Holidays – Happy National Fruitcake Toss Day!

People gather around trebuchet in snowy field.

The fruitcake is the laughing stock of Christmas foods. Legendary Tonight Show host Johnny Carson used to joke that there is really only one fruitcake in the world, it is just passed from family to family.

Each January 3rd is “National Fruitcake Toss Day.” The Manitou Springs Chamber of Commerce in Colorado hosts “The Great Fruitcake Toss,” in which the dried fruit and nut cake is propelled as far as possible like a track and field shot put. A group of eight Boeing engineers hold the all-time Great Fruitcake Toss record at 1,420 feet, achieved with their “Omega 380,” a mock artillery piece fueled by compressed air, pumped by an exercise bike.