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.

Just do you and stop worrying about what other people do.

I don’t do stockings but do the much maligned Xmas eve box.

Yabu.

[quote purpleme12]@mamanyt I love that[/quote]
Thank you!

[quote purpleme12]@mamanyt I love that[/quote]
She's my baby girl. And after 13 years together, she has learned that her fat stocking is filled with cat treats and jingle balls and catnip mice. She's very excited to have me open for her!

Can people please explain the point? Any smaller gifts I'd give my kids I'd put in the sack with the rest.

For us, Father Christmas brings the stockings and the rest of the presents are from family or friends.

As children DB and I had pillowcases left at the ends of our beds with a few small gifts in. The idea was that they would keep us occupied until a civilised hour rather than waking parents at the crack of dawn.

DH had the same growing up.

We have festive sacks for our DCs but they never woke up early! Even when they were small and excited for Christmas we would have to wake them Christmas morning so that we could get washed and dressed before going to Mass!

Sacks were for before Mass, the presents under the tree were attacked once we were home.

Also sacks were from Father Christmas, tree presents were from us.

I want to do a stocking this year...I wish I wasn't so christmas lazy

Love my stockings - mascara, chocolate, scratch card, toner, new purse, lip balm.

Lovely. Still get them at 25!

For anyone asking the point- well what's the point in any tradition?
Christmas even?
The giving of stockings at Yule is a very old European custom, I think it is a good thing to keep these aspects of our culture alive.
Plus it's huge fun!!

@Purplehaze34

A friend of mine told me they put the stockings next to the children’s bed so the parents can have more time in bed on Christmas morning. The children then spend more time upstairs opening their stocking gifts! I’m not sure if this is genius or a bit grinchy!

My dc races downstairs at 5am Christmas morning and I doubt a stocking would hold them back!

For us, we still had the 5am presents downstairs. The stockings stalled us from 330/4am! I've never been much of a sleeper - my poor parents.

For me stockings serve both the practical purpose of more time in bed for the parents/to get ready (for my parents it was maybe 30min more in bed, showers, sorting the video camera, and making teas and bucks fizz) and the exciting purpose of a bunch of small treats and practical items to get excited about and play with in the morning for the kids. I like a pp loved the feel of the stocking at the foot of my bed knowing it meant Christmas was beginning :)

Can people please explain the point? Any smaller gifts I'd give my kids I'd put in the sack with the rest

Does there have to be a point? It’s a tradition, like advent calendars, turkey, presents, crackers... people can either choose to do it or not.

I am sure there are others OP, but you are the first to admit it I have ever known or read about.

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

Crikey @Sitt would you just unclench!

The presents under the tree are delivered by Father Christmas from Mum and Dad (or whoever). Father Christmas is a bit like Amazon.

No stockings at our house for humans - the 3 cats share a Whiskas one between them.

I read this debate every year. There are different ways families organise presents and I was completely unaware of it until I had children of my own and started discussing it with other parents. It completely passed me by when I was a child that some of my friends had stockings from Father Christmas, other friends must have found their presents under the tree from the big guy in red. In our house I left a stocking out for Father Christmas (one of my grandfathers real socks) and Father Christmas came and filled it with magical little surprise treats and the presents under the tree were from friends and family. Thankfully DH was raised with a similar concept so we do the same for our children. However, the stockings are no longer my grandfather’s socks- my best friend made my dc some hand embroidered stockings which was a lovely idea but they’re huge and the cost of filling the brutes quickly mounts up. Not that I’d change it, my children (who are really getting past the age of believing) are already talking about coming down to find their stockings on Christmas morning. It truly is the most magical part of Christmas Day.

@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!

That feeling of reaching out to touch it, then he’s been, he’s been! I couldn’t imagine not giving my children the same experience.

That feeling of reaching out to touch it, then he’s been, he’s been! I couldn’t imagine not giving my children the same experience

They get the experience when they go downstairs and see that Rudolph has eaten the carrot and santa has had the mince pie and milk and the presents are under the tree...they still get the whole ‘hes been, hes been’ bit 😊

Though maybe you are talking about the santa presents....in which case apologies

@speakout

ZolaGrey

She is a very strict Baptist- who is always on the lookout for works of Satan.
She does celebrate christmas, but shuns a lot of stuff because of pagan connections.
So no christmas tree, no stockings- no Easter eggs either- all the devil's work!
She teaches at a large private Baptist school, little ones are shown that Santa is an anagram of Satan- and to be on guard!!

Oh...that sounds...er...fun?

people do things different, its not worth flipping your top over

No ones getting angry. We’re just having a chat on a chat forum.

You're all very lovely and polite for an AIBU.

It was never a tradition in our house. I had one once but I think that was to try and keep me busy and not wake the house at 6am.

We have sacks of presents albeit smaller sacks now dc are older as 3/4 presents coat same as 20 when they were younger
I have couple stockings up on fireplace but more for show

Kids these days get far too much, its ridiculous, all th presents in a sack!! I watch the grandkids, opening everything, hardly looking, some of it costing a fortune, a lot never touched again.

My parents always filled a big stocking for us, all wrapped, and it was my favourite part. Waking early and seeing it full! I had to wait until really late (6:30am I think!) to go to my parents' room to open it. So exciting.

I try to replicate that feeling for my children. Their big presents are around the tree. To be honest, there are a couple of bits of tat but not much and only things they'll enjoy. I bargain hunt all year for them and they have some lovely things in theirs that weren't expensive.

I leave one item out of their stocking that they can open before we wake up - something that they can play with independently immediately.

I cannot wait to see them open them!