To ask if we are the ONLY family who have NEVER done Xmas stockings

[StevieBud]

Every year on MN I see all these threads asking for suggestions for stuff to put into stockings and people reply suggesting all kinds of tat.

Or boring stuff like new toothbrushes.

Presents should be under the tree, opened at dawn before consuming a box of Matchmakers.

We never had them just presents, suspect because DM didn't, first DGC is now Santa age and it hasn't started. We've also never done Christmas Eve presents

I love a good Christmas stocking! We normally had chocolates in ours plus maybe a few small items that weren’t tat (maybe some nail polish for myself whilst my brother might have had a few much requested hot wheels cars).

Our cat is also getting one this year with a few new toys and some edible treats!

Wow, I had no idea there were families who don't do stockings! They are the highlight of Christmas for our family. I enjoy doing them for my DDs but we still put loads of effort into them for the adults too.

It makes me sad that people have tat-filled stockings. That's just a waste. Things I often get in a stocking: jewellery, makeup, kitchen implements (I love these), books, edibles, tech-y gadgets or other small things for around the house (I got a really nice coaster set one year and a small set of vintage candle sticks another). If the items are well chosen for the recipient, they are such fun to open. It doesn't have to be expensive to be tat-free.

@SingleHandSue How do you give things like selection boxes or chocolate coins otherwise? Wrapping them is a waste of time and paper and would be disappointing after the effort of unwrapping.
You still wrap stocking presents!

My stocking was always my favourite thing at Christmas growing up but my DM always put wonderful, thoughtful things in them. Actually, she still does—we all still have them now! These days I usually get a little Hotel Chocolat something, maybe a new mug, a pair of knickers, a little individual bottle of champagne or wine, some socks, a small cosmetic item like a lipstick or a nail polish, a nice pen and notebook, things like that. I absolutely LOVE making a stocking for DH and DC too. (Plus I’ve taken over DM’s because she always did ours so beautifully.)

Stockings are one of my favourite things about Christmas, m&s chocolate coins, nice socks, makeup, candle etc definitely no tat.

Yes, I still do them now even though my daughter is 23. I now hang them above the fire place, but up until two years ago I was creeping upstairs and leaving it outside her bedroom door, 😃

We do them but on the 6th January, the befana gives them (Italian Christmas witch).

I love epiphany but it's not really celebrated in England (my old village does a RL nativity through the villages and also young might women dress up as befane if they are not going to work)

@ApplesinmyPocket

You wake up on the most magical day of the year... there's a fat stuffed lumpy stocking/sack on your bed, full of promise.

You feel inside it.. draw out every silly thing one at a time... wondrous things... things your sensible parents would never have thought of getting you.. ... and there's CHOCOLATE COINS. For BREAKFAST.

The household gradually awakes. You show your stocking and its amazing contents to your siblings, your parents, anyone around the house, and you play with the bits Santa brought and you swap and squabble and all the fun is still to come, everyone excited and full of joy and anticipation (or champagne!). Then there's dinner, with turkey, and crackers and still there are...

...THE PRESENTS, still under the tree.

That's how it's always worked in our house. Keep the magic going past lunch and its adult-only pleasures. As long as possible!

@ApplesinmyPocket that's a lovely description! Absolutely evokes the Christmas morning feeling that you get when you find your stocking.

It's my favourite Christmas tradition - we even reinstated stockings for all adults because we decided everybody should have one!

Stockings keep everybody going on Christmas morning until it's time for the big ticket items under the tree. And yes, showing everybody what was in your stocking is very much part of the fun!

Stockings full of tat are pointless. But stockings done RIGHT are the best bit of Xmas.

I will admit that certain ages/genders can be easier than others and it depends on what kids like. But if you have a good sized stocking then it’s perfect for slightly nicer versions of things you would usually buy as a treat. Eg yes of course parents buy things like underwear and socks but in a stocking you might get character socks or a more expensive brand of lovely bubble bath. They were hugely exciting as a child and always full of what felt like treats. Chocolates and sweets too, as well as books. Teenage girls are the best age to do stockings for as you can fit in jewellery, make up, bath bits, phone cover, anything really.

Stockings keep you going in my family, where you aren’t allowed to open your presents until you have have earned them with Acts of Christmas Pennance (church and taking the dogs for a long walk). We don’t sit down to open them till around 11.30. The stockings aren’t full of tat though! They have nice but small things.

My husband’s family open their presents first thing in the morning and they don’t do stockings. I agree there is no point if you aren’t waiting for your main presents.

Growing up, we were always told Father Christmas filled stockings and your main presents came from mum and dad. The most magical part of Christmas by far was waking up to find your stocking had been filled in the night and knowing that he had been. I want my kids to have that same experience when the time comes.

I know loads of people who don’t do stockings, of course you’re not the only one. And if you don’t do them you don’t do them, I have the capacity to understand that others prefer to do things differently , but it does seem rather literal and lacking in imagination to not understand why other people might enjoy them, that it doesn’t have to be a lonely sift through tat for a child, and that it’s easy to figure out how to give slightly bulkier things as stocking fillers

@GarlicSoup

Crikey Stockings are the best bit. They only contain ‘tat’ if you put tat in you know

What they said.

