How to do Christmas Stockings?

[Whatinthedoopla]

I was born and raised in the UK, but never had a Christmas stocking. I know.. shocking haha

The reason being that my parents aren't from the UK, but I definitely want to start using them with my children, but have no idea how to even start?

Do I just buy a stocking filler, fill it with little presents and they open it on Christmas day?

Is this right? Is there anything else to do?

Up to what age could they use it till?

Is the stocking from Santa or parents?

Any age.

And yes, anything goes. some people buy specific Stockinh presents. Others its just small in size.

People also have traditions like chocolate coins or an orange.

Everyone does it differently, so you can kind of decide for yourself.

In my house stockings are from Father Christmas and only have small, cheap things that aren't wrapped.
When they were small it might have been a colouring book and pencils, bubbles, chocolate coins, socks. Things like that.

I never had a Christmas stocking either. In our house Father Christmas left his presents for us under the tree.

I like the stocking though as, in our house now, the gifts from FC are in the stocking and gifts to and from all other members of the family are under the tree. FC gift so far have been smaller in size, less expensive, sometimes a bit more practical in nature. All of this is just us though, I’m not saying this is the ‘right’ way to do a stocking.

Different households do slightly different things with the stocking on Christmas Eve, so again, it may not really matter exactly how you do it. Our children wake up to the stocking left outside their bedroom door. Some are left at the foot of their bed. Some are hung on the fireplace (you can buy special hooks for this).

They get hung up empty on Christmas eve and then 'santa' fills it overnight. Some people wrap them and others don't.

We fill with kids equivalent of consumables, fun bubble bath, glow sticks, gloves, chocolate, etc. so nothing too expensive and things they'll like but aren't the most exciting Christmas gifts they'll get! But other people go bigger.

For ages - we still do it for the adults! We all just fill certain things for all the adults (so one adult buys the chocolate for all other adults, another one buys something else).

stockings are the best part about Christmas! We had ours from as early as I can remember, and still get one now. Generally I think the gifts inside are additional things that weren’t asked for from Santa- can be small silly ‘party bag’ type things or more expensive depending on budget. When we were younger they would have been sweets, toys like bouncy balls marbles etc and as we got older things like pens, toiletries, makeup. Chocolate coins, chocolate Santa etc- And you must put a small orange in the bottom!

My parents used to leave the stocking on our beds while we slept so we would see it when we woke up and know ‘Santa had visited’. That was so special.

Doing it In my house for the first year ever

We never had them growing up

I went a bit crazy with gifts last year
Most of them were not even opened

This year keeping it nice and simple

Always a can of coke and an orange for the foot bit, then we add age appropriate toys and gifts that are small. This year we have a bubble wand, pack of playing cards, chocolate and little party favours in each one.

I’m born and raised in the UK and so are all of my family but I’ve never had one or done one either!

We have two identical stockings for each child. Empty one is put out on Christmas Eve. It’s exchanged with pre-filled stocking we’ve done earlier so only takes a few seconds.

I love stockings! As a kid they were my favourite part of Christmas. I remember mine would go at bottom of bed so when I woke in morning and wiggled my toes I could hear the rustling of wrapping paper and would know my stocking had been filled. My mum made me one up until she died a couple of years ago and I love doing them for my two!

It’s just small, sometimes silly stuff: chocolate coins, lip balm, tissues, funny pens, hot chocolate sachet, bath bomb, bath toys, trading cards, stickers, tattoos, all that sort of stuff. And always a satsuma in the toe!

I do like to wrap them all though as it adds to the excitement! Plus when they get older and open them in own rooms it slows them down so you get a bit more sleep. My mum would start putting short novels in there when I got older!

