Stockings in the 60's Christmas

[harding0010]

Glade to know others got oranges also. I just thought my mom was cheap, now I know different. Never got nuts in the stocking. We had a pecan tree in the yard.

 

[Disney Ella]

We also got oranges (which no one ate), candy canes, popcorn balls and small gifts (like nail polish). We didn't get nuts in our stockings, but my parents had them out in a bowl in the living room. Christmas was the only time my parents bought nuts. They also had that yucky hard Christmas candy in a bowl too.

 

[Cindy B]

I remember getting the oranges and nuts in the stocking too. We also would either get gum or lifesavers. To put things in perspective, one of my favorite books is A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. The main character is a young preteen growing up in Depression era Brooklyn. One year her Christmas present was ten shiny pennies and an orange.

This really put the holidays in perspective.

As parents, we never really went all out for stockings. My kids are teens, so now its more of things like socks, school supplies, deoderant and body spray.

 

[Swan4Me]

Me too-the orange was in the toe

I dont remember eating fruit as a kid-and we ate sort of healthy(no fried foods)-but there wasnt a bowl of fruit out like I have in my kitchen. The only fruit I saw was Fruit Cocktailfrom a can....so an Orange must have been a luxury?

 

[Keli]

Oh oh, am I the only person who grew up in the 70's with this kind of stocking and passed the tradition on with their kids? We always had an orange, an apple, nuts, and candy (lifesaver book and assorted other candy, usually something that we particularly liked but didn't get too often) and only minimal other gifts in there.
That is exactly the type of stocking my dd grew up getting from us too! I guess it was important to me to give her the same tradition in her childhood.
We were always aware that the fruit/nuts/candy was because it was the sort of thing that was an incredible treat to my grandparents in their youth. All lived through the depression in varying levels of want and their stories made quite an impression on me as a kid.

 

[Jedana]

I'm a child of the 70s, and we always got an orange, hard candy, mixed nuts (in shell), hershey's kisses and miniatures, a plastic candy cane with "hersheyetts", a life savers hard candy book, and a candy cane. Also a few small toys, or "girl things" (makeup, hair ties, etc).

I don't do a lot of nuts anymore (maybe 1/3 lb split between everyone) since I'm the only one who really likes nuts like that. Everyone gets an apple or orange or pear (depending on their preference), and no ribbon candy (in a bowl for me!).

 

[snapppyd]

I was born in the mid '50's and we always got fruit and nuts in our stockings. Thanks for the memory!

 

[lovesmurfs]

Oh oh, am I the only person who grew up in the 70's with this kind of stocking and passed the tradition on with their kids? We always had an orange, an apple, nuts, and candy (lifesaver book and assorted other candy, usually something that we particularly liked but didn't get too often) and only minimal other gifts in there.
That is exactly the type of stocking my dd grew up getting from us too! I guess it was important to me to give her the same tradition in her childhood.
We were always aware that the fruit/nuts/candy was because it was the sort of thing that was an incredible treat to my grandparents in their youth. All lived through the depression in varying levels of want and their stories made quite an impression on me as a kid.

Child of the 70's, too (born in 67). I never received an orange, but always had the dollar store toys and candy in our stockings. Life savers storybook was ALWAYS there, along with a gingerbread man.

So now my kids always get an orange (DH always received one), some toys (windup, etc.), Life savers storybook, and a gingerbread man/girl.

It's such a shame to see how the storybook has devolved, though--used to be 10 rolls, then 8, then 5 (one side) and now I think there's only 4. Sigh.

 

[Meriweather]

No oranges here. Candy cane and small toys. Books. Born in the 50's.
I think oranges were a treat to the cold winter state when they were expensive during the winter.

Now we all get oranges in the toes of our stockings........but they are chocolate ones.
It has been a tradition for our family for years.

 

[olwyngdh]

Our family has always done this as far as I know (including Great-great, and great grandmother who met Abraham Lincoln on his whistlestop tour). I was taught:

An Orange for health,
Nuts for prosperity,
Candy for sweetness,
and a toy for joy.

And my mom found some of the coolest toys...like those trees that opened up, shot sparks and showed a Santa when you pushed on the bar, or the monkeys that swung over the bar when you pushed the buttons on the side.

