I don't understand the Stockings that everyone talks about, please explain!

[notso]

My DC put out a christmas sack with the mince pie, carrot and Baileys for Father Christmas near the fire and 'he' fills it with presents some from their lists and some small surprises.

We don't get them anything and presents from family go under the tree to be opened after dinner or on boxing day.

This is what happened for me and DH.

When would a stocking make an appearance?

This is purely nosey, oldest DC is 13 so too late to start a new tradition I think.

[rocketwithbutterflywings]

A stocking is what most people have instead of a sack isn't it? Small gifts in stocking, larger gifts under the tree.... All from Santa Father Christmas.

[rocketwithbutterflywings]

Actually, no. The way it worked in my house was stocking from Santa, and the largest, best gift from Santa and the rest from Mum and Dad, relatives etc.

[HipHopOpotomus]

some people have stockings some have sacks?

[loubielou31]

When I was little we would leave a stocking for Father Christmas to fill. He would fill it and leave it outside our bedroom door or at the foot of the bed. Our stockings would only have small things in them obviously so any gifts from Santa too big to fit in the stocking would go in a pile/sack/pillowcase in the living room. Our DCs now do the same. The order of the day is come and sit on our bed and open your stockings whilst DH and I wake up with a cup of tea. Then we all get dressed and have breakfast and the other presents off santa are opened in the sitting room after breakfast. When I was little they always had to wait until after church.
The gifts under the tree are opened later and are from family and friends. The children do get a small gift under the tree that is from "us" because the santa ones are from him.

[BertieBotts]

It's going to vary between households, but this is what happened in my house as a child.

Stocking is instead of the sack, but are individual, each family member or each child has one (Just kids in our family)

They get placed on the end of the bed on Christmas Eve, and a plate with mince pie/milk/carrot left out for Santa somewhere in the bedroom (my sister and I shared a room - some people leave stockings by fireplace, or on door handles, etc and leave mince pie/carrot in living room)

In stockings are small presents, nothing from the list, just silly things, usually some sweets and always some chocolate coins, and then things like hair bobbles, crayons, stick on tattoos, handbag mirror, little pack of cards or mini game, mini activity book etc etc. It's bigger than a sock so you can fit small wrapped presents in, but not as big as a sack, so nothing larger than a large orange would fit in. No CDs or DVDs or books or anything (those were usually main presents though as used to be more expensive) - Some people don't wrap the stocking gifts and some people stick to a theme of everything having to appear hand made by elves

Under the tree are presents from family (including parents) and some from Father Christmas. My mum would split about half and half what was from her and what was from FC, it didn't seem to follow a pattern about what FC brought and what parents brought.

Oh, and she would also hide most of the presents, so that on Christmas morning it was a big exciting thing to go down and see the pile had increased significantly!

Stockings would usually be opened in our bedroom alone, there's something about wriggling your feet down in bed to feel the weight of it there and hear the crunch of the paper, knowing that it had been filled! DSis and I used to have an agreement about when was too early to wake the other up, and if you woke up early it was agony! We usually had the same things in different colours in our stockings so we'd open them at the same time to avoid spoiling the surprise. Then we'd go and wake up our mum and show her what we'd got Tree presents would be opened at some point during the day itself, the time varied.

[amck5700]

Stockings with small gifts and sweets left on door handle - used to be on end of bed but youngest freaked at the thought of Santa a stranger in his bedroom. When they were teeny, all other presents downstairs (a sofa each - sometimes in sacks sometimes just wrapped in a pile) were from santa and relatives ones were under the tree.

As they got older, we started making the main present from us, to wean them of Santa gradually - this year (they are 12 and 11) we are not going to put anything from Santa on the assumption that they MUST know it's us........or is that cruel?

[vodkaanddietirnbru]

our kids hang the stocking on the bedroom door handle and on christmas morning they are full and they get to open them before going dowstairs to see the rest of the presents. We dont do christmas sacks - the other presents are under the tree. Santa brings the presents from us and other people give their own presents.

[Pancakeflipper]

I never had a stocking as a kid. I make sure mine do. The stockings are full of little things from Santa.
They also get a present from Santa and one from us. And presents from relatives/friends who may not send the gifts via Santa cos' he's a just bloke and needs the grown-ups to help out if they can.

[DuelingFanjo]

I have never understood this 'all presents are from father Christmas' stuff. The stocking is from father Christmas, you hang it up so he can fill it with small toys, fruit, pens etc. All the other presents are from whoever bought them.

[defineme]

Stockings are left out for Santa to fill(end of bed or on door handle) and are opened first thing before breakfast on parents' bed: in my childhood it would contain satsuma nuts sweets and tiny toys- which is pretty much what my kids get now.
Large presents are under the tree and we open them whenever seems appropriate over the course of xmas day-depends on if we have guests or are going out.

