To show how times have changed, when I was a kid, we'd get stockings with nuts, an orange, a candy cane, and some small toy, earrings or cosmetic item depending on age. Simple little food items that we were ours and that we didn't have to ask adults for.
When I did that with my son, once he got to a certain age, he complained about it. I think that walnuts, oranges, etc were special to the season back then. We just didn't see a lot of them at other times of the year. Now, other than the candy cane, few treats are special; everything is available all year. I guess that's good in some ways, not so good in others.
I remember the walnuts and oranges too. I never understood what they had to do with Christmas or the Holidays, LOL.
Oh, yes, we always got fruit in our stockings. We weren't that crazy about it, but I guess our parents considered it a treat.
I always put fruit in my kids' stockings but they always ending up having a fruit fight with it.
It wasn't pretty.
So I bought plastic fruit and now I use that. It's good year after year.
You can't have a stocking without plastic fruit and nuts!!!
I agree though in Britain there are still quite a lot of things for children in particular that are special to the Christmas season.
Like chocolate money, chocolate santas, selection boxes and of course chocolate decorations for the tree.
Maybe you're close to my age. When I was a kid, citrus fruit was not really available in the winter. The Christmas oranges were a real treat, and our family always had grapefruit for Christmas breakfast.
Now, oranges are always available - maybe sometimes more expensive than others, but we don't have to wait for Christmas to get one.