Christmas Pippin is a new Cox-style apple variety introduced in 2011. Unusually for a modern apple variety, it is a genuine "pippin" apple, raised from seed and of unknown parentage.
Christmas Pippin is a very "more-ish" apple, with a definite apple flavor, juicy melting flesh and a thin skin - and it tastes exactly like an apple should. It is bound to be popular with fans of Cox's Orange Pippin or similar varieties - and it is much easier to grow.
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Christmas Pippin is easy to grow, with better yields than Cox's Orange Pippin. It can be pollinated by most other apple varieties.
Christmas Pippin is a modern variety, first introduced in 2011, so you might expect it to be the result of a major university-led apple breeding programme. In fact the original tree was discovered growing beside a road near an orchard in Somerset, so it is a genuine seedling or "pippin" variety, perhaps from a motorist's discarded apple core. The parentage is unknown, but there is clearly an influence from Cox's Orange Pippin in its ancestry. The leaf shape has some resemblance to Gala (which itself is distantly related to Cox's Orange Pippin).