How to do Christmas Stockings?

At the start of December, ask your child to write a letter to Father Christmas saying what they’d like to get. If you have an open fire you can post it up the chimney the old fashioned way, but there are also addresses you can write to. Make a note of what your child asks for!

On Christmas eve, leave a mince pie / slice of Christmas cake, glass of milk / sherry and a carrot for Rudolph downstairs for Father Christmas to eat.

In my house, the christmas stockings were large knitted stockings that were hung up on the bedpost / bedside table before bed.

During the night, my parents would take the stocking out of my room and take it to their room to fill it will small gifts (so as not to wake me with the rustling!) The gifts included:

Always:
A tangerine
Chocolate coins
Sugar mouse
Candy cane

An assortment of other small gifts:
Small toys (eg Polly pocket - whatever today’s equivalent is!)
Stationary
Puzzles
Fun jewellery and hair accessories
Bath toys / bubble bath

There was usually at least one gift that would keep me occupied in my room on Christmas morning if I woke early!

My parents would take would tiptoe into my room to hang the stocking up again once filled.

I was always a heavy sleeper and slept through the night, but a lot of families leave the stockings downstairs in case their child wakes up and catches them in the act, or unwraps their presents at 4am!

I forgot to add, we hang ours on the fireplace! So no sneaking into bedrooms.

Up to you if you say you fill the stocking or Father Christmas does - but him filling it adds to the magic, so we do that.

Some families just bring stockings out on Christmas Eve to hang on ends of beds, some hang them on fireplaces, some hang on fireplaces then put at end of beds on Christmas Eve.

Ours contain: a satsuma, sometimes an apple, a sugar mouse (old fashioned sweet shops sell these but they’re easy to make), a candy cane, chocolate coins, a couple of £1 for money boxes, then toys like Brio trains, Lego mini figures, playing cards, model aeroplane, maybe a small Lego set, maybe a travel game set - that sort of thing.

Enjoy!

Traditionally in many families instead of a stocking years ago you’d use Dad’s old (clean) sock or a pillow case - the stocking itself doesn’t need to be fancy or expensive.

In my house, stocking presents are from Father Christmas. The stocking is left out on Christmas Eve, and Father Christmas fills it with little presents during the night. He eats the mince pie we leave out for him, and drinks the milk. His reindeer eat the carrot.

What actually happens is, I buy the little presents throughout the year - just little stuff, some chocolate coins, a new toothbrush, some fluffy socks, some pens, a notebook, shampoo, little toys, stuff like that. Then I wrap them in different paper to the paper that I use for the presents from me, and I stuff them in the stockings after the kids have gone to sleep.

I plan to stop doing stockings when they're 21 or so. A slow fade out I think!

I never had one when I was little either, but now DH and I do one for each other, and one for DS. 18 month old DS this year will have a new ‘big boy’ cutlery set, a new toothbrush, some colouring pens, chocolate coins, a toy car and a slinky.

DH will have some posh marmalade, a pack of biltong, a card game, Christmas socks and chocolate coins.

In our house stockings are hung on the end of our (mum and dads) bed. When everyone wakes in the morning they all pile in between the bed, occasional chairs and floor to open their stockings. Father Christmas fills them and leaves one gift under the tree.

chocolate orange in the toe then 4 or 5 small gifts like socks, make up, books, stationery, travel cup, earrings, sweets etc each.

I put my dc's stocking on his door handle (on the inside) sometimes, we didn't have a hard and fast rule. He slept very deeply though, some kids don't so you have to be very stealthy.

I wouldn't fix on the quantity of presents, it very much depends on the size of the stocking you pick and the size of the items that you buy to go in them. It will vary year on year. I have a spare stocking (it was the cat's) that I use as a model to see if the things I've bought will fit in. Sometimes it's a bit Tetris...

I do it exactly as my mum did it for me. My kids are all in their 20s now and still get a stocking!

Unwrapped stuff -
Fruit - an apple in the toe, a satsuma in the heel and a banana sticking out the top.
Small sweets - funszie bars
Choc coins
Tube of sweets

Wrapped stuff -
Socks
Shower gel
Little fidget toys/pin badges/pens etc

I also add a lotto scratch card

Ours were always downstairs, next to the tree. Father Christmas would fill the stocking and leave one 'big' present under the stocking. It was so exciting creeping downstairs in the morning to see if he'd been (and check if he'd eaten his mince pie and the reindeer had eaten their carrot).

I love a stocking! The thrill of feeling the weight of a full stocking at the end of your bed!

Mine was always filled with small, inexpensive presents (around 10), all wrapped - in different paper to the paper presents from my parents were wrapped in. I always got a tangerine and a coin as well.

I pretty much do the same with my DC now and they are teens but still love their stockings.

As other people have said, everyone does it a bit differently, but its a lovely tradition to start and make your own, with your own DC.

Whatever you do, get way more (identical) stockings than you need.

