To be very confused about Christmas?

[Kat256M]

My kid is getting to the age where he understands presents, Santa etc. so need to put a bit more effort in it this year!

I am not from the UK and heard people discussing Christmas stockings today at work. I have only seen them in mostly American Christmas movies before-I thought they were only decorative!

So what do you put in? What can even fit in there? Is it just for kids or adults too? Does one person(let's be real, me!) do them or everyone does someone else's? And mainly-does Santa bring them usually?

I have been here working here a long time but raising a family sometimes makes me realise how many small things are different country to country. Thank you for your help!

I do one for my two youngest (9,5). We put wee things from Primark and b and m etc . Think- lip gloss, hair clips, crayons, stickers, little teddy, some chocolate coins etc. you don't need to do one, not everyone does. I think I budget about 20 pounds per stocking

I do small, relatively cheap gifts in a stocking. So, usually a chocolate santa, some chocolate coins, an orange, box of crayons, bubbles, stickers, a bath fizzer...that sort of thing.

Everyone does it differently, which doesn’t help you at all. Stockings come in all sorts of sizes. My mum made ours from pillow cases so they’re bloody massive and take loads to fill. I wish I’d thought about that beforehand! The stockings are from Father Christmas, under the tree presents are from us. Usually things in the stocking are board games, puzzles, sweets and a teddy.

I think for my girls they love the excitement of thinking that Santa has actually been in their room

In our house stockings are from santa and gifts from us/family/friends.. for my 5 Yr old, there will be some sweets, maybe some fluffy socks and a couple of small toys.. about £20 spend.. we do also have one each (adults) which again tend to have socks, some booze and maybe a silly gift

People do it differently. For our family, dc wake up to “stockings” - pretty pillow cases - with chocolate, bubble baths, make up bits (they’re teens now), a book, note pad, small game, slime, pens… bits and pieces. I don’t wrap them (some people do). They open them, then eat some chocolate while I get coffee and breakfast. After breakfast we do main gifts.

stocking little gifts are from Father Christmas
bigger gifts are from family

My Dc are 14-17 and still very much do Father Christmas. They obviously know the truth but play the game, including writing a note to Father Christmas first weekend of December and leaving them on a plate with a mince pie for an elf to collect. We decorate the house that weekend but we always wanted time to sort the dc mad requests. One once asked Father Christmas for a cuddly narwhal 😆 I found one!

We also do adult ones 😂

Not everyone does them (on the 25th or at all), but most people who celebrate Christmas seem to.

Those who don't are usually like me and from other countries that celebrate Christmas (but slightly differently from the UK).

In our house, the stocking was little presents from Father Christmas - things like bubble baths crayons/pens, socks, chocolate money, a tangerine, a giant tube of Smarties, toy cars, a book - nothing expensive.

I used to wrap everything, so it took them longer to unwrap everything - we did stockings first thing in the morning, then presents from under the tree (from us and other relatives) after lunch - it spread the excitement out for longer, which worked for us.

As the boys got older, I used to always put in posh hot chocolate, mini marshmallows and squirty cream so they could do posh hot chocolate for themselves, and I also always put in socks and boxers, biscuits, sweets etc.

Dh and I used to do stockings for each other too - in practice this meant I had to think of stuff for 4 stockings - and wrap all the presents - and dh only had to do mine! As the boys are grown up now, and ds1 his married with kids, we decided it was time to stop the stockings.

An Apple, an orange. Shiny pennies from the year (newly minted), some chocolate coins, a chocolate Santa, some kind of body spray/fancy teabags/anything else useful and cylindrical they like, some kind of trinket they enjoy, or something like cute and funky jewellery or enamel pin, stickers, small collectibles. Small and personal gifts really that are all about them but something you wouldn’t wrap and put it under the tree.

Whatever you do, this is what you will do every year.

You can get decorative stockings that are quite smaller and then bigger ones the kids hang somewhere to be filled. Choose a size you are happy to fill.

Parents do it for the child, but obviously say that Father Christmas came. So you have to fill it silently (or buy and hide a second stocking and swap it out) once child is confidently asleep.

Think token gifts, maybe something practical (magic flannel, exciting bubble bath, socks!) some small toys and a sweet or chocolate. Traditional wooden toys are nice, add in a satsuma and the shiniest pennies for in the toe.

Some people wrap the gifts, some people don’t. I recommend wrapping or at least wrapping in tissue paper. Makes it last a bit longer and adds to the excitement.

If you are wrapping keep that paper separate, it is only Santa paper and must not be used for the main presents from you.

Tiger tiger is brilliant for small pencils, little toys and sweets. It helps that they are Danish and any writing could be mistaken for being from the North Pole.

Can I interest you in Elf on the Shelf? A magical elf that moves around the house and does elaborate, cheeky and cunning stunts while you all sleep. You will find yourself scattering icing sugar in your kitchen at 3am in a cold sweat when you’ve forgotten to move the grinning loon.

Everyone gets one in our house. DH does mine and I do his and the kids typically. Some people do small stocking and others do sacks, it really depends on what tradition you want to set. We do sacks for the kids and small ones for adults. Sacks are from Santa and presents from us. Sacks include colouring books, puzzles, board games, chocolate, pens pencils etc... we tend to wrap up a few bits and leave the chocolate, bubbles, bubble bath etc.. unwrapped.
There is no set way of doing it, but typically stockings are left each year for the children and are usually from Santa.
We leave ours under the tree but my mum put them at the end of our beds. Everyone's different.