Everybody does it their own way.
When I was growing up we had pillow cases. When mine were little, I made them stockings based on the size of a pillow case.
In our house Santa brings stockings and we bring the rest. Santa doesn't wrap the gifts.
Two of mine are in their twenties and still get stockings, as do any first who stay Christmas Eve (though not as big).
For us stockings will always contain: sweets, new undies, new toiletries, a book, then other little bits and pieces. When they were little it would've also included bubbles and a teddy.
I love making up stockings ♥️

When DC's were little, stockings were hung at the end of the bed and when the dcs woke up, Father Christmas had magically filled them. We always included a satsuma, some chocolate coins and something to represent Father Christmas ( a small soft toy/ racing toys etc). We would also include a Christmas edition of a comic such as Dandy or Beano. Apart from that, whatever small, cheapish things we found. The main thing about it was that the gifts were things we didn't mind them opening as soon as they woke up, whether that was 3am or 9am.
Although DC's are now adults, we still do stockings for them, as well as for the dgcs. DS and DIL have told dgcs that the stockings at our house are the 'overflow' gifts that wouldn't fit in the stockings at their own house.

OP, stockings are nice and everyone loves them, but I warn you, as the DC get older, they become ruinously expensive! They are fun, though, and everyone always loves them. Basically, it’s just a few small presents and sweets - ours always have a chocolate orange. When they were little, the presents just went in “naked”, but these days I wrap them all in tissue paper - more exciting, but not as much trouble as proper wrapping.

You put your stocking usually at the foot of your bed, and you leave a plate with a mince pie/ carrot/ glass of milk or sherry for Santa and his reindeer.

Santa magically fills it overnight. I always make sure it contains something near the toe that will rustle. Usually we include low value items and ONE thing from the Christmas list to Santa. For my family the tradition is a shiny new-minted coin (for good fortune), a new bauble for the tree; a red apple and a tangerine; always some novelty socks or a pair of gloves; a bath bomb; favourite chocolate/sweets/ crisps (“how does Father Christmas know those are my favourites?!”) and always a few little surprise gifts or amusing gifts. Santa doesn’t bring expensive gifts; mum and dad like to get the credit for those!!!

Everybody in our house Christmas morning gets a stocking, including my DM in her 80’s. Ours are all handmade by me, except mine which was made by a friend of my DM when I was born. Now DS visits with his partner but up until he was 16 he would bring his stocking into our room and the three of us would open them together. Nowadays we open them in the lounge. To be honest, I wouldn’t care if my DH didn’t get me anything else for Christmas so long as I get a stocking!

We always have a wee orange, chocolate coins and chocolate santa, then other small gifts like new socks, temporary tattoos, art supplies, usually cheap and cheerful things, but somewhat useful at the same time.

I now I've got kids I buy myself a stocking full of presents. They usually end up being socks, lip balm, maybe a cute trinket dish, then food and drink, the things you see and think 'oh that looks nice' but don't buy them because you have no reason to. Now you do! Nothing silly expensive on mine,

There's no wrong or right way to do a stocking, just do what you like and make your own traditions.

Get them to leave the stockings downstairs. As they get older you won’t have to creep into their rooms and risk waking them.

Buy something fairly small. Do NOT buy a sack. That was a big mistake.

I always used to wrap the stuff in the stockings in very cheap red & white patterned paper. (Every year supermarkets do something like that). So then I could easily distinguish what was supposed to be in the stockings.
In our house Father Christmas would never leave anything too big or expensive or anything that might need to be returned as it didn’t work. He NEVER left the main present.

I wrap my stocking items in tissue paper so they rustle delightfully. Some people feel it's too much bother, whatever works for you. I don't wrap everything, some chocolate items don't need it and would be silly - things like individually wrapped chocolate shapes, Lindt Santa or truffles, satsuma or clementine.

Stocking fillers are usually small items, so they fit in a stocking. Clearly it depends on the size of the stocking you use. You could use the strategy of having two stockings the same, so child hangs one up/lays it on the bottom of their bed while you fill the duplicate downstairs. Then your Mission Impossible task is to whip away the empty and replace it with the full. To avoid this, you could keep stockings downstairs.

There are loads of stocking filler threads on the Christmas board, if you need inspiration. Young children are easiest to buy for, teens (especially boys) much harder. And it does get more expensive as they get older.

I’ve always loved stockings!
My mum still gives us a little one! Now it has a book, nail varnish, chocolate.

I loved waking and feeling the weight of it on my feet on Xmas morning and knowing ‘he’s been!’

