Amy's grandmother was one of 8 children, and grew up during the Depression Era with very modest means. Typically, the only present she received each Christmas was an orange, a gift from the church where her father was a minister. At that time, oranges were not readily available and were considered an amazing gift. In honor of that tradition, Amy's family continues to incorporate oranges into their Christmas gifting, and Amy's mother often uses arrangements of oranges and cloves in her holiday decorating.
To Amy, Christmas oranges represent the simplicity of how the holidays used to be before over-commercialization. She would love to see a return to understated, thoughtful gifting, and hopes our Orange Grove pattern helps honor that intention.
Like Amy, the orange also hold special holiday significance to Christiane. She says her favorite part of Christmas growing up was her family's stockings. When she and her brother would wake up (usually hours before their family was anywhere near ready to start celebrating), they’d find their stockings filled with small wrapped gifts sitting at the ends of their beds. They always opened them together and had so much fun despite the fact that they weren’t filled with anything especially exciting. There was maybe small a toy or two, but the majority of the stockings were filled with gift-wrapped necessities like toothpaste and soap. A tangerine was always at the bottom in the toe, and they would eat the oranges immediately.