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.

@StevieBud

Pressed send too soon

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

I make a big deal of advent and then do a Xmas Eve box too. DD says the run up to the big day and all the little traditions we have is her favourite part of Xmas as the big present opening on Xmas day is always over too soon. So imo, YABU and missing out.

Always had stockings and they’re never “boring”
Growing up we had things like felt pens , little toys , sweets and always a satsuma .
Now for my kids we put in hair accessories,bath bombs , lip balm , cute socks which are always worn on Christmas Day and
handy little gadgets or novelties.
It won’t stop till they move out .

Some of my fondest memories are dashing into my eldest sister’s room (she had a double bed we could all squeeze onto) alongside my other older sister and we would open our stockings together. No parents, just the three of us. If it was very early we’d watch carry on films before waking up our parents and showing them what Father Christmas had given us in our stockings. We then follow our dad downstairs, he always went first because otherwise the presents would disappear (he had to turn the alarm off!)

Not quite the same with my two. They’re not natural early birds and would happily sleep in, even on Christmas morning. I tend to have to make a noise to wake them up so they come into our room and we watch them open the stockings.

I'm in Australia and I don't think anyone here that I know of does stockings. Perhaps because it's right in summer, and not many people even have a fireplace or a chimney except for the couple of colder states. Aircon always going though, lol. I've always wondered what it would be like to experience an English or American Christmas.

We love stockings because they are full of little surprise presents - a paperback novel, some nicer than everyday soaps, foods, socks, stationery etc. Hanging them empty on Christmas Eve and then seeing them bulging in the morning is the best bit of Christmas Day imo.

But everyone has their own traditions. I never got the hang of the Easter Bunny. It was just chocolate eggs from us and occasionally a very badly organised egg hunt.

The presents in the stockings are the things that get played with all day every day for weeks here.

Stockings are the best bit and definitely not full of tat! Selection boxes, a diary, bath products, books, perfume etc.

Love a stocking, as do my kids. And what's wrong with a bit of tat? Kids love it.
Typically mine get a chocolate orange, chocolate coins, posh socks/bed socks, bath bomb, silly book (like book of jokes/silly facts) a couple of little puzzles or juggling balls or something like that, maybe a fancy hot chocolate, hair clips, pencils/pens. So yes, full to the brim with tat and they love it!

Its something they can open straight away on their beds on Christmas morning although they usually pretty quickly run in the see their siblings and see what they got in theres then come in to see us with them. Luckily they dont wake up a silly o'clock, its usually about 6.30. Also, a hanging up stockings adds to the magic of Christmas eve.

I like to be dressed, teeth brushed and stick the kettle on for a coffee before the present unwrapping begins.
No presents until after breakfast and everyone is dressed in our house. They have their stockings, and I put a present of new clothes each on their chair in the dining room. After breakfast and all dressed we gather in the livingroom for present opening. We usually (always) have guests staying over, not this year though because of covid so it might be a bit quieter.

I’ve always done stockings for my D.C. when they were little I had a loose mental template - something to read, something to watch, something to make, something to eat, something to cuddle, something to wear. It would also contain their ‘big’ Santa present. In addition I’d buy little things all year round as I saw them like hair bands or stationery. They had the stockings on Christmas morning and with Mass, visiting their grandad (whose birthday is Xmas day) to see their cousins and a big dinner they were more than enough for Christmas Day. Boxing Day was our family day, watching tv, eating leftovers in our PJs and opening the tree presents from family.

We still follow a similar pattern now they live away from home though the nature of the stocking presents has changed. No more beanie babies and felt tip pens. ☹️ New traditions have developed and they always have to contain cotton wool pads, makeup remover, tights, fairy lights and PJs. This year they also have personalised highball glasses, posh mascara they can’t afford for themselves, chocolates, some kitchen utensils and socks. I still buy the stocking fillers all year round and hide them away and it’s a treat for me to gather it all together and be reminded of what I bought in February/July.

Stockings are best bit
Kids all in the big bed ripping the presents open ,tipping the stocking out on to the bed ..magical,best bit of the day
When they got older they open them in their rooms and we get an extra few minutes sleep

We’ve never done them. Never had them as kids so it didn’t seem a thing to do with our own kids. I feel a bit sad reading all these lovely posts. Maybe I should start.