We do the same as @TeenLifeMum. Stockings are from Father Christmas and the kids open them first thing upon waking up on Christmas morning. They love the ritual of leaving out the empty stockings by the fire place on Christmas Eve, with a mince pie for FC & carrot for Rudolph, only to rush down stairs when they wake up, to see if he's been!
Stocking contains little bits and bobs - bath bombs, fluffy socks, puzzle games, fortune telling fish etc and the obligatory satsuma, 50p & a walnut (no idea why these last 3 but they were always in my stocking when i was little, so I've continued the tradition with no regard for inflation). It gives the grown ups time for a coffee and breakfast before main gift exchange later in the morning. My eldest twi are teens now and they both say their favourite part of Christmas is the stockings.

I never had stockings growing up so didn’t do them for my DC. My mum used to put a regular pillowcase as at the end of our bed for all of Santa gifts. I wanted this too and got red ones and stuck their initials on with sequin tape. They leave them by the fire with the mince pie and carrot etc. All Santa presents in there and a satsuma and chocolates. We have one present from us( under the tree). They are now in their 20s and we still play along with the pillowcases! OP I think it would be nice for you to continue your own traditions from your country.

We are a stocking family.
Everyone who sleeps in the house on Christmas Eve gets one as Father Christmas brings them once the children (of all ages) have gone to bed.
When they were very little, I would put in bath toys, sweets from the polish aisle in Tesco so the language looked different (I told them that the language was from Lapland) little socks, colouring pencils and colouring book etc.
In our house we open stockings together on parents bed with a cup of tea before breakfast.
It provides treats before going to Church. We open gifts when we get back from Church.

also our boys still use the stockings they first had when they were little and DH and I use the same ones we first had when we moved in together. (25+ years)
We have a couple of spares for when we have guests on Christmas Eve.

Everyone is different but things you can put in a stocking vary. Because size of stockings vary
You dont have to do it, its not a must
But kind of a nice extra

Ideas of Things that can go in there you maybe better looking at the christmas thread as there is alot of inspiration over there but i normally add things like
Christmas fluffy socks
A keyring (For School book bag)
A water bottle of fav character (For school)
Those shiny gold / silver chocolate coins
Fidget toys
Bouncy balls (Age dependant)
Pocket games
Uno
Christmas sweets
Xmas themed pencils
Stickers / Tattoos

Hahaha nope, I refuse to do elf on the shelf! Don't get me wrong I love Christmas at all but that just spunds like too much work.

Thank you everyone keep the suggestions coming! It seems like everyone does it a bit differently but most people do it.

Santa fills the stocking of younger believers here. My top tip - don’t buy a stocking that is too big, they’re easy to fill when they are little, harder when they are bigger when everything is more expensive!

We always have some chocolate coins and a satsuma in the bottom of them here, then other smallish (often cheap) gifts to fill them out. It could be sweets they’re not normally allowed, mini cereal box that is more of a treat, lego blind bags, book, stationery, hair clips, socks, pants, card game, rubies cube, mini puzzle, bath bomb, toiletries, spare phone cables, mini puzzles, puzzle books - all depending on age.

Stockings used to get left on the bed to be filled by Santa, but that got too nerve wracking, so it moved to the bedroom door handle. Some people have two identical stockings so they can quickly swap out the empty stocking with the full one.

DC always brought stockings into our bedroom to empty out the contents before going to see what Santa has left under the tree.

We do stockings for adults in our house too, because we think it’s fun.

There are lots of different traditions in the UK. Some people find ‘Santa’ very much an American import and stick to Father Christmas, but in Scotland (where I’m from anyway) and other parts of the UK it has been Santa for as long as people can remember.

IME of living in different parts of the UK, it is more common in England to have Father Christmas fill stockings, while parents leave presents under the tree. It’s not universally the same though.

I was brought up with Santa bringing everything except presents from other family members (though my grandparents used to arrive with gifts and say Santa left them at their house for us), so that’s what I’ve always done. DH was the same, but we both come from central Scotland.

I love elf on the shelf, it's good fun and doesn't need to be crazy. I do it for my kids because it encourages them up out of bed in the cold winter mornings

We didn’t have them as kids but we do them for DD.
Ex is good at stockings and bases them on what he had. Relatively small stocking, unwrapped gifts.

DD is 6 and will have things like:
Novelty pens
Little notebook
Chocolate coins
Favourite sweets (she is a toffee or fudge fan)
A few Quality Street chocolates
A satsuma or Clementine
Novelty toys and jokes/pranks
Small lego kit
Mini squishmallow or any of those random small surprise egg toys
Glitter tattoos or nail stickers or lip balms
Hair accessories
Small craft kit or Playdoh or that sort of thing
Stickers

Then she gets a couple of “big” santa gifts. The rest of gifts are from people and under the tree.

Buy two identical stockings, hang one and pre-fill the other and swap them. Saves late night faffing when you’ve had several wines….

I never had a stocking. My Dad was an immigrant and it wasn't the norm for him, or my Mum (who was second generation immigrant). I don't feel that I missed out. I've always thought that they sound as though they are filled with stuff for the sake of it. A know a lot of English people who don't bother with them anymore. They aren't compulsory.

You can make them as elaborate as you want. A lot of people, like me, fill them with small, cheaper, bits and pieces. I used to get a lot of fruit in mine so they can even be food/sweet based.

Buy one that lasts, it is more about the same stocking coming out every year bringing back memories of previous years, DD stocking, like her, is nearly 17.
Don't buy a large one, they are more experienced to fill as the children get older.

One thing I found was how difficult it was to get the kids to bed early on Christmas Eve. Which meant staying up late to sneak out the stocking after they were asleep.

then I hit on the genius idea of having two identical stockings, so that it was just a case of swapping them over. Empty one for one already filled.

We use a foot ball sock, nothing too big. S

Small game
small soft toy
colouring pencils
small pad
a pen torch.
a packet of sweets
a little book