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!

Everyone in the house gets a stocking, this year that will include MIL and my cousin. Stockings are ostensibly from Santa but the kids know that I do the stockings for most of the grown ups and that DH does mine and they like to get involved choosing a few bits for me to put in. My MIL is a night owl so rather than me try to put her stocking in her room at night the kids sneak in with it in the morning when she is fast asleep.

For stocking fillers my essentials are: socks, pants, shower or bath product, book. Then other small bits which may include chocolate or sweets, gloves/hat, lip balm, a card game, foodstuffs. Adults will all be getting a nice bottle of olive oil this year, an alcoholic miniature or cocktail in a can, maybe a packet of seeds to sow in spring. I try to keep to things that will be used. Kids will also get small toys e.g. ds loves a good bouncy ball and a smart game/puzzle, dd likes clothes/accessories for her barbies.

Oh yes, DH and I do stockings for each other. I had to teach him how to do it and now I’m a very lucky woman. 15-20 items of various values but always includes a bottle of perfume he’s spent in an hour in boots choosing with all the ladies helping, my favourite chocolate, good socks, posh shower gel, nice stationery, craft items and the like. We do something you want / need / wear / read for each other and the children so the stocking is a place for the random bits and other stuff.

Stockings are awesome for kids, regardless if they know who fills them. I wrap all the little things, so it’s a good half hour of unwrapping.

mine usually get things like:
a novelty pen
Cool stickers
a selection box’s worth of chocolate each
a bag of chocolate coins (loose, so they have lots to find)
a clementine (this is legally required in the UK)
lush soap
a bath bomb
little what-nots and assorted bobbins - Flying Tiger, Smiggle are great for these bits
a tiny plushie
fidget toys

I always leave it till Christmas Eve to wrap, which is a very bad idea, it’s certainly better to have it ready to pack on Christmas Eve having done it a week before.

It’s a good way to start Christmas. Good luck with your stockings, it’s fun!

I love the idea of wrapping more than the actuality. A large Baileys, carols from kings and a box of celebrations eases the pain.

Yep, I think oh won’t it be lovely to wrap their goodies on Christmas Eve, it will feel so festive, then it’s a least midnight, I have so much wrapping, and not one solitary elf to help me, and the Christmas spirit begins haunting me with my maternal inadequacies of always leaving things to the last minute and going to sleep at 4am.
Maybe I’ll do better this year.

I'd actually say do not wrap. It wasn't something done in my family and I didn't know that santa wrapped other childrens toys until well into my 20s! It seems like a lot of hassle, expense and of course huge waste.

With regards the stockings, it is little gifts as others have said. Each of my children have one with their name. Then santa leaves gifts for each of them at one side of the sitting room each.

All other gifts from grandparents/ aunts/ uncles etc are wrapped and under the tree. They are opened after dinner.

We do a 3 gift rule for Santa, they can ask for 1 big thing, 1 smaller thing and a surprise. Don't go over board. There is only so much they can play with, they really don't need huge amounts of stuff. Also you don't want to set a precedent.

in terms of waste with wrapping, start saving every bit of random tissue paper that crosses your threshold. I’ve also flattened out Amazon packing paper and decorated it with stamps before.

We have the stockings in the sitting room rather than the bedrooms (makes things easier when they are little). The kids get them, the adults don't. My kids are teenagers and still get them. I think I spend more than average.

Fillings consist of:

1. Edibles. Always a satsuma, an apple, chocolate coins, Christmassy shaped chocolate - reindeer or elves or santas. Growing up we'd get the giant smarties tubes (toblerone would also work) and a chocolate orange

2. Practical stuff that would be a bit of a dull present if it was wrapped under the tree but is perfectly reasonable as a stocking filler. Pants, socks, toothbrush, hair accessories, razors, soap, shampoo, moisturiser, deodorant, stationary.

3. Fun stuff. Mini lego kits, playmobil figures, crafty bits, CDs, jewellery, pop vinyl figures, makeup, perfume.

Closer to Christmas there are threads about stocking fillers full of ideas. I find it much harder to think of things for my teenage DS than the DDs but most things are the same across all three.

When the kids 'believed' that a got 1 main present from us parents and everything else from us went into their individual santa sacks. That included other gifts they had asked for on their lists, sweets, colouring stuff, whatever stickers or collectors card they were in to, clothes etc. They then spent a lot of the day opening the sack presents and then had main gifts in the evening or Boxing Day. Sometimes present opening could stretch all the way to new year because they liked to open a few gifts per day.
As they got older the sacks changed to smaller stockings and more gifts from us. I still do a stocking even though they're in their 20's which has chocolate, sweets and toiletries in it.

Santa here always buys the worst cereal that i would never allow in the house. Utterly shocking.

