There are many special traditions that bring people together during the holiday season. The significance of it has followed our families and communities for centuries. With so many amazing ways to celebrate the season, it is up to us all to share our traditions that have been passed down to us with our kin.
In the form of a children’s book, Patricia Polacco reminds many people about Christmas in the U.S. during the Great Depression. During this time, people struggled. But they still found ways to celebrate. This started the tradition of the Christmas orange. “The oranges are the highlight of Christmas for the children,” Patricia wrote.
Patricia’s book, “An Orange for Frankie,” is based on a real family. The main character –Frankie – is the youngest of nine children. “Frankie was the heart of the household – especially at Christmas. That was when the whole family came together to celebrate and gather boughs of greens to put on the mantel. Then they placed apples, dried flowers, cookies, and nuts in the green, and finally, as the crowning touch, the oranges. Nine of them! One for each of the children born to the Stowell clan,” Patricia wrote.
Frankie is Patricia’s great uncle, and the Christmas orange is her family tradition. “Every time I peel an orange and inhale the scent of it and feel the mist that sprays from its skin, I think of a very special Christmas and a flaxen-haired boy who lived many years before I was ever born. That boy was Frankie, my grandmother’s youngest brother,” she wrote.
In the story, Frankie accidentally loses his orange. He is devastated and reminded of the lengths his father went to in order to get the fruit for them. “Pa has driven a several day trip with the horse and buggy to get supplies and the prized Christmas oranges for the mantelpiece,” Patricia wrote.
Despite Frankie’s despair, his holiday is not ruined. The orange is symbolic because it represents our ability to share what we have. During Frankie’s Christmas, he gets surprised with eight loose segments of orange tied together to form a whole fruit. All of his siblings took a segment from their own oranges to surprise their brother.
