Tastebud Chicago

Camri’s Dad sent us some oranges and tangerines from sunny Florida this week. Oranges for Christmas is one of these traditions you see thrown around a lot, so I wanted to look into how it started, but I can’t find anything.

Giving oranges on Christmas seems like a tradition that should have some documentation around it, but I can’t find a definitive explanation. I guess you really don’t need one, I mean, it’s cold, oranges are like summer, it all sort of makes sense. And yet, I feel like there’s some specific origin out there that we can say: “this is the reason why oranges are a common Christmas gift.”

There is a really corny orange fable about an orphanage at Christmas. I found three instances of it: one, two, and three. The story is different in each instance, but ends with orphans taking a slice of their Christmas oranges, combining them, and giving them to an orphan that didn’t get an orange.

There’s also a few mentions of oranges for Christmas being French in origin, but no specifics beyond that. Clementines, everyone’s favorite candy-in-a-peel, are ready for eating around the holidays, giving them the nickname “Christmas Oranges.” Which might be part of the mystery.

Clementines, as an aside, are the honeycrisps of the citrus family, both in taste (sweet!) and in history. Like the honeycrisp, the clementine is a hybrid. Unlike the honeycrisp, which was ‘created’ around ten years ago, the clementine has been around for just over 100. Interestingly though, it wasn’t until the late 90’s that Americans discovered how great clementines are. A Florida cold-snap destroyed that years orange crop. To make up for it, millions of clementines were imported from Europe. Europe had known about clementines for years.

Clementine history aside, what’s up with Christmas citrus? If you know, feel free to email us. Is there a specific origin for the tradition? Other than a bunch of orphans banding together?