Spot the Frippet: nutcracker.

The winter nut-eating tradition goes right back to Roman times, when nuts were associated with having lots of children. Later, the kernel, skin and shell of a nut was linked to the Holy Trinity or the body, blood and bones of Christ.

Even the traditional Christmas ballet is about nuts, and Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker is a seasonal delight if you like that sort of thing:


Indiana University School of Music. Photo by Rdikeman

The toy-soldier sort of nutcracker that features in the ballet are around at Christmas in wooden form, too:


Berlin. Photo by Strigo. 

Originally these nutcrackers had levers sticking out at the back which opened the soldiers' mouths to hold the nuts ready for cracking. In Germany the Christmas soldier nutcracker was supposed to keep the whole family from harm during the year.

For those for whom the prospect of Christmas induces an urge to head for the hills, then there are natural nutcrackers to be found - or, if not found, at least looked for:


Spotted Nutcracker, photo by MurrayBHenson


Clark's Nutcracker, photo by Wing-Chi Poon

but there are nutcrackers of various sorts everywhere there are nuts, which is most places. Mice and squirrels may be small, but none of them need machines to crack the shells of nuts.

Which actually makes me feel rather weedy and useless.

Where are the nutcrackers?

Spot the Frippet: nutcracker. The word nut comes from the Old English hnutu. The word cracker comes from the Old English cracian and has relations going right back to the Sanskrit gárjati, he roars.