Q.
What are sugarplums? Wee fruits in hot, dry lands? Ordinary purple plums coated in sugar? Fairy tale fancies?

A.
Tchaikovsky gave the fairy in charge of these mysterious edibles a signature Nutcracker Dance and a sparkling celesta accompaniment.

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Nina Kaptsova. Bolshoi Ballet. 2010

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Poet Clement Moore celebrated said plums of sugar in his beloved 1823 Christmas Eve poem.

A Visit From St. Nicholas
‘Twas 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….’

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So, what are they?

As it turns out, these sugared bites that inspire visions only rarely contain plums.

Sugarplums are ‘comfits’ or old-fashioned candies. Here’s the official definition from the fantastically named C.T. Onions: aka Charles Talbut Onions – lexicologist, British naval intelligence officer, and 4^th editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

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Sugarplum

A small round sweet of flavoured boiled sugar.

i. ‘He first danced in it as a student in St. Petersburg, falling captive to its special, crystal magic, the warm cheer of its Christmas party giving way to a world as cold as a snowflake and as sweet as a sugarplum.’

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We find a recipe for Sugarplums in the 1914 British Home Cookery Book.

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To celebrate this small round sweet of flavoured boiled sugar, here’s Pentatonix with their version of Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, now at 50 million plus views.

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www.justcurious.ca

Header Photo: Iwona Castiello d’Antonio