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?

Be very careful what traditions you establish and what size of stocking you buy. Your future self will thank you for deciding that they go in the living room rather that the bedroom.
I always put a toothbrush in ours and usually a pair of pants, so I start out with it half full. And there’s something they can eat for breakfast like a waffle or some pancake mix. In our house only the stockings are from Father Christmas, the other presents are from us or other relatives.

just remember what you do this year will have to be matched next

This is an excellent point!
I can remember that one year Santa brought me loads of great little novelty toys and the following year was a bit disappointing because it was lots of socks and bubble bath (supermarket stuff!). It was the year mum went back to work so no doubt was a bit stressed and had less time for perusing stocking fillers! I cringe now as I remember innocently telling my parents I was a bit disappointed in Santa that year 🥲

If you’re going to do end of the bed then get duplicate stockings and then just switch in the filled
one.

Iv always loved stockings although it took some pleading with my dmum when I was a kid to actually start the tradition.
The presents change over the years of course.
This year's stocking fillers for my 2 DDS (who are 45 and 50 ).--fluffy bed socks. Packet of seeds for the garden..face packs .a diary..tea light holder...Lip scrub..hand cream..midget gems..plus plus.
One year it was a tiny jar of mint sauce for one DD who was mad about it.
Christmas magazines always give suggestions for stocking fillers...but do they realise how big/small stockings actually are..?
Ever tried to fit a cushion or a sewing basket in a stocking..

We have always said that stockings are from Santa and tree presents are from us/family
So, stockings hang on the mantlepiece as soon as tree goes up and then on xmas eve when the kids have gone to bed "Santa" fills them in with little unwrapped gifts and puts them in the Dc's bedrooms at the foot of their beds - although DS went through a phase of not wanting Santa to sneak into his room when he was around 6-8 so I communicated this to Santa and he left it outside his door
When they wake up on xmas day the DC bring the stockings into our room and look at the santa gifts before we all go downstairs to open the other pressies
Now the DC are 16 and 20 we still do it like that - although Santa has to get up at 2am to do it!!!

We do main presents later so the stocking includes things to keep dd busy earlier in the day. Dd puts hers at the end of her bed empty and then we sneak in and take it out to fill it. This year she has something along the lines of: mini chelsea doll and clothes, notebook, reading book, activity book, marbles, maileg mouse, cuddly cat, top trumps, mini slime kit, bath bomb, bracelet craft kit, squishmallow clip alongs.
The stocking gifts are all from FC along with the main gifts that she gets later under the tree - usually 2-3 but this year a couple more as none are really very main.

We didn’t have a fireplace growing up so we would safety pin our stockings to our couch or pillow on Christmas Eve and they’d be filled by Santa on Christmas morning! We also didn’t have any fancy stockings and used one of our own socks 😂 we would always try to use the biggest socks we had so that we would get more presents!

They were my favourite part of Christmas going up and my mum still gives me a gift bag of stocking fillers each year. When I was younger it was things like a satsuma, a chocolate Santa, bubble bath, chocolate coins, some pens, underwear and some novelty bits! When we got older mum would add makeup bits, a lottery ticket. Such a lovely tradition to start with your DCs

We didn’t have a fireplace growing up so we would safety pin our stockings to our couch or pillow on Christmas Eve and they’d be filled by Santa on Christmas morning! We also didn’t have any fancy stockings and used one of our own socks 😂 we would always try to use the biggest socks we had so that we would get more presents!

They were my favourite part of Christmas going up and my mum still gives me a gift bag of stocking fillers each year. When I was younger it was things like a satsuma, a chocolate Santa, bubble bath, chocolate coins, some pens, underwear and some novelty bits! When we got older mum would add makeup bits, a lottery ticket. Such a lovely tradition to start with your DCs

DS 17 Still uses the same stocking he got when he was a baby, I regret that we didn’t get him a smaller one, they’re easier and cheaper to fill for young children!

For a long time stockings were left on the end of the bed to be filled, but it was always a bit nerve wracking trying to get it to fill it, so eventually we switched to leaving it by the bedroom door.

Why do they become ruinously expensive? Surely they're as expensive as you make them?

Me neither. They seem to be filled with boring stuff - new toothbrush! - or lots of tat. Just gimme the big present!

Growing up (and with my DC), Father Christmas delivered the gifts that mum and dad have bought - bit like an Amazon delivery driver.

