Do you do Christmas stockings?

[StellaLM]

My sisters and I never had these as kids, but I want to introduce my own traditions now my kids are 2 and 5.

Do you have them? How big? Where do you put them? Do you wrap the gifts? Do you make the kids come into your room before opening them in the morning?!

Yes! We love stockings in our house. Everyone staying gets one - all DC but all adults too. Everyone does them differently so you can set up a tradition that works for you.

They are usually hung by the chimney or at the foot of the bed. We always did the chimney because DC were very light sleepers and we didn't want to wake them by sneaking in to stuff the stocking. Also, I love seeing them hanging under the mantlepiece.

Some people do all presents in stockings, some people just do tiny novelty gifts.

We do small presents that were from Santa until teh boys were about 10. He'd write them a letter telling them what they;d done well that year (being kind to each other and looking after their pets etc). The main ones are under the tree from us.

We fill the stockings with a mix of Poundstore/Tiger/Wilkos sweets, craft stuff and toys, and add some bath/body products, a book, a tee shirt, a DVD and CD. Now DC are in their very late teens, the stockings are more full of small useful gadgets, grooming products and the occasional miniature gin or whisky.

You have to hang the stocking wiht a mini ceremony - leaving out some reindeer food and a carrot for Rudolph and a mince pie and small sherry or malt whiskey for Santa.

Don't forget to nibble the carrot and mince pie.
If you want, you can add snowy foot prints with fake snow (sprinkle it around the biggest Wellington boot or hiking boot you can find to create the footprints.

DH and I have stockings too - a few food treats, a book, nice underwear - that sort of thing.

Srry - wrote all that and forgot to answer the questions. Yes we wrap them but if I was starting from scratch I would maybe do shredded paper and leave them unwrapped as it's more eco.

Kids absolutely MUST wait until everyone is in the room to unwrap the stockings. All the fun is in seeing their faces as they open things.

We also used to leave a physically big (but often not expensive) present from santa in with the stockings too. Things like a big soft toy, plastic sledge or yoga ball or even just a huge blown up balloon.

Yes, we all have slightly different personalised fabric ones that are roughly the size of a man's welly. We hang then on the mantelpiece and Father Christmas fills them there so they don't get scared of a strange man turning up in their room. Our DC are good at lie-ins though. If they weren't, the stockings might go in their room! We open them together before breakfast and DH and I have ones with a few items each too.

They are mostly filled with consumable items: edibles, play-doh tubs, bath crayons, colouring book and pencils, stickers, bubble mixture, cosmetics, room/car fragrance etc. plus paperback books and any small presents. The DC love the tinsel pompoms and shakers at their music group so i bought some for at home and that was a fun thing to put in last year as all the gifts got mixed up with its strands so it was a bit like a lucky dip.

We do stockings for the whole family. We use pillowcases and put them by the tv in the absence of a fire. They are all wrapped. It’s mostly stuff like pants,socks,gloves and toiletry items plus a few novelty gifts.
The kids put down milk and a mince pie.
My mil used to do a stocking for all her adult children and partners for Christmas.

We do stockings for kids only, not adults. The presents are nice-ish (ie not complete tat but not super expensive either). Not wrapped. Hung in the downstairs sitting room as we have a fireplace, and it’s easier to fill them without waking the DC than if they were in bedrooms. We have to all be awake before the kids can go downstairs and start opening them.

Hobbycraft have some really large stocking for £2 which we’ve bought to personalise with things like felt, Pom poms etc.
I never had stockings as a kid but it’s something we want to start doing this year.
So far I’ve got the kids (both boys) multiple chocolate items, bath products, a heated snuggly toy (one of those ones you put in the microwave), a robotic science kit, still want to get a few other bits.

It was not a tradition in my family but it was in my husbands and his mother made a humongous stocking (I could fit in it) for our first then for our second really unfairly one considerable smaller! We used to put presents from outside the family in so they would be wrapped. As they got older the stockings got more reasonably sized and I filled it with things like pack of cards, harmonica, sweets, book etc - a few things wrapped. Now they are teens I dropped the whole thing a few years ago.

I love stockings. Only for children in our house.
Ours are homemade out of an old Christmas tablecloth, which meant I could make them the size I wanted - wide enough to easily fit a picture book, they aren't huge though.

DC put them on the ends of their beds, so they can hear them rustling in the morning.

I always wrap everything, and each child has colour coded paper so I can easily see whose is whose. It's always just plain coloured paper, not Christmas wrapping paper.

