From main courses to savory sides to delicious desserts, the holidays bring with them a multitude of dishes, from the traditional to the unique — or perhaps a little of each.

Lately rumblings of something called the "fruitcake" have been swirling around the OPB office.

Fruitcake has never been part of my family tradition. In fact, I've never even touched the stuff. But as I've learned in recent days, fruitcake, depending on whom you ask, is probably the least straightforward food tradition that everyone hates to love. Or loves to hate...

In my research for this story, I've learned quite a bit about fruitcake. It originated in the Middle Ages. Romans baked it with pomegranate seeds, raisins and nuts, and soon after, different versions started popping up all over Europe. And that, my friends, is where the divergence in fruitcake began.

I chatted with a few people around the office and learned some pretty interesting things about fruitcake (and my fellow OPB staffers). It seems that some people love it, some people hate it, and some people eat it soley for its proven ability to serve as an efficient solution for the storage and subsequent delivery of alcohol. Share your thoughts about fruitcake

Here's what they had to say:

credit: Ifanyi Bell / OPB

OPB News Reporter Kristian Foden-Vencil's middle name is fruitcake.

Kristian Foden-Vencil: "Are you kidding? That stuff is amazing. My aunt back in the UK used to make it. It was like the Christmas pudding but completely steeped in alcohol — most people drank the fruitcake, if you know what I'm saying. Oh, yeah, are you kidding? Fruitcake is great, man. What — Have you got one on you?"

credit: Ifanyi Bell / OPB

Kate Clause in Radio Operations made fruitcake for the first time.

Kate Clause: "My mom or another relative would bake it as a gift, and it was mostly filled with red and green maraschino cherries as fruit, not aged and without alcohol. Later in life, I’d buy friends fruitcakes from The Dollar General as a gag. Who knows how long ago they were made! Recently I tried baking a fruitcake for the first time. It took much longer than I expected, but I'll definitely make it again." See Kate's recipe  

credit: Ifanyi Bell / OPB

Oregon Art Beat Executive Producer Jessica Martin imports her fruitcake from Texas.

Jessica Martin:"Every year, my lovely aunt sends us a fruitcake in the shape of Texas. She gets it from a place called Collins Street Bakery in Corsicana, Texas. I look at it as a kind of sculpture rather than something you eat. It hangs around for a while and every now and again someone will take a bite, but we never eat the whole thing."

credit: Ifanyi Bell / OPB

Oregon Field Guide Executive Producer Steve Amen produced a fruitcake exposé in the '80s.

Steve Amen: "It seems that every year around this time we are forced to ask ourselves: 'Just what is a fruitcake?' The answers are as varied and bizarre as the ingredients themselves. The first-known recipe dates back to Roman times, and rumor has it you can still find that first-known cake being handed down from unsuspecting family to family."One of Steve's early OPB assignments was to research the infamous fruitcake. Watch his "fruitcake exposé"

credit: Ifanyi Bell / OPB

OPB Senior Web Developer Erik Golts was hooked on fruitcake when he was a child.

Erik Golts: "My mom used to make it when we were kids and put all kinds of raisins in it and they would totally absorb and expand with all the bourbon she'd put in it — it was like a plant and she would just water the fruitcake with the bourbon — and she'd do it for two weeks! It was a total process. And when you got a slice, you'd just go after the raisins. She stopped making them when I was in high school."

What do you think about fruitcake? What are your stories or traditions? Add your voice to the chorus by commenting below.