Stockings are (in my opinion) to keep the little ones occupied when they wake up at crack of dawn and allow parents to go back to bed for a few minutes. The presents are small, unwrapped - well they are in my house - and from Father Christmas (aka Santa). Main presents are from parents - why buy something wonderful for your child and not have them know it's from you - are wrapped, and are put under the tree on Christmas morning and opened when everyone is up and gathered. Don't leave presents under the tree in the days leading up to Christmas, they are an open invitation to burglars and too much of a temptation for children. It was always the tradition growing up, and was with my children, and is still the tradition with my grandchildren, that the children get the presents out from under the tree and hand them out to whoever they are labelled for. By giving them something to do, it holds them up a little from ripping into all their gifts and then being bored while the grown ups open theirs.

Well done Santa! What a good idea.

I see a lot of people menioneing satsumas for the stockings-is there a specific reason they are included?

Chocolate coins etc. I get. I think I may do a (small!) stocking from Santa and then gifts under the tree are from family only.

Also stockings I think will be for adults too I think, who wouldn't enjoy chocolates, fuzzy socks and some stickers?😀 Thank you all for your help it has been lovely reading through everyone's traditions

Satsumas (used to be oranges when I was small) were intended to represent the bogs of gold St Nicholas left in three poor girls' stockings.

I am curious about the satsumas, it is a consistent addition to the stocking across the thread. Is there a reason? I love them but don't necesserily associate them with Christmas

Stockings are from Santa. We have a fireplace (with functioning chimney) so the stocking is laid there in Christmas Eve along with a mince pie, glass of milk and a carrot for Rudolph. We would leave the crumbs etc but also knock some things over by the fireplace like Santa knocked them over coming down the chimney.

Choc coins, satsuma, and lots of little toys, socks, undies, games, pens etc. All wrapped in different paper to the main presents from us.

DD is 15 and we still do a stocking!

I would guess they are from a time when citrus fruit was unusual and a treat. I was thinking today as I ate one with my lunch that when I was young we never had them except around Christmas.

When i was a kid my stocking consisted of:

An Apple
An Orange
Some nuts
Plastacine
Small toy/animal figures
And those sticky things you throw at the wall :-)

It does not have to be expensive. The memory of the stocking at the end of the bed, is all I remember.

I think you're right - there was always a satsuma in mine when I was a kid, and it always went straight (back) into the fruit bowl as I'm not fond of oranges. My kids are a lot like me so we've stopped putting one in theirs. I should probably stick a different fruit in instead, a cucumber or a carrot would probably go down very well 😂

DD doesn’t like them either but she always gets one that I then eat 🤣. Tradition!!

I'm in my 50s and they were still very seasonal in my childhood, mainly coming from Spain in Dec-Jan. Now the supermarkets get citrus fruit all year round from around the globe but most of them are 'easy peelers' rather than satsumas.

As others, stockings (and any big presents beside them) are from Santa and presents under the tree are labelled from whoever sent them.

stocking are generally small things that DCs will enjoy, will distract them in the morning, maybe a treat to give you time to organise breakfast, nice versions of everyday things or things Mum or Dad would never buy for DCs.

I tended to go by the rhyme:
something you want
something you need
something to eat and
something to read

So always a book and a mix of lovely fruit and some sweets (the fruit in our stockings when I was growing up was such a treat to have maybe 3 pieces, all to yourself, to enjoy when you wanted to…we didn’t have a lot of fruit and very little choice).

I also tended to put practical things like a new toothbrush, maybe some fancier hair bobbins than normal, some new bibs or bottle teats when small, a nice pencil for school etc as the needs. Maybe a travel sized version of regular toiletries.

And wants would be some small toy, a pack of cards for the set they are collecting, a new piece for the toy kitchen/shop/toolbox/car set…big thing they play with, that sort of thing. (Like a new piece of play food or a teapot or an extra car …to add to existing things).

All small. Mostly relatively cheap. Often involves things that get used up and need replacing from time to time. Or unusual things you don’t normally find (maybe from travels, or good shopping/researching) or don’t normally allow (some years, the mini boxes of cereal have been found there…that I never buy in the supermarket).

@Kat256M I think traditionally fruit was quite exotic and expensive so seen as a special treat at Christmas time when it would be especially out of season. We always had a satsuma, raisins and chocolate coins in our stockings. We were also allowed to eat whatever was in them before breakfast (cunningly helping our parents get an extra 20min in bed) so I think having fruit as a healthier snack was a good plan. For my children, Santa brings the stockings and mum and dad buy the main presents. Santa helps us find things to buy and he stores them so that it’s worth them writing a Christmas list and having them magically appear Xmas morning.