Our Christmas Letter, 2015

A BOX OF SEE'S

15 December 2015

I grew up with See's candy.

My godfather, who was my grandfather's brother, was a bachelor and he joined us for every holiday meal.  He always showed up with a box of See's candy.  It sat on top of the glass cabinet until the meal was finished and then we passed it around the table, each person taking their favorite.

My favorite was always that square piece  the upper right corner of the box.  It was a California brittle, a tooth shattering chunk of toffee brittle covered in milk chocolate.  Second would be that piece in the middle with the half round design on it.  That was a chocolate butter cream.  The molasses chips were up there in the left corner. The sprinkle covered piece in the lower right is a Bordeaux, a brown sugar cream covered in milk chocolate before being sprinkled.

Over the years, I got to know most of the designs and could identify which I wanted to eat and which (coconut!) I would avoid.

My grandmother was addicted to See's.  She used to take me to the movies at the classic Royal theater, a couple of blocks from her house.  There was a See's right next door and we would go in and get a couple of pieces of candy each to take to eat in during the show.

See's has opened a temporary store here in Davis, just a couple of blocks from Atria.  Hoping to bring a "taste" of holidays of the past to my mother, I stopped today and bought a box of candy for her.  What a wonderful idea!  She was thrilled to get it and when I started talking about See's candy and the things I remember about it, she shared her own memories; she even remembered my grandmother's name, which she has not in a very long time.