What Do You Find At The End Of Your Christmas Stocking?
It seems we are still a nation of traditionalists when it comes to all things festive! Nearly half* of people surveyed in Britain who give or receive a stocking**, still expect to find or give a satsuma, tangerine or clementine at the bottom of a Christmas stocking, says a MORI survey commissioned by Marks & Spencer earlier this month.
Citrus fruits were closely followed by chocolate money (36%) toys (24%) and sweets (22%) so it seems that even in today's age of mobile phones and new technology, we still like to keep up some of our childhood traditions!
Every year, over the Christmas period, between 12 and 15 million clementines are sold by Marks & Spencer. Starting in mid-November, sales of clementines alone increased by 25% every week in the lead up to the New Year.
"We have seen a gradual shift in the popularity of these fruit over the years." said a spokesman for Marks & Spencer, "Where once the original easy peel satsuma was the number one seller, it is now the fragrant and juicy Clementine. In fact at Marks & Spencer, clementines outsell satsumas, mandarins and tangerines put together by as much as 80% during the holiday season!"
But just how did the tradition start for putting small citrus fruits in the end of our Christmas stockings ...
One tradition goes that there was once a kindly nobleman whose wife had died of an illness leaving him and his three daughters in despair. When it came for the time for them to marry, the father became more and more depressed, as he knew that without money and land, nobody would wed them.
One night after the daughters had washed out their stockings and hung them over the fireplace to dry, Saint Nicholas, knowing the despair of the father, went to the nobleman's house and looked in to the window. When he saw the three little stockings hanging over the fire he climbed up the chimney and one by one, dropped three small bags of gold in to each one. The gold was just enough for the girls to marry and once again the father was happy. Nowadays, to represent that gold, we put out our Christmas stockings to be filled with presents and brightly coloured fruits in celebration of that day!
A percentage of all sales of Marks & Spencer and suppliers' clementines sold over the Christmas and New Year period is being donated to the Children's Promise Appeal.
* 46.8% ** 29% of people surveyed say they don't get or receive a stocking.
Technical details
MORI conducted 1034 interviews among a representative sample of GB population aged 16+ between 2-8 December 1999.
