Advertisement In 1946, Nat King Cole recorded "The Christmas Song," the most-performed holiday song of all time. Its opening lyric, "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire," evokes images of Christmas – a wistful version of the holiday most of us have never actually experienced, because a blight caused the American chestnut tree, once the most predominant tree in the country, to go extinct. Chestnuts were synonymous with Christmas in the United States even before the popular carol hit airwaves. In fact, they were one of the most popular ingredients in American dishes throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and for good reason: the Eastern seaboard was covered in chestnut trees.