I've seen people suggest Costa gift cards and the like - that's quite a lot of £ in a very small space!

Yes they could be expensive if you filled them with things like that. But saying "they become ruinously expensive" implies we have no control over that.

You get to set the tradition OP! As you can see there are lots of different ways of doing stockings.

It's nice I think to have some traditional items each year (e.g. satsume in the toe of the stocking that NEVER gets eaten, selection box or chocolate coins, new colouring pens and colouring book) obviously some of these will age out but you get the idea. I knew someone who always got a particular brand of mascara for her teen's stockings. Then some unexpected fripperies too.

Personally I think it's nice to have an overabundant stocking full of smallish things. But I'm from an era when Christmas presents were not so over the top so the stocking felt like a massive treat. If you are more spendy on the main presents the stocking can understandably be more modest.

We leave them on bedroom doors. Then when DDs are awake, they bring the stockings into our bed (via the kitchen now to make tea for us, when they were younger one of us popped down for them) and we all opened then together.

I loved finding odd bits of wrapping paper in our bed that night.

i didn’t grow up with stockings either, though we are an English/Irish family. I think it might have been an affordability issue! And people do it loads of different ways.
For my kids my MIL made ridiculously huge stockings (I mean the kids could have used them as sleeping bags), and worse they were not the same size! So we put presents from outside the family in them, from the GPs, a couple friends etc. Then under the tree was one big present from us and a few little ones from Santa, Mrs Santa, Rudolf, Frosty etc. The stockings were hung in the family room and opened first. As they aged the stockings got smaller and I put what I think of as traditional little things: a harmonica, deck of cards, chocolate coins and so on. But I didn’t bother after they turned 12/13.
A friend stuffed pillow cases and hung them at the base of her kids beds. They would grab them run in to their parents room to open. I don’t think they had anything else under the tree, maybe from outside the family.

We hang up stockings at bottom of our beds. Overnight Santa fills them. Only smaller gifts, books, sweets, puzzles and games. They are wrapped up though in Xmas paper. The big gift comes from us to DC under the tree. Stockings are opened after breakfast and tree gifts opened after Xmas lunch in our house. Everyone in the house on Xmas Eve gets a stocking. There is always a satsuma in the stocking.

A tip, if you have more than 1 DC wrap each DC's gifts in a different colour. My eldest DS has blue, my youngest DS has red and my DD has gold. That way if any gifts fall out or get mixed up you know who they belong to.

My top tip is to always have the stockings placed downstairs and NOT in the bedrooms. Stops middle of the night wakings and then everyone awake at two am as they discover the presents. Also easier to fill once everyone is upstairs. You're welcome

Many people suggesting this :)

Just a tip...
My mother used to get us to hang the stockings at the bottom of the bed. My kids hang them empty on the back of the door.

I was a deep sleeper my kids are not 🤣

As a child we had pillowcases. That’s what my grandparents did with mum. Tbh I suspect that was because they had those and 1950s toys fitted in them . I did the same with my kids but have moved on to rather smart seasalt sacks now, I still do this for my adult children but now two are married and I’ve acquired two in-laws to buy for I have cut married people down to 8 gifts rather than 12. Plus chocolate. I spend a reasonable amount. Books, beauty, socks, few useful things, sometimes a mug or a shopping bag. Silly pretty things. It’s my favourite bit of Christmas tbh.
if wrapping it’s v important you use wrap not otherwise seen in the house. Cos Santa would use something different from you.

I recommend buying 2x stocking exactly the same, easy to swap an empty stocking with a full one instead of taking it and filling it and putting it back.

I love doing my DS’s stocking. His is actually a penguin sack and it’s huge 😱 but it doesn’t have to be full to the brim! I’ve always done about 15-20 presents in it but a lot of them are low value, he always gets a lot of edible things - a selection box, chocolate coins, a tube of sweets, a tin of Pringles. Always a book or two, always pants and socks. He loves Jellycats so he always gets a new one of those too. Then things like top trumps, colouring pens, bits of tat from Smiggle, air up pods, bath bombs, some Robux or Minecoins. I usually spend about £100-£150 in total, but he’s an only so it’s a bit easier! You can easily do cheaper things but I think half the fun of a stocking is having so many presents to open so I’d rather too more smaller presents than fewer more expensive ones.

Always chocolate coins and a satsuma (breakfast) and opened on beds before heading downstairs! We wrap everything to make it more exciting!