Welcome to the Stocking site

Nothing signifies Christmas (stocking ) like hanging a fluffy red stocking with white trim above the fireplace. In the United States, families have been practicing this tradition for years in preparation for that special day of spiritual celebration and giving.

Though in modern times the Christmas stocking is often used as a holder of small gifts for children and loved ones, there are many myths and tales explaining the origins of Christmas Stockings.

Christmascarnival.com and several other holiday specific Web sites point to the tale of the poor nobleman and St. Nicholas as the most accepted legend of the origin of the Christmas stocking.

According to Christmascarnival.com, “A kind nobleman squandered all his wealth and property when his wife died due to an illness and left him three daughters stocking .

So pathetic was his condition, that he had to move to a peasant’s cottage and lived a life of misery. He did not even have enough booty to get his daughters married.

Generous as he was, St Nicholas of Myra decided to help them out but anonymously. One night he rode up to their house and, having discovered that all had fallen asleep, he quietly dropped three pouches of gold coins down the chimney and they landed on the stockings that the girls had hung up by the hearth.

The next morning, the daughters were overjoyed with the gold coins they found inside their stockings as it was sufficient enough for them to get married and they lived happily ever after.”

This legend is traced to Holland and the famous wooden clogs.

According to the Web site, it is told that during the 16th century, children in Holland would leave their clogs by the hearth filled with straw for the reindeer.

A treat for Santa was left in the house near the fire. In return “Sinterclass” would leave the children treats. Later the clogs would become stockings, and the Saint known to all would become “Santa Claus.”

Another possible origin can be traced to Germany, where children would hang their socks by the fireplace in the 16th century to dry overnight after washing them.

On Christmas Eve St. Nicholas would fill the stocking with five gifts designed to stimulate each of the five senses.

Wikipedia states, a typical stocking would be filled with something to eat, like fruit or candy; a toy or other item that makes noise; an item that is visually pleasing, like jewelry, cuff-links or a coloring book; something that has tactile appeal such as modeling clay or a soft toy; and an item with a distinctive scent such as cologne or perfume.

Like all good legends, the story of the Christmas stocking has many versions. The original story has evolved to allow for differences in culture and good old fashioned story telling.

But, unless you’re one of those naughty children who only gets a lump of coal, the exact origin of the stocking is not as important as the tradition of finding that overstuffed boot-shaped sock on Christmas morning.

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   The History of the Christmas Stocking

Like all good legends, the story of the Christmas stocking has many versions. The original story has evolved to allow for differences in culture, time period, and good old fashioned story-telling. So it’s hard to pin down exactly how the Christmas stocking tradition started, but too much exactness isn’t any fun, anyway. And certainly not in the spirit of Christmas. So here’s our favorite version of the story:

Once there was a father with three beautiful daughters. Although the daughters were kind and strong, the father despaired of them ever making good marriages, because he didn’t have enough money to pay their dowries.

One day, St. Nicholas of Myra was passing through their village and heard the locals discussing the plight of these poor girls. St Nicholas knew the father would be too proud to accept an outright gift. So he waited till dark, snuck to the man’s house, and dropped three bags of gold coins down the chimney.

The daughters had spent the evening washing clothes, and had hung their stockings by the fireplace to dry. The gold coins dropped into the stockings, one bag for each daughter. In the morning, they awoke to find enough money to make them each a generous dowry, and all married well and happily.

As word of St. Nicholas’ generosity spread, others began to hang their stockings by the fireplace, hoping for a similar gift.

There is plenty of debate about when American kids started hanging their stockings by the fire on Christmas Eve. Some give credit for the idea to Thomas Nast, who drew stockings on the mantelpiece in his 1886 illustrations for a George Webster story called “Santa Claus and His Works.” But while Nast did create the popular modern image of Santa Claus as a white-bearded, red-suited, boot-wearing jolly man, he cannot be responsible for the stocking tradition. That’s because Clement Clark Moore’s famous poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas” was written 64 years earlier. And as every Christmas buff knows, that poem includes the following immortal lines:

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

Like most American customs, the Christmas stocking probably came across the ocean with generations of immigrants. Perhaps some Catholics knew the legend of St. Nicholas. Perhaps some Dutch transformed their tradition of putting out clogs full of straw for Santa’s reindeer. Italian children brought the idea of putting out their shoes for La Bufana, the good witch. And in classic American tradition, all these legends and customs mixed together (along with a few home-grown ideas) and before long the Christmas Stocking became an essential part of how we celebrate Christmas.

Christmas stocking

A Christmas stocking is an empty sock or sock-shaped bag that children in the United States and some other cultures hang on Christmas Eve so that Santa Claus can fill it with small toys, candy, fruit, coins, or other small gifts when he arrives. These small items are often referred to as stocking stuffers or stocking fillers. Tradition in western culture dictates that a child who behaves badly during the year will receive only a piece of coal.

By tradition, the stocking is hung on the fireplace, but, since many modern homes do not have fireplaces, stockings may be hung in almost any location.

One traditional practice is to reserve the stocking for five gifts that stimulate each of the five senses, for example:

• Something to eat like fruit or candy

• A toy or other item that makes a noise (this can even include nuts to crack)

• An item that is visually pleasing in any way like jewelry, cuff-links or a coloring book.

• Something that has tactile appeal such as modeling clay, a soft toy, lingerie or even a pair of novelty Christmas socks.

• Any item with a distinctive scent such as bubble-bath, cologne, perfume, etc.

Originally, children simply used one of their everyday socks, but eventually special Christmas stockings were created for this purpose. Today, stores carry a tremendous variety of styles and sizes of Christmas stockings, from small and conservative, to long and stretchy, to gigantic.

Many families create their own Christmas stockings with each family member’s name applied to the stocking so that Santa (or the family members) aren’t confused about which stocking belongs to which family member.

See  The History of the Christmas Stocking