[DuelingFanjo]

and yes - when kids are older they are hung at the end of the bed so they can feel them in the morning. It's the best thing :)

[amck5700]

and yes, stockings were a great buyer of time - they would happily sit and play with all the crap from their stocking and eat their apple, orange and brioche and the carton of strawberry milk we'd chuck in after an inspiration one year :) while we had a chance to wake up properly and get a shower and dressed (and nip down and put the fairly lights on and get the video camera ready) before all going downstairs. We used to make them get washed and dressed too before going down when they were younger - now they get up earlier than they ever did - last two years have been the worst - pre 6am - when they were little sometimes they wouldn't wake until 8am :o

[3bunnies]

Similar to above - stockings from the big red man have the smaller presents, mixture of toys, useful things - gloves etc. We have all the bigger tree presents from us so can veto the more extravagent requests without the upset on Christmas morning. Also means there is more room on the sleigh!

[SamSmalaidh]

What we do is a stocking on the end of the bed that gets filled by Father Christmas overnight, and then presents from us under the tree.

[N0tinmylife]

This is a major issue in our house, as I always had a stocking as a kid, DH had a sack. We will again have the argument some time soon about which DS should have although I will probably cave in and do it DH's way again because I'm soft

[MoppingMummy]

Stockings are placed on the bed in the middle of the night (by Father Christmas). Stockings are filled with little gifts like chocolate coins, nail varnish, torch etc. Downstairs in our house is a pile of bigger presents that Father Christmas has also delivered.

[notso]

Interesting thanks. I do love hearing about other peopls traditions.

I like the idea of DC having things to open in bed. Sometimes when we stayed at GP's and the house was full, FC brought the presents upstairs to our bedroom, it was exciting to feel the heaviness at the end of the bed!

Is it too late to start this year do you think?

[orangeandlemons]

I don'tget them either,despite doing them.

I used to fill them with small things and sweets etc. But ds always used to say that Father Christmas bought him rubbish presents that broke. These small items don't come cheap, and are never ever used again.

I do it because it is expected, butI seem to buy a lot of small plastic crap that is never looked at ever again

[ivykaty44]

we had an old long (very long) sock that we placed on the end of the bed on Christmas eve.

Then when we woke up in the morning the sock was all full and knobbly as it was full of presents that father Christmas had left on Christmas eve when we where sleeping

We would get up and go in with mum and dad and sit ont he bed al excited and opent he presents in the stocking, each small present was wrapped in paper.

There would be a satsumer at the bottom in the toes, then small puzzels, jokes, pack of playing cards, pens, pencils rubbers note pad, wooden toy.

Then when we wnet down stairs there would be more present under th etree that we would then open one by one slowly whislt we all watched each other.

One year there were peices of string and we all followed the string til we found our presents which were to big to wrap as they were bikes

[3bunnies]

Depends on the age of your dc and whether they believe or not. I'd say between 5 and 8/9 you risk blowing the secret, your 13yr old would probably be quite happy with a new tradition, throw in a book for more time in bed!

[Princessishavingababyboo]

Father Christmas also leaves stockings on the end of the bed for my ds's to find far too early in the morning usually with a small gift and chocolate, then larger gifts under the tree.

When I was small (5-12 yo ish) my stocking always had a small bottle of baby sham in it too :)

[fuzzpig]

In our house Santa fills the stockings and gives one main present for them to share (playmobil this year). Stockings are instead of sacks, but we do go for big stockings and put in far too much really - although stuff that will get used like underwear and toy cars etc, rather than easily breakable party bag type stuff (just a personal thing as I can't really afford stuff that won't last!)

All the other presents go under the tree and are from us.

[iheartdusty]

ooh no, amck5700, you aren't proposing to drop Santa completely?

as far as I know it is the LAW that you have to carry on with stockings until your DC tell you (in their 30s, say) that they don't need them any more.

'Tis fine not to have Santa presents under the tree and to take full credit where it is due.

[fuzzpig]

I might have to nick that string idea! We are planning to build the DCs' castle in advance and so can't really wrap it. May get a new blanket or something to try and cover it.

[BirdyBedtime]

I agree iheartdusty - I still got a stocking even when I was at Uni. By then it's just such a tradition that it's a good way to get little extras. I'll be really sad when I don't do a stocking for DCs (even though it's a long way off).

In our house we did stockings with little gifts and then one wrapped 'big' present from Santa - until last year when DD didn't want any one big thing but a few little things, so we bought sacks to put everything in and I just wrapped the 'stocking' presents in tissue paper. We have some great photos of DS actually climbing into the sack to get the small things from the bottom.