We made the mistake of sacks (it’s what I had) and we fill it with bath bomb, chocolate coins, colouring, books, toothpaste, Xmas hat/headband, treat cereal (takes up lots of space!)

As Clefable says, buy 2 identical for each DC for an easy switch (pre-fill one and switch with the empty one on the way to bed), instead of having to go in to retrieve it, then go in again a second time after filling to place it back.

Ours are the only gifts from FC and are placed on the foot of the bed. We use football socks sized stockings (which handily come in pairs!). When DCs were small they were filled with a mix of smaller cheap toys and both edible and non-edible consumables. Now, at 9 & 11yo, they get mostly consumables (a mix of sweets, satsuma, choc, fancier shower gel, lip balm, hair bands, hot chocolate bomb etc). Our traditions were always a satsuma and a bag of choc coins, but they have grown into chocolate snobs and the coins always get left, so it's just a satsuma as an annual tradition now.

Kid hangs the stocking up before bed (most people use the same ones each year), in their room or outside or by the fire, wherever, father Christmas fills with gifts in the night. Some people wrap stocking gifts, others dont.

In our home, santa has a stocking paper for each kid (so no one gets confused in the mayhem of a 3yo and 6yo). Everything is wrapped except edible items (chocolate coins, chocolate tube, orange) and something fun poking out the top. Last year santa left a foam minecraft pickaxe and a stuffy poking out. Stocking gifts here are smaller, usually cheaper, but absolutely not the tooth brushes and spot cream of my time! We go for stickers, a mini 3d puzzle, hair chalks, things like that. Ds has some brainrot lego, dd has hello kitty sticker bracelet roll things. We have proper stockings rather than sacks so that limits the size.

Stockings are one of the most magical parts here :)

Love a stocking, me, DH and DS all have one.

In DS 12 stocking this year he has:
Choc coins
Xmas marshmallows
Choc reindeer
Lynx set
Fart whistle
Fluffy socks
Phone charger
Money box maze with £20 in it.

We never had stockings when I was a child. My first boyfriend’s sister gave everyone a new pair of socks, filled with small goodies and that’s the tradition I’ve followed for my family. No gifts are from FC - he’s just the courier. For this year I’ve saved all my Who gives a crap wraps and will be using that to wrap the small gifts this year.

I had Christmas stockings growing up and do them the same for my kids. There is always chocolate coins, an orange and £2 coin in the toe (£1 when I was a kid!) and about 5 presents. Nothing big, nothing expensive.

We have always done small low value gifts, usually something funny, a small game plus chocolate and cool smellies / bubble baths etc depending on age. We always wrapped each item as they would come into our room with their filled stocking and it would just give us 20-30 mins extra to come round before starting the day. Like a few others have said, we had two identical stockings so we could fill them and hide them, then do a quick swap out in the morning.

This year as the kids are now teens, we have done stockings as a secret Santa. All four of us will fill someone else’s stocking. Means I will get one this year too!

Everyone does it differently but for us:

Hang up stockings in the living room on Christmas Eve, before bed. We used actual stretchy stockings so you could see all the presents through in the morning and it was very exciting!

Satsuma in the toe.

Maybe 15-20 little parcels, but at least half of these were things that we needed anyway....things like:

Pants/socks/slippers
Gloves/hat/scarf
Swim goggles/swimsuit/hat/other small sports or hobby equipment
Pens/pencils/craft stuff
Dictionary/calculator
Bubblebath/soap/toothbrush/toothpaste/lip balm/body spray
Hairbrush/hairbands

We knew they were special and from Father Christmas because they were character/Disney versions which we wouldn't normally get!

Then there'd be:

Chocolate - big dairy milk or giant smarties tube or Chocolate Orange or Toblerone - that sort of thing.

Sweets/Crisps - often a tube of Pringles.

Magazine or book

A few Christmas novelties

A few small toys.

Then chocolate coins sprinkled through.

Always wrapped in different wrapping paper to our family presents.

I loved it as a kid and have carried on the same system. I think it's a good way to fill the stocking with lots of parcels so it's exciting to open, but not buying loads of plastic crap that they don't need.