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?

My DD has a stocking they leave out for Father Christmas to fill (little things and chocolate coins etc).

A big bit of advice - leave the stocking in the lounge! My DD puts hers at end of her bed which I wish I hadn’t started as it is so stressful waiting for her to definitely be asleep and not ruin the magic!!! Especially important for light sleepers or excited kids that struggle to sleep at Christmas!

As a child, "stocking" presents were small, mostly cheap, a lot of them wrapped, but not all. There would be chocolate coins, other Christmas chocs and sweets, little puzzles and trinkets, small toys, small things we needed like combs and socks, and we always got a satsuma. We had pillow cases rather than stockings, which were left empty at the end of our beds when we went to sleep and had presents put in them overnight by "Father Christmas" (my parents must have been very quiet as I was a light sleeper.)

We always used to leave a mince pie and a glass of sherry out for Father Christmas the night before, along with a carrot for the reindeer. In the morning, the mince pie would be gone except for a few crumbs, the sherry drunk, and the carrot gnawed right down.

The presents under the tree were from family, not Father Christmas.

i like stockings because it stalls the kids whilst you get to ‘spend a penny’ before going downstairs to the main presents under the tree. They are hung on their bedroom doors and they usually bring them into our room and announce that Santa has been and open them on our bed. Usually a mix of useful like new gloves and socks and sweet treats like chocolate coins and orange.
one thing I wish is that we had two identical ones for them as they have bells on them and it’s tricky for them to disappear and reappear late on Christmas Eve with the fear of waking them.

Mate, get rid of the bells! Tell them Blitzen chewed them off or something, there's no point in making your job even harder... 😂

We do stockings from Santa and presents from people under the tree. Big ticket items always come from someone who isn't Santa in our house.

Everyone does stockings differently and have their own family traditions. In our family stockings are cheap, cheerful things that Father Christmas thought you might like but not big ticket items. So our stockings always have a Christmas Satsuma in them, chocolate coins, a tube of sweets (buttons/smarties ect), then little bits Santa thinks you might like. So for example this year DD's (who is 4 and a half) stocking has satsuma, chocolate coins, tube of milkybar buttons, tub of slime from b&ms (cost a couple of £), disney princess lip balm (from £1 shop), pack of 10 gel pens (£1 shop), glitter nail polish (beauty outlet purchase for 80p). My DD loves lip balm, glitter nail varnish, gel pens and asked Santa for slime when she saw him. These are all cheap bits that she likes but nothing expensive.

My baby is getting a bottle, dummies, a rattle and some water toys in her stocking as DD will be suspicious if the baby doesn't get anything from Santa.

We used to hang up hiking socks - little knowing that my mum had sometimes already filled the other one from the pair.
Satsuma in the toe. Colouring/puzzle book wrapped loosely and rolled to provide a tube to make it easier to put other contents in. Always a small bag of chocolate coins, other sweets and a new toothbrush, maybe bubble bath. Stationery items. Some quite weird things, but you'd be surprised how much fun a book of raffle tickets can be for a kid. Often other useful things, especially as we got older, eg knickers/socks. All wrapping done with minimal tape to ease unwrapping.

My stocking (and therefore DD’s) was an actual stocking - or more usually half of a pair of tights (nylon). Holds a surprising amount. Always had a chocolate orange, some marshmallows or sweet laces, a toothbrush, something to drink out of, hat and or gloves, a notebook, some pens/colours and then whatever else was age appropriate, all wrapped in left over wrapping paper. It was at the end of the bed which was the scariest job of the year! I used the other half a pair of tights to fill so only had to go in once. Stocking was opened on my bed while I had a cup of tea and came to - although Christmas officially doesn’t start until 7am.
I miss stockings. Still buy t same sort of stuff as little pressies in addition to the main tree ones for DD and she’s nearly 30.

