The Christmas Stocking

The stockings are hung by the chimney with care

in hopes that St. Nick

soon would be there....

Our Christmas stockings were hand knit by Dave's mother. She knit a stocking for each of her 7 children, their spouses & each grandchild...a total of 27 stockings. The original 7 stockings were knit using wool yarns, but as it became harder and harder for her to find wool yarns in her small town she moved into synthetic yarns for the in-laws and grandchildren. Daves stocking being knit with wool has gently yellowed over the years. Grandma Pat earned her angel wings in October, so the stockings will have an extra special meaning this year....

Traditionally on Christmas Eve our children left a plate of cookies, glass of milk and a couple of carrots for Santa & Rudolph. A small note was also written and tucked next to the plate of goodies. The stockings were then hung in hopes that Santa soon would be there.

On Christmas morn we awoke extra early to the noise of the kids scampering down the stairs to see what Santa left in their long wooly stockings. They would find new pencils, lip gloss, hot wheels cars, nail polish, baseball cards and always a box of life-savors. Santa didn't wrap these items, he just quickly tucked them into the stocking as he was off to the next house...no time for gift wrapping!

Our children are now grown, bringing home spouses & significant others, but the stockings still hang by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nick soon will be there...bringing out the child in each of us at this very special time of the year.

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HISTORY OF THE CHRISTMAS STOCKING....

The tradition of the Christmas stockings began by a story told since ancient time about a kind noble man who had three daughters. With the passing of the wife/mother the daughters and their father were left in a state of sorrow. The daughters were left to do all the work in the house. When the daughters became eligible for marriage, the poor father could not afford to give the huge dowries to their husbands.
One evening the daughters, after washing their stockings hung them near the fire place to be dried. Santa Claus being moved by the plight of the daughters came in and put in three bags of gold one in each of the stocking hanging by the chimney. The next morning the family noticed the gold bags and the nobleman had enough for his daughter’s marriage. The daughters got married and they lived happily ever after. Since then children have been hanging Christmas stockings.

Until tomorrow,

brenda