*Stockings are the best bit!

How do you give things like selection boxes or chocolate coins otherwise? Wrapping them is a waste of time and paper and would be disappointing after the effort of unwrapping.*

Selection boxes are a disappointing present whether wrapped or not 🤷🏼‍♀️

We don't do stockings here. I grew up with just the pile of presents under the tree and I've replicated that as an adult. Then again, I'm happy for DS to wake me at 5am on Christmas Day and actually get up with him rather than distracting him with chocolate and small toys in bed, which is what I've always understood the purpose of stockings to be

We always had stockings, only small ones with chocolate Coins and small toys.

Main presents were under the tree in a locked room and we weren’t allowed to wake our parents or go down until 7am. The stockings were to keep us occupied until then.

It sounds miserable but we loved it. Once we were adults my parents explained that having the oldest child going to bed after midnight and the younger ones waking up at 4am was killing them 😂

I love stockings and they really don’t need to have that in them. We do a homemade advent calendar and a stocking for the kids. This year they have a mixture of art & craft supplies, mini Lego sets, special soaps/bath bombs, lip balm, Christmas pjs, hair accessories & little homemade kits for hot chocolate, cookie or cupcake making. In the past they’ve got things like skipping ropes, card games, books, water based nail polish, character socks/gloves, happy land people or animals, chocolates & bath toys. Some of it probably could be fairly described as tat but it’s mainly stuff they’ll use over the weekends in advent or over the Christmas holidays.

Never encountered a Christmas stocking until I was 24 years old and future MIL gave me a stocking, and it's not something we did with our kids either. Used to get my presents in a couple of pillowcases then we opened little "under the tree" presents later.

@ApplesinmyPocket

You wake up on the most magical day of the year... there's a fat stuffed lumpy stocking/sack on your bed, full of promise.

You feel inside it.. draw out every silly thing one at a time... wondrous things... things your sensible parents would never have thought of getting you.. ... and there's CHOCOLATE COINS. For BREAKFAST.

The household gradually awakes. You show your stocking and its amazing contents to your siblings, your parents, anyone around the house, and you play with the bits Santa brought and you swap and squabble and all the fun is still to come, everyone excited and full of joy and anticipation (or champagne!). Then there's dinner, with turkey, and crackers and still there are...

...THE PRESENTS, still under the tree.

That's how it's always worked in our house. Keep the magic going past lunch and its adult-only pleasures. As long as possible!

This is how I would have put it but I can’t write as well as you!

I never had one as a child, but we do them now for our children. We don’t have them in their bedrooms. They go under the tree and they open them last.
I spend about. £20 each, and don’t get rubbish! But they are great for Xmas chocolate, smaller presents, especially for my girls who love nail polish, lip balms, hair accessories etc.

Stockings are awesome. Always my kids best bit!

My stockings are so legendary my children have ‘bockinngs’ - yes a birthday stocking. No tat here but the cost can add up and this year money is tight plus my babies are 16 and 19. My stockings stopped at 14 - this years will have to be chocolate and face masks. Although there are always badges and stickers

@ApplesinmyPocket

You wake up on the most magical day of the year... there's a fat stuffed lumpy stocking/sack on your bed, full of promise.

You feel inside it.. draw out every silly thing one at a time... wondrous things... things your sensible parents would never have thought of getting you.. ... and there's CHOCOLATE COINS. For BREAKFAST.

The household gradually awakes. You show your stocking and its amazing contents to your siblings, your parents, anyone around the house, and you play with the bits Santa brought and you swap and squabble and all the fun is still to come, everyone excited and full of joy and anticipation (or champagne!). Then there's dinner, with turkey, and crackers and still there are...

...THE PRESENTS, still under the tree.

That's how it's always worked in our house. Keep the magic going past lunch and its adult-only pleasures. As long as possible!

This.

When you wake in the cold and the dark and find empty stocking that has become magically full and heavy whilst you were sleeping. Delicious.

Each to their own, but the whole stocking thing is one of the most magical arts of christmas, and plays a large part in the whole chrismas eve bedtime routine.
Bath, pjs, hot chocolate and some toast, put out a biscuit for Santa ( usually made earlier that day), a glass of milk and a carrot for Rudolph, hand the stocking then go to bed.
Parents to the switcharoo later with an identical stocking he has been stuffed the day before.
And no tat- oftne things that will be used, needed, played with or eaten.
I still do stockings for the whole family, even my 87 year old moher loves her stocking.

My sister doesn;t do them for religious reasons.

Totally agree with Apple's lovely description, that's how we've always done Christmas in our house and it follows on from how my parents 'did' Christmas.

But every family is different, there is no 'right' or 'wrong', personally I've never wanted the big pile of presents under the tree, everyone opening everything at once and it's all over by 8am . We always had 'main' presents in the afternoon, after stockings, Church, drinks with the neighbours and a light lunch, Queen's speech, maybe a walk as well and then the 'Christmas Feast' in the evening by candlelight.

But we've also adapted it over the years, as teenagers my siblings and I sometimes worked on Christmas Day, my own teenage DS has also worked a couple of times on Christmas Day (great money for a youngster!) and now that my parents are very elderly we change schedules around to suit everyone.