My dc used to have their stockings at the bottom of their beds. Now they're 20 and 25 they go by the tree along with my partners (who never had a stocking as a child).
they still have a satsuma and chocolate coins in them!

Echoing the 'hang them downstairs' people. When I was growing up we had the stockings on the end of our beds (and yes, the feeling of waking up to the weight on your feet was like nothing else!) but I made the mistake of doing the same with my kids, all of whom could stay awake FAR longer than me from the age of about four. One Christmas Eve we had a monumental storm that kept all the kids awake until about three am and I was knackered all Christmas Day from having to stay awake long enough to wait them out!

Stockings have little nick nack type gifts - sweets, small toys, paperback or comic, individual box of cereal (we were rather strict on cereal so this was the only time they had coco pops or similar), pencils with their names on, woolly hat or gloves, little photo of their pet... that sort of thing.

DD's and their partners are in their 30's and I still get them all a stocking. I put various Christmas sweets, toiletries, socks and silly little novelty things in them. I couldn't not do it now 😊

@ShodAndShadySenatorsthat is a bloody good idea and something that has absolutely not entered my stupid Christmas addled brain! Consider them chewed off! 🤣😂🤣

@Hopeful16 Maximum credibility if you leave a few tiny fragments of chewed raw carrot sticking to the stockings... #Making memorieeeeeees

@ShodAndShadySenators you are a sneaky pro and I LOVE it! 🤣

I had them as a child and so did my children. My kids are grown up but anyone staying here Xmas eve gets a stocking including partners.
I stopped years ago putting them at the end of the beds due to having to wait up till 3 in the morning for excited kids to go to sleep!

I just put little bits and bobs in them. Some chocolate, luxury shower gel, bath bombs, maybe some socks etc. Anything small and not too expensive. I do one for my DH too and he does one for me.

Depends on what you want to do?
when I was little my parents just told us to leave black bin bags at the end of our beds that would get swapped and that had ALL our gifts in.
Since I’ve met my husband, our kids have had proper stockings over the mantle/near the tree which are filled by Father Christmas. Little gifts that Santa puts in there are things like chocolate coins, socks, banana & apple.
This year my two have; swim goggles, 3d printed fidgets, squish fidgets, bow ties (it’s an in joke), blue tooth sleep masks, LED light up hats, new years T-shirts.
Then we also have Krampus, who visits Christmas Eve and leaves their Christmas Eve boxes (Christmas PJs (from vinted so insanely cheap), duvet cover, mug, hot choc, the night before Christmas and the nutcracker books, bath bomb, nail brush, toothbrush and toothpaste and slippers) and then they get ready for bed, hang their stockings and go to bed!

Ours go outside bedroom door. Everything inside gets wrapped. Dc bring them into our room and sit on our bed to open. Great when they were little as we could rest/snooze while they were opening them. Now they are teens they still love toncarey on the tradition, so we get squashed when they sit on our feet to open them (I love the fact they still want to do it and they revert to being children again for a short time)

My dc have theirs on the bedroom door handles. It wasn't so bad when they were little, as I'd do the stockings after wrapping and carting presents downstairs. They'd be asleep by then.

It's trickier now because they're teens and go to bed/sleep much, much later than I do... but they're aware anyway, and I'm sure will turn a blind eye to any rustling and muffled cursing going on outside their doors.

Also one of them has a reindeer stocking with bloody tinkly bells on it, it was such a pain 😆

Whatever you are using double up. When I was a kid we got one of my Dad hiking socks each. We put an empty one out and my Dad did a quick switcheroo with a pre-filled one from the other foot. My kids get a pillowcase each. Again I have a pre-filled one waiting to switch. If you haven't already started keep the stockings downstairs by the fireplace. I started at the end of the bed and whilst it's lovely waking up aas a kid feeling a full stocking by your feet it a right pita when they are too excited to sleep! I do a book, some chocs, socks, a toy and maybe one or two small presents ( torch/ smellies/ stationary etc).