Next on my list of favorite Christmas stories that have nothing to do with Santa, is this short story by Truman Capote.
It’s the story of a young boy and his elderly “friend” who set out with $12.99 to make thirty fruitcakes for people who have been kind to them or people they admire (like Eleanor Roosevelt). They are the wards of “persons” who “have power over us and often make us cry” but who for the most part ignore them and so over the years they have figured out how to entertain themselves and, at the same time, save a few pennies here and there for their Fruitcake Fund.
"... a morning arrives in November, and my friend as though officially inaugurating the Christmas time of year that exhilarates her imagination and the fuels the blazes of her heart announces: 'It's Fruitcake weather!'"
We know little else about them. The young boy remembers no other home and his friend has never traveled more than five miles from the house nor has she seen a movie or eaten in a restaurant … but she “has killed with a hoe the largest rattlesnake ever seen in the county (sixteen rattles) … tamed hummingbirds (just try it) till they balance on her finger … knows the recipe for every sort of old-time Indian cure, including a magical wart remover.”
She also knows how to make kites and fly them in any weather. The important things to a young boy.
Nor do we know much about where they live except that it is a “spreading old house in a country town.” There’s an orchard nearby where they gather “windfall pecans” from amongst the fallen leaves, a grocery where they buy “cherries and citron, ginger and vanilla and canned pineapple from Hawaii, rinds and raisins and … oh so much flour, butter and so many eggs” which they load into his baby carriage (the thing he arrived in with little else) and drag home. However, for the most expensive ingredient they must summon their courage to visit a notorious bootlegger by the name of Haha Jones. Any guesses as to what that most expensive ingredient was?
Okay – it’s whiskey! Any of my baking blogger buddies use hard liquor in their fruitcake? I’m thinking of giving it a try. It’s been just that kind of year!
Saying nothing in particular 
Fruitcake is not fruitcake unless it’s been spiked with brandy, or whiskey…
😉
I’ve heard of spiking the cake with brandy but bootleg whiskey! Oh my!
A nice tale. I hadn’t heard of this Capote story before.
It’s one of the best things Capote wrote.
That Capote story sounds wonderful! I’m pretty sure the only way I’d eat fruitcake is with alcohol… preferably imbibed beforehand.
Ha! I had a friend who made fruitcake every year and had such joy giving her gifts to everyone that I made the effort. Never developed the taste but felt the love with every bite!
I don’t like candied fruit or whisky so I’m not sure how I’d do with fruitcake, but I love the story.
Luckily they’ve become out of fashion as presents! I love the story as well. I watched the Geraldine Page version of it from 1966 and sobbed from beginning to end!
haha- that closing gnome “after gobbling down too much spiked fruitcake.” was really fun
He’s a forest gnome from Finland that I’ve had since I was a child.
oh wow – even more special
and I just found a very special gnome for our family.
not as old, but a dear one.
A few years ago, my father n law passed away and went on hospice. We did not know he was only going to be on hospice for three days as we thought it would be at least a few weeks. Anyhow, my son went to visit FIL and brought him a Christmas gnome. Turns out he passed away that night and the Xmas gnome is now with the Christmas goodies and each year we pull it out, it brings a smile. And JT – yours is excellent condition – and so special
Fruitcake with brandy? Yes, please, but please, no, not with whiskey. I can’t even stomach marmalade made with whiskey. Brandy sauce with mince pies is my ‘go-to’ Christmas treat.
Not just whiskey but bootleg whiskey or moonshine – brewed in the backwoods by a man with scars all over his face who’s rumored to have killed a few people at his speakeasy!
I’ve heard of ‘Moonshine.’ Isn’t that the stuff that blows your mind? One sip, and you think you can fly.
There are still places in the US where alcohol is prohibited so whiskey is made in the back country by moonlight! It’s supposed to be very gnarly!
I don’t know about fruitcakes, but rum cakes are delicious. I hope you have a wonderful holiday, my friend.
Thank you Edward – the same to you as well!
Thank you.
Good liquor never hurts in any recipe.
We don’t do fruitcakes, but my mother had a mean Chicken with whisky recipe we still do from time to time.
Merry Christmas, Jan, to you and yours…
Chicken with whiskey! That does sound wicked! Happy Christmas!
I must read this, it sounds wonderful. Thank you, Jan. I make fruit cakes as Christmas gifts each year. This year I made nine ❤️🎄❤️🎄
It’s a short story you should be able to find online. What’s your special ingredient? Anything unique to South Africa?
This is such a fun post for Christmas, Jan! I had no idea he wrote this. I’ll have to read it!
Merry Christmas!