Christmas Oranges

I will never forget the thrill of being a child with a Christmas stocking bursting with gifts and treats on Christmas morning. Every year my siblings and I would tear through our stockings, pulling out toys and candy, and every year in the very bottom of the stocking would be an orange.

We never ate the oranges, at least not on Christmas. We would take them right back to the kitchen where they came from and put them back in the fridge.

Yet, the very next year, an orange would be there, nestled snugly in the toe of the stocking. And again, it would end up back in the fridge. It wasn’t that we didn’t like oranges, but there were so many other treats in the stocking and oranges were something that was always found in our fridge.

Oranges were common. They weren’t anything special.

Finally, when I was older, I asked my mom why she always put an orange in the bottom of our stockings when none of us kids ever actually ate the orange. My mom admitted that the orange was more for her than for us.

She explained how when she was young, oranges were a real treat. Something she didn’t get very often. Occasionally, she would get one in her stocking at Christmas and she always thought it was the best thing in the world. She talked about the thrill of peeling the orange, the fragrance tickling her nostrils, and the first bite that was pure heaven.

Her memories of biting into a juicy, ripe orange made me want to go out and buy a bunch of oranges and just sit down and devour them. My mom admitted that she put the oranges in our stockings to remind herself how far she had come, and how lucky her own kids were. Oranges were no longer a treat, but an everyday thing. We had access to oranges whenever we wanted one, something my mom never had growing up.

The funny thing is now that my siblings and I are all adults we look back on those oranges fondly. It was the one thing we all reminisce about when talking about our Christmas stockings. We all remember those oranges in the bottom of the stocking, and laugh about how we honestly would have been disappointed if my mom ever decided not to include one. We may not have eaten those oranges, but they were a very important part of our childhood.

It’s funny how the small, seemingly insignificant things can be the ones that make the holidays a more magical and joyous time of year.

And that is something we all need to remember - this year especially.

May your holidays be bright and your oranges juicy!

-Amy Young

Confessions of a GenX Mom