Everyone sleeping in our house on Christmas Eve gets a stocking, and it was the same when I was a child in the Very Olden Days. Even if for adult guests it just consists of one (new!) sock stuffed inside the other, with a few bits added. Always a tangerine/satsuma in the toe, though, and chocolate of some description.

With us it’s always been relatively little things only from Father Christmas, but that never lessened the excitement when we were kids. Waking in the dark to find the bulging stocking at the end of the bed!!

Our stockings were the very thick, grey, hand-knitted sea boot socks my DF had worn during WW2, when on the North Atlantic convoys. I dare say my DM had knitted them for him.

We also never had stockings as children, but friends talked about them. Didn’t feel we missed out.

We have introduced stockings for our children, based on my DH childhood experience. They are put at the end of the bed. Children bring them in when they wake up and open on the bed. It’s lovely! Then we have breakfast and open presents under the tree.

I do them with my kids but I never got one as a child.

How does Father Christmas bring gifts if not in the stocking? Oh I loved the excitement of turning over in bed and hearing it crinkle- and remembering it was Christmas Day!

Presents under the tree where from friends and family and opened after church but farther Christmas snook in after bed time and left you your stocking - magic

Swedish here and Father Christmas always brought presents in person: knocked on the door in the evening and came in, delivered the presents by candlelight. This also disposed of the awkward "how do I tell my year 6 child that Santa isn't real before they get bullied at secondary" as any reasonably observant child would have worked the situation out for themselves by age 5 or so. They'd still keep the pretence up because of the fun group situation.

Dh and I did stockings too to keep up with dc's British heritage. But we had to do them on the morning of Xmas Eve to get in before the main present giving.

We do sacks which Santa leaves at the end of the bed. No tat in ours! Kids are teens, there's be mutiny if the sacks were stopped. They are opened upon waking. Presents from us and friends and family are the. Under the tree. These get opened after breakfast. Thinking if adding in some table presents this year so there is something to have at the table too.

Stockings have always been from Santa in our families. The main under tree presents were from family. That way they always knew Christmas was about family giving. The stockings were often the best bit as they were surprises or small wishes from a santa letter when they were small enough to believe.
I still do stockings for whichever sons and partner are staying with us at Christmas- they are all adults now but it is the fun bit for me to give them a few surprises as they will typically know their main present ( we’re talking 20 something sons). My sons love the “randoms” I find to putin them, as they call them.

Interestingly I’ve dropped crackers in last few years- a combo of being fed up of tat and being environmentally nasty. I tried homemade ones for a couple of years- but finding gifts that size that aren’t tat is difficult and everyone just wants to chat and eat and not read stupid jokes.
Anyone else dropped crackers?

We always had stockings at Christmas and so do the children in the family. Some small things for the morning and we have our presents under the tree after Christmas lunch.

Beautifully written @ApplesinmyPocket
We have smaller toys and edibles in the stocking. Its one of the best bits of xmas.
Bigger presents under the tree.

My Christmas matchmakers come in my stocking! They're generally sort of perched in the top so I can open and eat them quickly for breakfast while opening other presents

I have two stockings now - DP and I have matching novelty ones my mum bought us for our first Christmas together in our new house, and I have a beautifully embroidered one that I received from a family member for my first Christmas. I give that one back to my mum to fill every year.

On top of the little presents, sweets, and chocolate, stockings must have nuts in shells, a nutcracker if you don't already have one, an orange, and a red apple!

Stocking is always opened first while dad/me (depending on who's hosting) makes the bacon sandwiches and pours the Buck's Fizz.

The best bit of Christmas for me is the kids piling into our bed at the crack of dawn and us all sleepily opening our stockings together. I think it's what I will miss the most as they grow up and no longer want to do it anymore.

I never had a stocking as a child and didn't do them for my DC. My Dad was from a non commonwealth country and Father Christmas wasn't a big deal, so we left him very low key and gone by 5 years old. We do Christmas Eve and the Advent, though.

Aw I loved a stocking as a child. However me and my DH did one for each other last year and I said not to this year. It was sweet but slot of overpriced stuff that I'll never use.