Growing up my family had handmade stockings that my mother made the year my brother was born. I've since inherited them and she's purchased new, more traditional versions. We're curious, what hangs by the chimney with care in your home?
My cousins always had giant stockings that touched the hearth and I was jealous as a child knowing how many things could fit inside. My husband's family doesn't really do stockings, but instead has piles of things waiting on top of their Christmas morning packages instead.
Does your family have a stocking tradition?
(Image: Flickr member Jim, The Photographer licensed for use by Creative Commons)
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As each one of my girls was born I ordered those petite, elfish looking stockings from PB and had them personalized. They are traditional colors and super cute. But I also love stockings that have the names spelled out in glitter glue, because that's what we had as kids.
The kids got a handmade felt stocking the year of their birth.
Every year I make my entire family a new stocking. We have a Stocking tree to display the stockings of Christmas past.
All of Santa's gifts go in the stocking, so the girls need BIG ones just like my sis and I. Our oldest has mine from when I was little its a store bought knit one that I could probably stand in and it would go up to my neck. My daughter has one that my mom made that's just as big but doesn't stretch since its fleece. They have little nametags to go with them.
My mom made our stockings. As a child, I loved getting my stocking each Christmas morning. It was the one thing we could open as soon as we woke up, no waiting for siblings or parents. It always had some change, some candy, an orange, a Christmas ornament and a could small toys. It's a tradition we have carried on with my children and they love it too!
As a child, I had a handmade santa sack and a simple handmade stocking (divorced parents). The stockings/sack would be filled with treats and sweets, little toys, stationery and essential things like hair ties, pajamas, socks and underwear. We were allowed to open our stockings as soon as we woke, but we weren't allowed to open our 'main' presents under the tree until everyone was awake.... I think it was my parents way of keeping us (relatively) quiet and entertained in the morning, as we invariably woke at dawn with excitement!
Ooops... I should add, I chose the "handmade" answer, but I ideally would have picked both "handmade" and "modern". I made santa sacks for my bff's three children, and they were all modern in design.... I much prefer modern christmas decorations!
My mother has knit all the stockings for our family-the oldest being mine since I was a newborn! It's such a great feeling to have them all match and be handmade!
We usually use the traditional red and white store-bought stockings (although when we were younger we had a set of hand-knit stockings with different motifs that we loved but they were too skinny to fill with the proper amount of goodies and a lot of the stuffers snagged on the yarn). Last year, however, we'd just moved and couldn't find the stockings so we had plastic WalMart sacks. Super classy.
@confounded, that's hilarious! My grandmother made a set of red flannel stockings with felt initials on them, one for everyone, and we have used them ever since. Since she and my grandfather were into mid-century modern during the mid-century, the stockings have a kind of simple, modern look to them.
This is making me wonder what happened to the stockings we had at my grandparents' house when I was little--they were handmade felt with our names on them and little Christmas motifs. Every person in the family had one and the lack of a mantle meant they were all tacked on a wall. I'll have to ask when we go back to visit this Christmas.
Growing up, my mom had made plaid satin stockings for everyone but because they were rather delicate, nothing was actually put in them. My MIL has a random assortment of stockings that she uses for little packages but none are specific to a person. For my little family, when my son was born, I purchased the Fair Isle stockings from PB and had them personalized. The cat also has a stocking-- a personalized stocking from PBKids. It was probably intended for a little girl but the cat on it looks like our cat and was on super clearance so how could I resist?
I picked out differnt but somewhat coordinating stockings for each person in the house, including our 2 dogs. I tried to pick stockings that kind of fit each of our individual style. Like mine is red quilted flannel with flutterly snowflake appliques, my husbands is bright red with an almost lime green trim and his first initial boldly appliqued on the cuff, our toddler has a red felt stocking appliqued with a reindeer in lime green and aqua. And the dogs each have a tiny red velvet stocking embellished with glittery swirls, just big enough to stuff a few dog treats... I don't think they appreciate it though...
I am still working on our stocking tradition. We didn't have them becuase of tedious doctrinal issues and now that I am trying to find my way. Weird to not really have Christmas traditions when I was religous and now that I am 1) not religous and 2) married to a Jew and 3) still have commercialism I can't figure it out.
Mine are handmade but not me. I got upcycled wool ones off etsy a few years ago. I didn't really understand what they for so the first year or so it was really just extra presents "from the stocking" that we did a few days before Christmas.
But that was lame so now it will small things that fit and opened the night before.
Should have said "didn't have them as a child"
Ours are handmade upcycled leftover fabrics (silk velvet) and fur trim (from old fur coats).
I bought plain red Hable stockings on super clearance last year. They are wool felt, oversized, with a simple dot and scallop trim. This is the first time our family of 4 has had matching stockings, and I LOVE them. I decorated wooden ornaments with scrapbook initials in place of having them monogrammed (will probably do that another year).
My family uses wooden shoes instead of stockings. Just big enough to fit some candy, an orange, and a couple hair bobs or a matchbox car. My kids use the ones that belonged to my brother and I as children.
The year my now-husband and I moved in together, we bought a pair of stockings to fill for one another. I think they might have been from Restoration Hardware? They're both knit, and red and white (one with stripes and one with a snowflake pattern). They look slightly old-fashioned but are simple, which suits our decorating style. When our son was born, I bought him a handmade red wool felt stocking at a craft show. And then when my daughter was born, my childhood stocking (red, quilted, with an angel applique) surfaced and that's what my daughter uses now. So we have four different stockings that are all different in style, but they're all red so they look nice hanging together.
i didn't vote because I'm not sure what "traditional" or "modern" mean when it comes to stockings. I had a woman on Etsy make ours--they're pretty traditional, but they have our names and were made with colorful, custom fabric--for ex., my husband's has bicycles. They are adorable!!
We had felt/sequin ones growing up, my grandma made them. My husband had knitted ones some relative made. We used to hang our mis-matched together, but once we had kids we got all new stockings that go together. We went with PB Kids because the quilted look and colors sort of go with our quilted tree skirt my mom made.