What, exactly, are the 'stockings' in your house?

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When I was a child, we had actual socks. Knee high socks that would fit a 10-12 year old. The younger children borrowed said socks from the eldest. With hindsight, no doubt they got so stretched out of shape that they weren't much good afterwards, not that we thought about it at the time.
I have seen suggestions for 'stocking-fillers' that to my mind would be way too physically big.
Do most people now use shop-bought Santa stockings that can take much bigger stuff?
I guess there are advantages and disadvantages to each approach?

We each had one of my Dad's sock that were his from the army (ww2 - youngest of large family and I'm quite old!). They got passed down between us and only fitted in stocking type things like some coins, chocolate, satsuma etc, silly game. I remember being v excited. My kids had bigger stocking based on my dh's family traditions but they are still not huge. What's been in them has changed depending on their ages.

I've a very vague memory of actual socks for a while as a child. But we also had a pillow case. That excited feeling of the weight of it at the end of your bed on Christmas morning is unforgettable. So I've used pillow cases as well.

I had a pillow case and that's what our children had

My kids have purpose made stockings. About 90cm long maybe by 45 wide? They don't open up that much though if that makes sense?

When I was growing up I had a made for that reason stocking too but it was plastic I think and slightly smaller.

I’m 35 and as a child we had huge stockings (now used by my niece and nephew) a toddler could get inside them size. I’ve bought DS a smaller one but it’s still maybe 50cm long and chunky? Knitted like a sock but definitely not a human sock

Random knitted crappy ones that the bloody inside strands held onto the presents for dear life and you had to wrestle the fuckers out.

I bought my son a cute initial sack from B&M but honestly I feel a bit sad that he hasn’t got some random pillowcase pulled from the airing cupboard on Christmas Eve like I did 😂

We have shop bought 'Christmas stockings' but they're not huge. Maybe 12 or 15cm wide and about 40cm long/deep.

Definitely wouldn't fit some of the things I've seen promoted as 'stocking fillers'.

Same here got them all from Woolworths.

But how can you explain to your child that their 'stocking' is a pillowcase? It doesn't fit the story, nor the widespread use of the word 'stocking'.

I suppose if they are too young to think about it, they won't question it, and if they are old enough to think about it, they don't believe anyway.

I had a pillowcase and used that for my kids but fairly recently I bought some handsome sacks from seasalt

When DS was little he had a bought Christmas stocking in a sensible size but then I made the mistake of buying a huge knitted one! Bad idea!

when I was little we didn’t do stockings until one year I’d read about Christmas stockings in a book and after my bath on Christmas Eve I appeared downstairs with three of my Dad’s socks to hang on the fireplace. One for me and one each for my younger sisters. Cue completely panicked faces from my parents! I think we got some coins and chocolate and an orange each.

Pillowcases.

A pair of kilt socks. Very long.

You're way overthinking this

It's just 'some children have stockings, some children have pillowcases'. Done.

We had pillowcases growing up and that’s what my kids had growing up too. Much easier to fit bulkier boxes.

Two years ago, I switched them to Santa stockings that hold smaller gifts.

I made ours. They're about a foot long <boom boom> maybe 15-20cm wide at the top, non-stretchy.
They fit things like: socks, torch, fidget toy, magazine, chocolate coins, kinder egg, Lego blind bag - that type of thing.

We used to leave out a pillow case under the tree, which would appear full in the morning. But one gift would be left on our bed to open, not a stocking-full. I didn't grow up with a stocking, neither did DH, but we wanted to do them as a family.

I've embroidered us all a stocking each over the years, except my youngest's isn't quite finished. They're of average size and we only put small items in them. I'm hoping that as the kids get older and leave home, they'll keep them

Yeah, I added a decorative stocking from Woolworth's as well (and, of course, had to fill that as well!). As a child, all our presents were from Father Christmas and I don't remember even thinking about "stockings" as no fireplace (gas fire) and you could get more in a pillow case.

Shop bought stockings here and it was for me growing up in the 80s/90s too. Other families did pillow cases. Is that still a thing??

From around two years old my darling mum used one of my dad football socks, I'm 47 now. The pair of socks was kept and I still got at stocking at 26 and then I moved into my own place. I had my son at 29 and he will be 19 in February, mum has passed and my son still get the same football sock used every year.

Oh and the stocking/sock isn't hung up, Santa lays it on the bottom of your bed in the middle of the night

We never had stockings as children . Just pillowcases with ball the presents in.
Mine just had a bought Santa themed bag/sack each.

*All

We only had small presents from Father Christmas in the socks. All the main presents were from parents or family members.

When my daughter had a sock, it was sometimes a challenge to find good stuff that was small enough. I didn't want to just stuff it with chocolate, but most toys were too big. It took a bit of hunting around the toy shops.