Hanging Christmas Stockings
Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house. Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. Is hanging Christmas stockings one of your family traditions?
Christmas Traditions
Hanging Christmas stockings over the fireplace has been a holiday tradition for hundreds of years. My Christmases as a child included hanging stockings on the mantel, but not the kind of Christmas stockings my grandchildren grew up with))
Old Fashioned Christmas Stockings
We didn’t have ready-made or even hand-made Christmas stockings. I can’t recall any of our friends having them either, so we were not alone.
We literally hung the biggest, longest socks we could find. Knee socks worked, but the best choices were to dig around in daddy’s sock drawer for long wool socks that he wore with his work boots.
Whatever sock you chose, you would pull and stretch to make it as large as you could so it would hold more goodies. It was typically hung off a nail driven into the mantel.
Today’s Christmas Stockings
Today’s stockings have come a long way! They can be beautifully elegant, simple red felt with white plush fur, or have whimsical curly toes with all the bells and whistles.
Names can be embroidered on the cuffs so there is no mistaking who the stocking belongs to. Stockings may match the decorating theme of the tree, mantle or living room.
One year when Carrie was small, I tried my hand at my first needlepoint project. It was a beautiful white stocking with a Christmas tree and a teddy bear wrapping gifts.
The bear was all tangled up on the ribbon and it had her name in block letters. I worked on that stocking all fall! We used it for several years, and then one year, we just couldn’t find it. It’s been lost ever since.
It was the only keepsake stocking we ever had that was nice enough to try to hang on to.
Who knows, after two moves, I might still run across it sometime))
Hanging Christmas Stockings
So much for hammering a nail into the mantel and hanging a sock on it……try putting a nail in your mantel today…..no, I didn’t think so either.
I do have some small screws in mine that are strategically placed to hold garland and corner drops, but we don’t have anyone to hang stockings for anymore!
Well, I guess the hubby and I could hang one for each other, but those days have passed)) The older we get, the simpler our decorations get too. Because….whatever goes up, has to come down after Christmas!
I love the way the next images show hanging Christmas stockings in other places than above the fireplace. This is nice especially when you do have working fireplaces whether it be wood or gas logs.
I love the way hanging stocking from the staircase looks. It might put them out of reach of children, but I’ll bet they wouldn’t have any trouble getting them down Christmas morning.
Our grandchildren are all older now, but they still look forward to their Christmas stockings on Christmas morning. They still dig into the stockings last.
Sometimes Carrie fills them with small inexpensive things, and sometimes the best is saved for last. They never know, so it keeps the Christmas morning excitement alive)))
If I ever have any great-grandchildren, I’m going to start early and make each one of them a special stocking. I suppose I could start on them now and add names later….that’s a thought!
And if it never happens….well, I could give them as gifts to others.
What Christmas stocking traditions do you have? Please share! We love hearing from our readers.