Oh, and I was born in 1960.

 

[Mrs.Malone]

Our family has always done this as far as I know (including Great-great, and great grandmother who met Abraham Lincoln on his whistlestop tour). I was taught:

An Orange for health,
Nuts for prosperity,
Candy for sweetness,
and a toy for joy.

And my mom found some of the coolest toys...like those trees that opened up, shot sparks and showed a Santa when you pushed on the bar, or the monkeys that swung over the bar when you pushed the buttons on the side.

Oh, and I was born in 1960.

OMG I got one of those in my stocking one year! Thanks for the memories.

I'm a child of the 70s and we got an orange and walnuts and candy in our stockings when we were little. As we got older the orange went away and we started getting more candy and one small toy in there as well, like the spinning tree. My kids get candy and a very small toy or a new school supply like cute erasers or a neat pen.

 

[luvflorida]

I was born in 1955, and my brothers in '53 and '57, and we never got oranges or nuts in our stockings. We always got socks stuffed in the toe of our stockings, a tradition I carried on with my own kids. Poor kids!

My father was born in the early 20s and my mother in the early 30s, and they always got an orange, nuts and candy in their stockings. As my dad would tell my brothers and me every Christmas, "You kids don't know how lucky you are. My only Christmas gift every year was an orange in my stocking. I played with that thing all day, then ate it for dinner that night." He also loved to recall stories about growing up in South Boston and having to walk to school five miles uphill, both ways, in a raging blizzard, with nothing but cardboard strapped to his feet.

When I was growing up in the fifties and sixties, from Thanksgiving to Christmas, we always had a bowl of tangerines in the kitchen, a bowl of mixed nuts in the dining room and a candy dish filled with ribbon candy in the living room.

I vividly remember our nut bowl. It was round and made of wood. The outside had actual tree bark on it, and the inside had a strip of wood across the top that had holes in it to hold the silver nutcracker and several long, slender, silver picks. The picks always reminded me more of dentist tools then nut pickers or scrapers. And I remember how easy it was to get fingers pinched if you didn't hold the nutcracker just right.

I also always had a bowl of mixed nuts and a bowl of tangerines in my house when my kids were growing up. And now, our grandkids are growing up with the same tradition!

 

[dizcrazee]

Born in the early sixties here - no oranges. I got candy and small toys. However, my depression era-born parents both got oranges at Christmas time. In fact, they used to get a big box of apples and one of oranges for the whole family. They would also get a handmade item, such as a knitted scarf or mittens. My mother would get a new dress or skirt made out of flour sacks that her mother had saved all year. They were made out of a printed cotton in those days and could be used for clothing, believe it or not.

 

[Wendy31]

My parents were born in 1947 - mom in Alabama & dad in Georgia, & they both remember getting an orange & nuts in their stockings.

So, growing up (I was born in 1973 & my sister was born in 1976), we also got an orange & nuts in our stockings as well, along with an apple & a little candy, a nice large candy cane, & maybe a small toy or chapstick or something small like that - never anything expensive in the stockings!

DH also remembers getting an orange in his stocking, And we've continued the tradition w/ our 3 kids - they get an orange, an apple, some candy, a candy cane, & a couple of small things (chapstick, crayons, small toys, etc.). We also normally stuff socks in the stockings. Last year, I included a necklace in DD's stocking & a pocketknife in older DS's stocking.

For us, it's not a Christmas stocking unless it has an orange & an apple in it!

I also remember the bowl of mixed nuts in their shells along w/ a silver nutcracker that sat on the coffee table in our living room. My grandparents' nut bowl sat on their wooden stereo cabinet - along w/ a crystal dish of Christmas candies.

Just for the memories, I may get us some mixed nuts in their shells & put them in a bowl along w/ a nutcracker for us this year!

 

[fortwildernessishome]

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.

This! I remember my great aunt who would be 102 is she was alive, telling me that the fruit and nuts they got in their stocking were HUGE treats, and it was the only time of the year that they had them. On a good year, they sometimes got a shiny penny in their stocking as well!

 

[akhenaten]

My kids still get the orange and nuts... with a few other things...

 

[usnuzuloose]

I never had a stocking. You guys got good stuff.