A BASINGSTOKE supermarket is looking to revive a Christmas tradition and is asking parents to get involved.

Morrisons staff will be giving out hundreds of oranges to shoppers encouraging them to use them as stocking fillers and tell their children the story of this tradition.

The tradition can be traced back to a story about Father Christmas who dropped three gold coins down a poor family’s chimney for them to find in the morning. They landed in the childrens’ socks which were hanging by the fire to dry. To remind us he now leaves a golden orange.

However, according to new YouGov research on behalf of Morrisons over three quarters (79 per cent) of Brits with children in the household no longer tend to observe the tradition of an orange in Christmas stockings – making it now an increasingly neglected Christmas tradition that is in danger of disappearing altogether.

So to combat this, on Saturday, 16 December, hundreds of oranges wrapped in Christmas tissue paper will be given to Basingstoke’s parents along with a story-card telling the history of the tradition – so that parents can read it to their children ahead of the big day.

Ian Daley, store manager at Morrisons Basingstoke, said: “Like kissing under the mistletoe and putting out carrots for Rudolph, oranges in stockings is part of the magic of Christmas.

“We want to help keep these traditions alive and help Basingstoke’s parents pass on the stories behind them to their children. And if Father Christmas wants to swing by and pick up an extra sack of oranges we’ll be happy to help.”

This is the latest work done by Morrisons in a bit to keep Christmas traditions alive.

For the last two years the supermarket has helped to rekindle interest in great British Christmas traditions. In 2015 the supermarket gave away 50,000 sprigs of mistletoe to the nation’s festive romantics. Whilst in 2016 Morrisons brought back carols to its in-store playlist after 15 years, and handed out 100,000 Wonky Carrots for Rudolph.