My affection for olives goes way back. Each Thanksgiving and Christmas, my grandmother would put out her crudité platter. Nestled in the etched glass serving trays, I’d find rosy radishes, sticks of celery, piles of pickles (bread and butter and dill), pimento-filled green olives, and my favourite - the black olives.

Grandma served up the pitted variety of black olives, and thank goodness she did because those olives inspired two of our most enduring holiday traditions: Olive snatching and olive fingers!

No big mystery here: These traditions are pretty much what you’d guess from their names! The object of olive snatching was to be the first grandkid to grab a black olive off the platter, leaving Grandma to exclaim, “Who’s been at the olives already?”

And olive fingers? Well … pitted olives and the tiny fingers of small children? You can guess the rest. We’d all slip an olive onto each finger and thumb of our hands and pose for ridiculous photos. Then we’d giggle and gobble up the olives one by one. Ahh, how the little things can bring so much joy and laughter.

I have tried to restrain myself when served olives at decent dining establishments, as it doesn’t seem quite proper for an adult woman to nibble olives off of her fingertips. But my brother, sister, and I still can’t resist the temptation when we’re together at holiday meals! And my olive palate has definitely become more sophisticated, and I love all the diverse and savoury flavours of a good olive bar.

My preferred olive these days? I love a good, garlic-stuffed green olive, the more pungent, the better. Or a juicy, dark Kalamata. Come to think of it, though, I’d eat any olive put in front of me (lucky for me, my significant other doesn’t like olives, so I get them all to myself!)

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Why olives are awesome:

- Some stay away from olives because they’re pricey-by-the-pound. The thing is, just a few wee olives can add a big ol’ heap of flavour to a dish.

- Because it only takes a few to perk up the palate, you can chop up a handful of olives and use them as a stand-in for salt.

- Like its oil, olives boast oleic acid, a good-for-you monounsaturated fat.

- Together with oleic acid, vitamin E from olives work to protect cells from inflammation and damage from free radicals. This is deliciously delightful news to your heart.

Keep reading for more reasons why these little flavour gems are better than almost “olive” the other finger-foods ...