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.

Sorry I don't agree at all. My stocking was my favourite part of Christmas. I'd lay it at the foot of my bed and I used to love it when I'd wake up and it was heavy so I knew it had been filled.

My siblings and I would sit on the landing and open them together before waking up our parents to go downstairs. Absolute Christmas magic.

@StevieBud

Pressed send too soon

Stockings are a boring waste of time - just get on with the main event!

Stockings should be on the end of beds to keep kids occupied for a while when they wake up, leaving you to sleep beyond the crack of dawn.

Presents under the tree should be opened slowly throughout the day, keeping the excitement going. At the earliest they should all be opened by lunchtime.

As a small child, it actualy WAS well a long sock, the orange etc, I knew from early on i was my parents, used to wake up in the night wondering why it wasn't there. It was the tradional orage,nuts, but just as exciting. Main presents were opened after lunch, mid afternoon, when the rest of the family turned up.

I do one for DD now aged 6, just little stuff she'd get anyway like a book and a DVD. We always do a joke present as well in the stockings. I also have to do one for her favourite soft toy, he usually gets new clothes (newborn baby size fit him).

Santa brings the stockings.

I loved putting together stockings for my three DC.
All grown up now but the girls still have shoe box full of bits . No tat.
They sit together and open the same shaped presents at the same time and compare them .
We moved to boxes a few years ago as stockings are from Father Christmas and we didn't want to confuse the DGC !
About 10 small bits nothing costing more than a couple of pounds.
We used to get Selection Boxes but have moved onto a single bar of good chocolate . Still put a satsuma,apple and nuts in though !

my kids are now in their 20's, and still love their stockings.
We won't be together this year due to Covid, but every year since forever they have woken up early on Christmas morning and got onto our bed with us and the dogs to open their stockings.
It always has £1 coin, a piece of fruit and chocolate coins. Then a combination of silly gifts and a couple of nicer things. Never anything very expensive.
They have banned us from ever stopping the stockings, say it was what they remember most about Christmas when they were young and it just makes them really happy.

@StevieBud so what happens about presents from Santa?
They're the ones in the stocking. That's why there's a stocking (or sack or whatever)

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay

I always make one for my cat but she doesn't often have a "big" present. If I am at my sisters, she has a number of small presents that I'll have picked up during the year - puzzle books, sweets, any thing I see I think she'd like, but I don't always put them in a stocking.

LOL, I make a stocking for my cat, as well. AND she gets two big presents, one from me and one from Santa. I know, but...it's just the two of us on Christmas. My sons are grown and gone, and too far away to come for just the one day that they have off from their jobs. For some reason, IT people are frantic in the USA during the holidays!

OH...I also get two gifts...one from the cat, and one from Santa. It's amazing how she can shop for me, and find exactly what I was longing for! There's a running joke among my neighbors at Christmas time, reporting back to me (and to each other) about the places she was seen out shopping!

My DH never had stockings growing up- they had sacks with all the gifts in.

Growing up we had a variation of pillow cases and my DF’s old woolly socks, before my Mum sewed stockings for us when I was about 7.

@EveryDayIsADuvetDay

I always make one for my cat but she doesn't often have a "big" present. If I am at my sisters, she has a number of small presents that I'll have picked up during the year - puzzle books, sweets, any thing I see I think she'd like, but I don't always put them in a stocking.

For your cat? Puzzle books and sweets?

We’ve never done them, agree completely @StevieBud

We love a good stocking, everyone in my house has one, not full of tat as such we have ours full of our xmas day breakfast treats we all have them on my bed with a xmas movie on. Then the youngest checks down stairs to see if santa has been, we then flood down stairs gift unwrapping to the kitchen after where santa will have always left the big present they asked for and they are always suprised its there

Stockings are opened here whilst the adults grab a coffee and the camera! They mainly contain the sweets and chocolate. I also pop some fun stationery, silly games etc in there.

My family always had a wrapped gift on the end of our beds from Santa too which is ALWAYS a stuffed toy. This is to be opened before we all get up.

Tried them once after seeing the hype on MN but didn’t bother again.

Everything has to be small to fit in and we don’t give essentials so hard to find small non tat items. Can see it being easy with a baby or toddler as lots of their toys are small.

@mamanyt I love that

My Dad always reminds me that was pretty much all they got back in the 50s. A tangerine, a walnut, a sixpence and a small bar of chocolate if lucky! One main present. A toy. In his case a little drum. Awwww.

We give kids far too much these days.

Funny how everyone does these things differently. As a kid we had a big sack as a "stocking" with proper presents in. I've done the same for my kids. They get a couple of decent presents from us under the tree, and presents from other family. But their main presents are in their Santa sack. Otherwise it makes no sense writing to Santa saying what you want if all he brings you is chocolate and plastic tat. The magic is, he can bring you whatever you asked for (within reason-we've had conversations about he can't bring live animals!). All the people who just give small presents from Santa, do your kids not write to him saying what they wish for??

@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!

Same. Lovely

Ugh opening presents before anyone else has woken up is awful.

Stockings were my favourite part of Christmas as a child. They are now my dcs favourite part of the day. Nothing beats the look on their faces and squeals of delight when they realise Santa has been. It's lovely when they truly believe in magic. My ds knows now but my dd still believes...even when they both know, I will carry on with stockings until they leave home! Actually, even when they leave, I might still deliver one!

It's not tat, I try to put in things they'll need and use, deodorant, pants, socks, hat, gloves...also lots of books, stationery. The odd toy, joke present, chocolates and sweets, anything to do with their hobbies. I love buying them things.

Bah humbug to pp who said that selection boxes are a disappointing present.

They're fab.

Does anyone remember when they used to contain Spangles, in the 70s/80s? Spangles were actually disgusting. But the rest of the selection was good.

It used to be so exciting waking up on Christmas morning to find the stocking at the end of my bed full
I used to sneak into my brothers bed and we'd sit and eat all of our chocolate coins for breakfast and look through / play with our other stocking presents.
Good ploy by our parents to get an extra hour in bed

The magic of sitting up in the half dark, making out the silhouette of the now stuffed stocking and feeling with your toes that it’s full, is the most magical Christmas memory that I would not want to deprive my son of!
Even if it has things that you’d buy anyway - they’ve been chosen/created for you by SANTA and wrapped by elves and I’m sorry, but that’s just more exciting than your mum buying you pants from primark.

In our stockings it is a requirement to have: chocolate coins, an orange, an annual, a new toothbrush, new fancy pants, and a new cuddly toy who sticks out of the top unwrapped.
Then a few other bits - toy cars, uno or cards, rubix cube etc.

@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!

Exactly this! That description took me immediately right back to my childhood!! We do stockings here and they're never full of tat. We put things in them like bath bombs or nice bubble bath, stationery, a book, chocolate coins etc. Any other little bits and pieces that I see that I know DD will like. I always thought the stocking was the most exciting bit!

The stocking is designed to keep the kids entertained for a few precious minutes. Usually chocolate coins, satsuma, and little notebook and pens, Christmas decoration etc.

Now the weird thing is my DH family tradition of ignoring the bursting stocking by the fireplace all Christmas day and only opening it on boxing Day when you've already got all the proper presents to play with 🤯

The stocking is designed to keep the kids entertained for a few precious minutes.

Absolutely!
I like to be dressed, teeth brushed and stick the kettle on for a coffee before the present unwrapping begins.

A stocking can give you the 10 minutes needed to do that!