Among Friends

[kitty60]

Oh, loved the box chocolate treat at Christmas. For me it was always that one that was filled with some type of "jelly" filling.  Even today, I will not eat things like jelly beans, jelly candies, etc.  Come to think of it, haven't seen one in a box in years, not that I get them often.

[catter70]

 Mom always made a lot of cookies, pumpkin pie, mince pie and fruit cake. As far a candy,we always a big Whitman's sampler, chocolate covered cherries and my sister and I always got a lifesaver book in our stockings. Such a good memory. Thanks.

[KingstonsMom]

---

@Gorgf wrote:

For me popcorn balls comes to mind. My Mother made them every year and colored the syrup different colors. We had a  white  enamel pan saved just for that. One has to work quickly and butter up the hands. She would wait until  I got home from college to make them to have help. I think  her growing up in the depression it was an inexpensive treat for six kids.

She also made wonderful divinity or seafoam candy. We also had a bowl of nuts to individually crack open by hand. A jar of assorted hard candy also. I liked the raspberry ones with hard outside and soft center.

I had a Great Aunt who made hand dipped chocolates as a profitable hobby. She was Swiss and they had a silver label in the corner of the box, Swiss Maid Candy.

Fun thread.....

---

@Gorgf 

Oh my!! I also loved those raspberry hard candies with the delicious soft raspberry center!

I wonder if they still make those? I'll have to do a search!

[Kachina624]

@Winkk   Wish I could go with you to that candy store.  I know where Conshohocken is.  Lived in that area when in HS and college.  What's the name of the store?

[Winkk]

---

@Kachina624 wrote:

@Winkk   Wish I could go with you to that candy store.  I know where Conshohocken is.  Lived in that area when in HS and college.  What's the name of the store?

---

@Kachina624. The store is Edward Freeman.  It's been there forever on E. Hector Street.  I went to Plymouth Whitemarsh High School.

[KingstonsMom]

---

@Kachina624 wrote:

Our family favorite was chocolates filled straws, pastel colored hard candy straws filled with chocolate.  They're hard to find but there's a company in the Philadelphia area that still makes them and will ship cans of them.

---

[newjersey]

I remember when I was younger we as a family would buy butter cookies at a bakery and the cookies filled with jelly.   Dad died in 2019 at age 92 and this year, my family had a horrible tragedy in that my 12 year old great niece took her own life.   It will be our first Christmas without her.  It hurts but we are doing the best we can.

[RedTop]

The holiday treats in our house were always Mom's applesauce cake, the huge bowl of cherry jello with fruit cocktail, bananas, and toasted marshmallows, a nut bowl, a bowl of hard candy, a bowl of fudge, a fruit bowl of apples, oranges, tangerines and grapes, and my Dad always had a bag of the old fashioned vanilla creme drops hidden in the table near his chair.   

My uncle used to give us a peppermint stick the size of a stick of pepperoni!  We would barely finish it up before the next Christmas rolled around.   

A friend of the family used to gift us a 5 lb box of cream centers chocolates, and boy did we enjoy eating our way thru that!   I always looked for the coconut ones and my brother wanted the orange creams; we often traded candies after that first bite.   After a week, it was hard to find a piece of candy that didn't have the chocolate scratched off the back just enough to reveal the color inside!   

[Enufstuff]

@Carmie 

@catter70

@Meowingkitty  It's funny that you mentioned chocolate covered  cherries. I just ate two of them. When I was buying Christmas candy for the grandchildren, two days ago, I picked up a box of dark chocolate covered cherries. I have always loved them.

@KingstonsMom 

@Gorgf  My mother always bought the raspberry filled candies at Christmas time. I buy bags of them all year from

Vermont Country Store.

@Kachina624 

@Queen of Shop My mother bought a similar candy from Connelly's Candy in Lynn, MA when we were young. They

were about 2 inches long and not much more than 1/4 inch wide. They were called "chicken bones" and they were filled with chocolate. They had the best flavors, with the white being

vanilla, yellow was lemon, green was lime, orange was orange

and pink were cinnamon.

      Now, Vermont Country Store sells chocolate straws, but theirs are peppermint and red and white like a candy cane.

      Every year my mother and aunt would make several kinds of Christmas cookies, including cut out and decorated sugar cookies and spritz cookie press cookies. My cousin and I continued the tradition when we grew up.

      We always had ribbon candy, the chocolate coins in the gold net bags, the orange flavored chocolate oranges and the

Life Saver Books in our stockings for Christmas. I did the same for my children.

       My grandmother always made her brownies, apple pie, lemon cupcakes and bread pudding. She would have pink candies

filled with peanut butter (I think they were called peach blossoms), marshmallows covered with toasted coconut and

chocolate nonpariels. When we got a little older, she would buy us boxes of Godiva Chocolates. When my children were a little older, I started putting a small box of Godivas in their

Christmas stockings.

       When my three daughters started dating, they "trained" their boyfriends to buy Godiva Chocolates for them.

         Personally, I don't think that Godiva Chocolates are quite the quality that they once were. Now, they are even sold in drug stores and supermarkets, in simpler packaging, but still

pretty. I did buy boxes of them for the grandchildren and I'm sure they will enjoy them.

          Now, some of the best quality chocolates north of Boston, are sold by Harbor Sweets in Salem, MA and Prides

Crossing Confections in Prides Crossing, Beverly, MA.

Prides Crossing makes all the beautiful old fashioned handmade chocolates that Connelly's once made. (The best

turtles)

            Both shops ship all over the country and have lovely

packaging for all the holidays. Just be warned that if you eat

candy from either shop, you will never be satisfied with Hershey's chocolate again.

[DottieBlue]

Our family's most favorite holiday treat was the 5lb box of very fine chocolates our Dad's sister sent us each year for Christmas.  Starting the first week of December, the first thing we'd ask when we walked into the house after school was "did the chocolates arrive today?"  Still, to this day, to me, it just isn't Christmas without a large box of good chocolates!

Also, my mother would make tons of fudge, both chocolate and Divinity fudge.  And pies.  And my Dad would keep a large bowl of mixed nuts (with shells) on the coffee table.

Thanks for the wonderful thread!