Orange You Glad? Reclaiming oranges as a holiday favorite

Carol Goodman Kaufman
·6 min read
In the 19th century, for all but the wealthiest children, getting an orange in one's Christmas stocking was considered a treat.
In the 19th century, for all but the wealthiest children, getting an orange in one's Christmas stocking was considered a treat.

One of the best things about winter is the wide variety of citrus fruit available for us to enjoy. The vibrant oranges and yellows contrast so nicely with the drab grayness of the season that they can cheer even the Scroogiest of souls. Biting into an orange segment, teeth puncture the sweet, juice-filled vesicles and release a heavenly scent that tickles the nose. If you're not careful, you can launch an arch of spray whose droplets shimmer like prisms.

Of course, today we don't need to depend solely on California or Florida for our citrus, as one can get it throughout the year from places such as Brazil, Mexico and Chile. But back in the day, the golden orbs were a lot more difficult to obtain. In fact, even until the second half of the 20th century, finding any produce out of season was unusual.

One a holiday favorite

In today's world, cellphones, notebooks and video game consoles appear on many a child's holiday wish list. But in the 19th century, for all but the wealthiest children, getting an orange in one's Christmas stocking was considered a treat. The fruits were not native to Northern Europe, so they were probably imported from Spain or Italy. Therefore, they were a rare and expensive item and a prized gift.

Perhaps encouraged by Clement Clarke Moore's 1823 poem "A Visit From Saint Nicholas" (better known as "The Night Before Christmas"), the custom of hanging Christmas stockings became popular. The practice of placing an orange in the stocking continued well into the 20th century, both here and in Europe, and saw a resurgence during the Great Depression of the1930s when many belts tightened.

But why an orange? One theory behind the tradition stems from the reputed generosity of the original St. Nicholas (there are almost two dozen other saints bearing the name).

Born in the third century in what is now Turkey, he was the son of a wealthy merchant. As the story goes, Nicholas learned of a father and his three daughters who had fallen on hard times. Wanting to help them anonymously, he tossed three bags of gold through the window of their house. Doing a Bob Cousy (this is, after all, Worcester), he landed them right in the stockings that the girls had hung to dry over the fire.

Oranges in Christmas stockings came to represent the bags of gold.

And St. Nicholas became known to the world as Santa Claus.

A rich, citrusy history

The orange fruit is actually a berry covered by a thick rind, but it didn't grow in the wild. The sweet orange we know today is actually a hybrid between a pomelo and a mandarin. Portuguese explorer Vasco de Gama first brought sweet oranges to the Mediterranean area in 1498 following his explorations in China, where it is believed the fruit had its origin.

Although the first documentation of the sweet orange in Chinese literature dates from 314 BCE, the Chinese have actually been cultivating the fruits since 2500 BCE. (Not to be outdone, India has been growing them for at least 7,000 years.)

Over the millennia, growers have developed many varieties of oranges. In the 10th century, the Moors introduced both the fruit and a sophisticated system of irrigation to the Iberian peninsula, where the Seville and Valencia oranges became popular.

While the sweet orange didn't arrive in Italy until the late 15th or early 16th century, the bitter orange came to Sicily as early as the 9th century. It spread throughout Italy as evidenced by one of the most famous paintings in the world, Sandro Botticelli's "Primavera." Painted in the late 1400s, the work depicts a group of mythical figures frolicking in a grove of orange trees.

Although Florida has been suffering major losses since 1998 due to a disease known as citrus greening, the state remains one of the biggest producers of oranges in the U.S. today, along with California, Texas and Arizona.

By the 17th century, the sweet orange was well known throughout Europe. Wealthy people so valued it that they grew it in their own private conservatories, called orangeries. France's Louis XIV loved orange trees so much that he had built for himself the grandest of all royal orangeries at the Palace of Versailles. We here in Central Mass. have our own orangerie. The Marjorie Doyle Rockwell Orangerie at the New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill in Boylston houses a large variety of subtropical plants, including citrus trees. I haven't seen any mythical figures frolicking there, however.

While Spanish explorers introduced the sweet orange to both North and South America and to Florida in the mid-1500s, it wasn't until the 1700s that Spanish missionaries then brought orange trees to Arizona and California, where they thrived in the sunny climate.German Templers farming in 1800s Ottoman-ruled Palestine took a variety of the sweet orange developed by Arab farmers and named it the Jaffa. With great business acumen, they saw an opportunity. The recent development of the modern steamship meant that they could export the fruit to European markets in record time. That, along with the Jaffa's characteristic tough skin that made it less vulnerable to bruising in transport, clinched the deal.

At home with oranges

We may be most familiar with the varieties of orange grown in the U.S., such as the navel and the Valencia and commonly found in our supermarkets, but today there are 400 varieties of oranges that are anything but common.

While we New Englanders can't aspire to our own citrus orchards, we can have a dwarf tree or two in our homes. In fact, growing orange trees is fairly easy — even up here in New England. You just need to find the right-size pot, fertilizer and a good light source. And a strong back to bring the pot back and forth between the house and the patio if you choose to let it summer in the warm months.

Almost any sweet orange will "come true" from seed, meaning that the fruit from the planted tree will be identical to its parent. And while it may be a fun snowy-day project to grow an orange tree from seed, a grafted tree will provide you with both a higher-quality fruit and root stock resistant to problems. And a lot sooner.

Wishing you more orange and less coal in your Christmas stocking.

Moroccan Oranges with Cinnamon

This recipe will give you a light and refreshing dessert, especially nice after a heavy meal.Ingredients:2 navel oranges2 blood oranges½ cup orange juice, preferably freshly squeezed2 tablespoon orange blossom water 2 teaspoons granulated sugar ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon, plus more for garnishDirections:Peel the oranges and remove as much of the pith as possible.Cut the peeled oranges into ¼ inch slices and add to a mixing bowl.Add the other ingredients and gently toss the oranges.Cover the bowl and place in the refrigerator to chill and macerate for several hours.Arrange on dishes and sprinkle with cinnamon.Serve cold.

Serves 8

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: How oranges were once a favorite holiday treat ... and can be again