You can fill one, and stash it somewhere, and just exchange it with the empty one. It is not fun realizing close to midnight, after far too much Baileys that you need to extract the stocking fron a room with a barely sleeping child, fill it and return it!!

In this house, small stuff from Santa. Chocolate coins, whatever sweets are popular, a book, some clothing (hat, gloves, socks, teeshirt - whatever is needed). A toy or game (last year flying axolots, we've had mini lego bags, melting snowmen). Now they are older, a bottle of coke for Xmas dinner.

Everyone does it differently, but the most common/traditional is hung on or near the fireplace mantle because 'santa comes down the chimney'

You can put them where you like, it's your tradition. Whatever is most convenient for you if you want. My mum put ours on the ends of the sofa and armchairs (there were 4 of us), so not by the tree and not upstairs.

We still do stocking with grown up kids. Difference is we now do it secret Santa style so we all do 1 stocking each.

Small bits and bobs, some practical and some fun. Always some chocolate and sweets. Mine bizarrely liked socks!

Everyone does it differently but for us:

Hang up stockings in the living room on Christmas Eve, before bed. We used actual stretchy stockings so you could see all the presents through in the morning and it was very exciting!

Satsuma in the toe.

Maybe 15-20 little parcels, but at least half of these were things that we needed anyway....things like:

Pants/socks/slippers
Gloves/hat/scarf
Swim goggles/swimsuit/hat/other small sports or hobby equipment
Pens/pencils/craft stuff
Dictionary/calculator
Bubblebath/soap/toothbrush/toothpaste/lip balm/body spray
Hairbrush/hairbands

We knew they were special and from Father Christmas because they were character/Disney versions which we wouldn't normally get!

Then there'd be:

Chocolate - big dairy milk or giant smarties tube or Chocolate Orange or Toblerone - that sort of thing.

Sweets/Crisps - often a tube of Pringles.

Magazine or book

A few Christmas novelties

A few small toys.

Then chocolate coins sprinkled through.

Always wrapped in different wrapping paper to our family presents.

I loved it as a kid and have carried on the same system. I think it's a good way to fill the stocking with lots of parcels so it's exciting to open, but not buying loads of plastic crap that they don't need.

We have always done small low value gifts, usually something funny, a small game plus chocolate and cool smellies / bubble baths etc depending on age. We always wrapped each item as they would come into our room with their filled stocking and it would just give us 20-30 mins extra to come round before starting the day. Like a few others have said, we had two identical stockings so we could fill them and hide them, then do a quick swap out in the morning.

This year as the kids are now teens, we have done stockings as a secret Santa. All four of us will fill someone else’s stocking. Means I will get one this year too!

I had Christmas stockings growing up and do them the same for my kids. There is always chocolate coins, an orange and £2 coin in the toe (£1 when I was a kid!) and about 5 presents. Nothing big, nothing expensive.

We never had stockings when I was a child. My first boyfriend’s sister gave everyone a new pair of socks, filled with small goodies and that’s the tradition I’ve followed for my family. No gifts are from FC - he’s just the courier. For this year I’ve saved all my Who gives a crap wraps and will be using that to wrap the small gifts this year.

Love a stocking, me, DH and DS all have one.

In DS 12 stocking this year he has:
Choc coins
Xmas marshmallows
Choc reindeer
Lynx set
Fart whistle
Fluffy socks
Phone charger
Money box maze with £20 in it.

Kid hangs the stocking up before bed (most people use the same ones each year), in their room or outside or by the fire, wherever, father Christmas fills with gifts in the night. Some people wrap stocking gifts, others dont.

In our home, santa has a stocking paper for each kid (so no one gets confused in the mayhem of a 3yo and 6yo). Everything is wrapped except edible items (chocolate coins, chocolate tube, orange) and something fun poking out the top. Last year santa left a foam minecraft pickaxe and a stuffy poking out. Stocking gifts here are smaller, usually cheaper, but absolutely not the tooth brushes and spot cream of my time! We go for stickers, a mini 3d puzzle, hair chalks, things like that. Ds has some brainrot lego, dd has hello kitty sticker bracelet roll things. We have proper stockings rather than sacks so that limits the size.

Stockings are one of the most magical parts here :)

As Clefable says, buy 2 identical for each DC for an easy switch (pre-fill one and switch with the empty one on the way to bed), instead of having to go in to retrieve it, then go in again a second time after filling to place it back.

Ours are the only gifts from FC and are placed on the foot of the bed. We use football socks sized stockings (which handily come in pairs!). When DCs were small they were filled with a mix of smaller cheap toys and both edible and non-edible consumables. Now, at 9 & 11yo, they get mostly consumables (a mix of sweets, satsuma, choc, fancier shower gel, lip balm, hair bands, hot chocolate bomb etc). Our traditions were always a satsuma and a bag of choc coins, but they have grown into chocolate snobs and the coins always get left, so it's just a satsuma as an annual tradition now.