Stockings - why do people make it hard for themselves?!

[christmaslover88]

I've read so many posts tonight about people having to stay up crazy late for their kids to fall asleep to do stockings, their kids hearing them in their rooms and sussing Santa isn't real, people with duplicate stockings to speed up the process etc

Why do you all do this to yourselves?!

Stockings have never gone in bedrooms here, hung up on the mantelpiece before bed and then laid on the floor in front of the fire once filled. Santa comes down the chimney so surely it makes sense to have the stockings close at hand?

I genuinely didn't know stockings in bedrooms was a thing but it just seems to be a way to make your own life harder on Christmas Eve!

Why do you all do this to yourselves?!

What a strange thing to say - do what to "ourselves"?

thanks for showing us the light, bowing to your greater wisdom, but if there are family traditions that someone wants to continue to the next generation, it isn't about doing anything to themselves. It's a choice, recreating childhood, that's what Christmas is all about, It may take effort, why not. Nice that we aren't all the same.

Merry Christmas.

Because it is way more magical to have presents appear in the bedroom!

People always thing their own way of doing Christmas traditions is the right way to do it, but there really isn't anything superior about having stockings downstairs. Everyone is free to do what suits them best.

We have always had them in the living room. My parents did the same

When my eldest was little, he loved the idea of santa bringing presents, but really hated the idea that a stranger could be in his room at night, without him knowing.

As everyone else has said feeling the weight of the stocking is the best thing!

But my stocking always had a book in it, and something to eat. So if I woke up at 4am and opened it, I would stay in bed. Stocking presents were the only thing I could open in bed alone

We never had a fireplace when dds were small (hot country, no chimney). Stockings were always at the end of the bed, same as when I was small. Never a problem, though if I’d been worried I’d have left them outside the bedroom door, same as when dds were teens and we’d usually be in bed before they were. 🙂🎅🏻

My 19 year old twins have one still but it has been relegated from the end of their beds to dumped outside their bedroom door (my daughter was at midnight mass til 1am)

GiltEdges, having dds so excitedly bringing their bulging stockings to open on our bed was one of the best bits of our Christmas. Ddog and Dcat were usually also present, very interested to see what was going on.

Presents under the tree were from us or other family, and could wait until after breakfast - except maybe for just one….

I was thinking this exact same thing last night as I silently cursed the sweets for having crunch packets. My two are 12 and 10 and stayed awake singing for hours last night

The stocking isn't stressful at ours.
I just have to remember to go get it from DS's bedroom, fill it and return it before I fall asleep!

He has it in his room as it keeps him happily occupied when he wakes early - so it's a gift for us parents as well, really.

Everything goes in the living room here - stockings as well as main presents.

By the fire/living room is our tradition depending on house

Sneaking the stockings into his bedroom was fun when ds was young. It is just faux moaning and I did it too, loved him waking up to stocking in his bed and running through to our bed to open it.

This was the first year he didnt bring his stocking through to our bed (he is 18 and we opened it when he came back from clubbing at 4am! 🤣)

We never had a mantle but would just drape them over the furniture.

I woke at 4 filled them and popped them outside the door whilst dp put Santa presents under tree and went back to bed until I could hear them about 9 am . Was lovely no angst whatsoever we don’t have a fireplace and they usually went at end of the bed.

Both my mother and I look back fondly on our childhood memories of feeling that heaviness of a filled stocking at the end of the bed and the crinkling of the paper. Also, we didn't go downstairs to see the main presents until we'd opened our stockings on mum and dad's bed. It made the excitement last longer. We don't have a fireplace so I can't do it that way with my son either (he's a baby so haven't done either yet). I believed until I was 12ish so my parents managed it fine.

It isn't a big deal though?

Mine leave their stockings out, I take them away when they fall asleep and put their pre wrapped gifts in them and then return them? Its a 2 minute job?