They always contained a LARGE apple, a LARGE orange, Hard candy (jelly filled or ribbon) peanuts in the shell, a handful of regular nuts in their shells, one of my favorites, a long, fat candy cane and a LARGE Hershey candy bar. The apples and oranges were ordered special for this purpose as the stores did not keep that size in stock if indeed they had any at all. Nuts in the shells were also ordered just for Christmas. Fruit like large oranges were few and far between so we saved ours to eat among the last items eaten.
As we got to be teenagers we helped put them together. Our Grandma was the one who made up the bags and our Grandfather paid for the Hershey bars. He thought every child should have a chocolate treat. Keep in mind that most of the younger kids never got much chocolate except as a treat. I can still see all of those empty lunch bags lined up on the kitchen table waiting to be filled.
Easter always brought Chocolate hollow Easter Bunnies and Jelly Beans as well as the dyed hard boiled eggs. I have no idea why grownups thought kids liked hard boiled eggs. Most of ours Mom made Deviled eggs with them.
Somehow I don’t think that youngsters today have as much fun as we did waiting for these treats. It helped get you into the Holiday spirit. Along with all the homemade cookies Mom baked.
I know my little niece (7 YO) is beyond spoiled and will never have to anticipate the joy of receiving something like this. She's rotten, but we love her any way.
ReplyDeleteMaybe not spoiled LOL but just the changes in the times we live in.
ReplyDeleteOur grandmother took my sister and I to her church during the holidays. It was always decorated with a huge Christmas tree and at the end of the service, each child would walk to the front and be given a paper bag almost identical to "yours" (it didn't include a chocolate bar). Today's post brought back a lot of memories, as others have. I also enjoy and have tried a number of your recipes. Thank you! Dee
ReplyDeleteYes, we had a huge tree also. The same farm family donated it to the church from their grove. So nice to have so many wonderful Memories and glad it brought back happy ones for you.
DeleteI remember the way the peanuts and apples smelled in their brown bags. My sister and I usually got our bags from the county’s fire department Santa Claus. We didn’t get chocolate, in its place we had Slow Pokes (hard carmel on a stick). Thanks for bringing those memories back to mind!
ReplyDeleteI guess I was lucky, got a bag at church and school. Ours had an orange, the peanuts, hard candy and some loose chocolate candies. Usually there was a box of apples, and everyone got an apple. It's funny how that was a real treat, and now days most people would turn up there noses. I graduated from HS in 1981, can't remember when they stopped doing the brown bags, but sometime before that I think.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure on time either, I do know that my kids never got them. I would guess when produce and nuts became easily available.
DeleteWe really looked forward to them. Where your loose chocolate the drops with white filling?
We got them every Christmas at church in the 80's and early 90's. I had forgotten about them until this post. I really enjoyed that bag, and we were all so excited to get one.
ReplyDeleteThat is later than I thought. I wonder if that was a MidWest thing or were other areas of the country doing it also. Didn't take much to make us happy back than.
DeleteI grew up in East Tennessee and my sister told me this evening that they're actually giving out the treat bags this year! Still going on there, amazing.
DeleteHow neat, I hope the kids enjoy them as much as we did.
DeleteThe fruit and candies were bought and brought into the church today for filling the brown paper bags tomorrow morning. They will be given out Sunday morning for those who attend morning services. Children and adults alike always get the goodies. Apple, orange, tangerine, candy cane, box of raisins and a candy bar. We will do this as long as the church exists.
ReplyDeleteWhat a special tradition. In times like these traditions a help in coping.
DeleteI was just thinking about this, this morning. We received them every year in the 60's in North Dakota. What a special memory this brings back.
ReplyDeleteSeems like we were happier with simple things back then.
DeleteA tangerine and roasted salty peanuts in the shell in a brown paper bag after a Children's Christmas service in a small town in the Nebraska Sandhills in the 60's is my memory. There might have been a verse, or a candy cane, but I mostly enjoyed singing the traditional carols together in the beautiful old read brick church ~ Baptist? It was a cold walk there and all the kids in the town came. Elderly kind people gave us the unexpected brown paper lunch bag sacks of holiday joy as we exited. The sweet tangerine and salty peanuts were my favorite. In my child mind, I imagined a single peanut in the shell being like the little Lord baby Jesus in swaddled in the manger. I have begun to continue create and pass on this treat to others, as an old fashioned simple holiday gift. What are they called? Christmas sacks? Paper bag gifts? Would love to know the real name. For generations our country has grown strong with the protein of peanuts. Merry Christmas!
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