Maybe it’s just me, but I was always mesmerized when I read or listened to ‘It was the Night Before Christmas’ and the story came to the stanza ‘…while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads’. I have asked many people over the years what sugar plums were and no-one really seemed to know. Maybe it was the magic of that poem or the magic of Christmas or Santa Clause.
Well, I have finally solved the puzzle, not that I was looking. I stumbled across the answer quite by accident.
I hope that I don’t ruin it for many of you, but sugar plums are plums that have been sugared. Not to take away from the magic, sugar plums were popular in Victorian times when fruit was preserved for the winter. This delicacy, along with Christmas Pudding, originates in England, and it is delectable.
I made my version of Sugar Plums the other day, after all, it is the Christmas Season. These wonderful confections are sitting on our counter to be nibbled on as an after dinner sweet.
I will also make Christmas Pudding this year as I had to buy the candied orange and lemon rind, dried apricots, raisins, candied ginger, and of course the dried prunes just to make this small Christmas bite, but never mind, it’s been a long time since I have made Christmas Pudding.
It will be a wonderful dessert following our Christmas Dinner, and maybe for a few days after that!
‘ It was the night before Christmas, when all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. The children were nestled all snug in their beds while visions of sugar plums danced in their heads…’
A wonderful story, Merry Christmas everyone!
