Why We Stopped Roasting Chestnuts for the Holidays

Roasting chestnuts was once a highly practiced Christmas tradition, but it seems it's been all but lost in the 21st century.

We all grew up hearing the iconic 1946 classic "The Christmas Song," performed by The King Cole Trio. As a child, I can remember hearing the tune over the radio while munching on cookies in the back of my parents' van, looking at Christmas lights. The lyrics ring through my ears every holiday season, particularly that first line: "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire." While I grew up knowing this was a Christmas tradition, I don't recall ever roasting or eating roasted chestnuts myself. Apparently, there is a good reason for this.

What are Chestnuts?

First of all, let's talk about what in the actual heck chestnuts are and why folks used to eat them. Chestnuts come from chestnut trees, which were first introduced to Europe via Greece. According to The Spruce Eats, they contain twice as much starch as potatoes, but unlike other nuts, they are relatively low in fat. All Recipes adds that chestnuts are crunchy and bitter when raw, but become sweet, buttery, and soft when roasted. Some people find the flavor reminiscent of a cooked sweet potato.

The History of Roasting Chestnuts

Many cultures have been known to roast chestnuts for special occasions, but when it comes to Western culture, the roots of the tradition can be traced back to the Feast of Saint Martin. TastingTable reports that, for a time, roughly 50% of all the trees comprising East Coast forests were American chestnut trees, producing around 20 million pounds of nuts every year. Because chestnuts are historically a subsistence food, they were given to the poor on Martinstag, also known as the Feast of Saint Martin, which falls on Nov. 11.

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Why We Don't Roast Chestnuts Anymore

The reason this tradition has all but faded away has to do with the American chestnut tree itself. During the 18th and 19th centuries, America's East Coast was covered in nearly four billion chestnut trees, stretching from Maine to Alabama and west to Kentucky and Ohio. However, in the early 20th century, a lethal fungus called the "chestnut blight" struck the U.S. According to TastingTable, the disease was traced back to an Asian chestnut tree that had been imported to Long Island. Within 40 years, 3.5 billion of the 4 billion North American chestnut trees were gone.

In recent decades, more conservation efforts have been underway to help revive the chestnut tree population. In fact, plant scientists have been working to create a strain of chestnut trees resistant to the chestnut blight, and test plots are already growing in Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee. Meanwhile, the U.S. imports around $20 million worth of chestnuts every year from China, Korea, and Italy to keep the centuries-old tradition alive. Apparently, roasting chestnuts remains popular among Italian families.