Christmas Isn't Christmas Without....

OK, I know it's the 2nd of December and I'm running a little late; but I wasn't sure if I was going to do this again. A big doubt in my mind was, could I think of mostly 25 (26) new things that I love about Christmas?
2 have already popped into my head, so I'm striking while the iron's hot.

Let's Begin:

Clementines

This is a Christmas stocking staple, but I eat them just about through the entirety of winter because I need some source of fruit in my life.

Apparently, they're a hybrid fruit combining a mandarin orange and a sweet orange. Proper clementines come in wooden boxes, like above, and plastic red or blue mesh. When I was a child I'd save the box because I thought it could be an appropriate bed for my dolls; their hair kept catching on the unfinished wood posts, though, as well as the fabric I put in there to make it more comfortable, so eventually I gave up.

I love how juicy they are, and how there's some tartness along with the sweet. My favourite thing about clementines, however, is how easy they are to peel!

In days of yore, citrus fruit was not so readily available, as seen in the movie Little Women where Amy, the youngest, is in raptures over an orange at Christmas breakfast and says she won't eat it, she's just going to look at it. So it makes sense that it was reserved for special occasions, like Christmas.

Especially ye olde days had people sticking whole cloves in oranges to make pomanders that would then scent the whole house, and thus that particular smell of nose-tickling citrus with warm spice is inextricably linked with Christmas. Making them does require sacrificing an orange or clementine that you would otherwise eat.

 But then again, you can get a whole pound of Florida oranges for like, $5 these days. Ah, modern times. 

Check out this link for making pomanders:

http://www.simplebites.net/how-to-make-spiced-orange-pomander-balls/