For those of you who grew up in Ireland....

[KTreePee]

Did you have Christmas stockings? I vaguely remember putting out stockings but don't think we ever had them filled with little bits and pieces - it was more that if any of our "main" presents fitted they were shoved in but the stocking was not treated as the big deal it seems to be here in the UK at the moment....

I also find it interesting that in some families here the stocking is from Santa (or Santy as he should be properly called ) and the rest of the presents are from the parents...

i was brought up here but my parents were irish. we didnt have a stocking as far as I can rememeber.

Parents Irish... we had stocking for smaller gifts, and the rest were infront of the fire... all from Santa Family ones were under the tree

I've been having this discussion with my (English) DH. We never had stockings, and the presents were always was Santa. You only got presents from your parents when you were too big for Santa to bring you presents.
My DH said that in his family Santa brought the stocking presents and his parents bought his big presents.
however, seeing as I am chief purchasing officer in our house EVERYTHING is coming from Santa, although my DH is panicking that our DSs (who are 3y and 7mo) will think it's strange if we don't get them anything!!!!
Having said that I have fully embraced my DH's tradition of opening champagne at 11am on Christmas day, well you've got to give and take haven't you .
And, while I'm here, when will they learn that December 26th is St Stephen's Day!!!!

We never had stockings - but I thought that was just my family??? We had Santa presents which weren't wrapped in a Santa bag (from Dunnes!) and then lots of presents from my parents. I love stockings though and actually 'forgot' that we didn't have them as kids as they are so important in our family now!

I don't do, or really get, the stocking thing.
All presents come from santa (except for ones from other friends and relatives)and we have a big sack as many thing wouldn't fit in a stocking. Even the cheap tat exta bits, some are V big.
Didn't do the sticking thing as a child. Just had a pile of presents from Santa, so the stocking thing has passed me by.

What part of Ireland did you grow up in, Smileys?

Oh sorry, didn't grow up in Ireland.
Did visit there once though.
Ignored that bit of the OP and just waded in with my personal stocking experiences. Ooops. Sorry.

All welcome to contribute - I just wondered if it was an Irish thing about the lack of stockings!

Our Santa presents were never wrapped either - sometimes the price tags from the local shop were still on!

We did get a present from our parents too though - I think we queried an an early stage why they didn't get us one so they had to start getting us some....

Also got selection boxes every year (even after we were too old for Santa) which were often consumed before breakfast!

didn't have stockings. ALL presents were from Santa.(Only realised that this year-I'm 30 years old!!)Didn't seem to notice that Mum and Dad didn't get us anything.(Except for the new outfits for Midnight Mass-THE fashion parade of the year!)

Embracing my own version of Xmas now that I'm (almost) a mother of two, including stockings(from us),present from SC and present from us.(But that's ONE present from us and ONE from SC. We got one big present and lots of littlish ones when young.)

DH is British and they did stockings(ie a huge pillow casebut that sums up his family.Why fill a small stocking with little things when you can fill a huge sack with TOO MUCH STUFF!

I grew up in Dublin and we had a stocking from Santa and also presents from Mum and Dad. The stocking (pair of tights actually) had small things like an orange, a chocolate santa, gloves/hat/scarf, bubble bath. We used to wake up very excited at about 5am and climb into our parent's bed to open it.

We didn't have stockings - I think all presents were from Santy! My cousins got presents from their parents as well but we didn't seem to mind. I think we justified it to them by saying parents were buying stuff for us the rest of the time - what lovely children we were

As well as the selection box there was always a Christmas annual for everyone.

I grew up in Dublin too. Santy left stockings at the end of the bed (I still remember that lovely feeling of kicking around to see if your stocking had been filled yet). It was all small stuff though - a chocolate santy, some chocolate coins, organge etc. He would also leave our presents in the living room - one thing each and an annual. We would also have one small present from mum and dad - usually a book or something useful like a jumper. Money was tight so presents were always fairly modest - probably why I tend to go a bit overboard with my kids now .

I grew up in Dublin but my Ann Summers stockings won't stay up.

My dc's stockings will be over the fireplace, presents from Santy and moi will be under the tree and who knows if I'm a very good girl Santy might leave me some decent stockings.

Both DH and I grew up in Dublin. His family had stockings which were full of bits and pieces, then presents under the tree which wer opened after Christmas dinner. (IMO more a British/European thing than Irish).

On the other hand we had no stockings but lots of stuff, all from SC. As we got older the parents bought us a token present 'from them'.

Also we got selection boxes, I got one every year until I moved out in my 20's!

Now that DH and I are trying to merge our traditions. Kids get stocking plus SC presents and selection boxes, all under the tree, unwrapped and OPENED first thing in the morning.