too.

Orange, nuts, lifesaver book, chocolate kisses, and a candy cane.

My grandad (born in 1922) used to get nothing but an orange for Christmas (oh, the joys of being a sharecropper's son with a dozen siblings). It does seem to be a fairly common fruit for Christmas.

 

[kayrosek]

I was born in the late 70's and always got fruit, nuts and some candy. Mostly hard candy but some chocolate. Both from my mother who had me for the holidays and my great grandmother who raised me from birth. My ggm was born in 1912 in a family with 12 kids in a tiny rural area so I definatley think it was traditional for her. My mom put all the same things in my stocking but also added jewlry or cassette tapes and some little toys. I think she just figured the fruit and nuts were a tradition as my ggm had probably done that for my gm who had in turn done the same thing for my mom.

 

[RangerPooh]

I was born in 79 but the stocking waiting for me at my gradnparents house included an orange, whole walnuts, and a .50$ piece. We also had small trinkets of some sort like earings, a mini puzzle, and a wind up toy. I never asked my grandparents about it but had assumed it was either generational (having grown up in the great depression), because they didn't ahve much money so the fruit and nuts would ahve been a treat, or it was just the norm back then.

DH was also born in the 70s and had mixed nutsion the shell in his stocking. This year we ahve decided to reign in the kids stockings and return to basics. More nuts and a few inexpensive trinkets and less "presents" in the stocking.

 

[sasywtch]

Yes! That's pretty much what I got (born in 1950). And I can't stand oranges! Plus there was always a bowl of mixed nuts on the coffee table, so I was never really sure why it was supposed to be special to find some of 'em transferred into my stocking.

OMG, that cracked me up because it's so true! We had the bowl of nuts on the table too with the silver nut cracker.
I'm quite impressed with my mom that she caught on to the customs here, even the orange and nuts as she was a war bride from England. Probably something to do with living on the farm with all my dad's family.

I was telling my BF tonight that I might put an orange and nuts in my grandkids stockings. My kids and the GK will think I'm nuts. I want to see how long it takes my sister to figure it out. What I find out is nothing was seperated either. The nuts and hard candies were just thrown in the stocking. Now, I'd probably ziplock those items seperately.

 

[NMAmy]

Yep, an orange or a tangerine in the toe, nuts, and an assortment of candy was the norm for our stockings, too. Santa also put the batteries in there that we might need for any toys we had received.

My parents both were little during the Depression. They said that fruit like orange, tangerines, and bananas were a huge treat when they were kids and was pretty much all they got for Christmas.