Some things are in there every year without fail- a sugar mouse, a gingerbread man, an orange, some chocolate and a candy cane.

I don't make them come into our room, they can open them as soon as they wake up - they do wait for each other though, and unwrap together.

They usually burst in to our room when they've finished unwrapping to show us what they got - and traditionally I have to be indignant every year at how bad candy canes and sugar mice are for their teeth!

I love lying in bed listening to them whispering unwrapping the stockings because they think everyone else is asleep.

My DSis is crocheting my DD a stocking for her first Christmas and then we will use it. (its big enough to fit DD in at the moment). When I was a girl then it was stocking on the feet in bed and the three of us would open stocking fillers together until my parents got up then we all went down to the tree to open main presents.

I might do that or I might do the hanging on the fireplace, unsure yet.

I do stockings for my 4, the actual stockings are red & white striped knitted long bedsocks from M&S and I embroidered their names on. They are left at the end of the bed - so exciting to feel it all stuffed and knobbly in the morning! I usually buy a bag of 'lots of lollies' and share these out, always a satsuma in the toe, a terrys chocolate orange, bubbles, finger monsters, xmas stickers and little bits like a keyring, pack of old maid cards, etc and for dd1 who is 13 a lip balm or nail polish. Nothing wrapped just loose in there.

My boys will get stockings. They aren’t that big. Fill them with chocolate money and chocolate Santa and other chocolate. Also bath bombs ( at the age of 14 & 16 they still love a bath, they get local hand made bombs , so the really nice ones!!) not sure what else they will get in them this year as they are getting an expensive present!!

My sister and I still get a stocking and I'm 30 😂 I'll definitely be doing one for my DD. Ours were filled with smaller, cheaper gifts, all wrapped in tissue paper. There would be a satsuma, some fresh shiny coins, a few nuts and some chocolate coins at the bottom and then something for the top, like a soft toy or something bigger that would poke out. When we were younger we would hang them by the fireplace but as we got older we were allowed them in our room or hung on the door handle of our bedroom. There's nothing more magic than the feel and sound of a crinkly full stocking! The main presents were all under the tree and from my mum (single mum house).

Yes, always have done for my dds. They usually have smaller gifts like book, chocolate, blue tac, bubbles, figures e.g. sylvanian/lego mini fig, pens/pencils, notebooks, nail polish etc

Then there are the gifts santa leaves wrapped next to it. And gifts from us and family under the tree

Gifts in stocking are wrapped in tissue paper - green for one red for the other.

Oh and they are opened in the lounge with everybody, once dressed

As little kids, our stockings were hung at the end of our beds. As older kids/teens they were hung on our door handles outside our bedrooms (presumably so as not to wake us up!)

I've always put outside bedroom doors and the kids always bring them into our bed to open them on Christmas morning, which is lovely, even now they're teenagers and are huge

We never had stockings as kids (well except for one year) but we've done them for our kids for about 5 years now.

They just include little bits, so blind bags, chocolates, magic flannel, maybe a small toy. Not wrapped. Kids bring them into our room, we leave them on their beds.

I do like the idea of making your own with Christmas fabric.

In stories there are always TONNES of presents in the stocking and they’re the ‘main event’ of the present opening...(Rebecca Cobb’s, ‘The Empty Stocking’ is a fabulous book for 4-8 year olds!!!) but shop bought stockings are quite small aren’t they?!

It's pretty easy to make your own if you're able to use a sewing machine. I've made a few now and even put a hanging loop on the last one I made

Yes, we hang them at the end of the bed

They have a few small toys and chocolate in them

Stocking is the most exciting part of my Christmas day memories as a child, and we never did father Christmas, so yes, absolutely essential to me. Mine have had them since babies. Always contains chocolate/sweet tubes, chocolate coins, something to wear like a hat/gloves/socks, something with their favourite character like a blind bag or car, something traditional like a yo-yo, spinning top or dominoes etc. Can't imagine ever stopping.

Stockings for all in this house.
Can I suggest making them all the same, and getting some spares. Then Santa can fill the ones not in bedrooms, and just switch them once kids finally drop off....
Ours are red football socks. Nothing wrapped. At foot of bed. Only to be unpacked when everyone wakes up.
Chocolates, socks, small games, mini activity book, nice feltips, grow a crystal set, toiletries, tiny Lego set sort of contents.

Yes, as a child we used to pick out which of my dad's socks we wanted to use (& ruin). Lay them out with a mince pie, carrot and glass of sherry for father Christmas. Will carry on the tradition with my family.

Yes we do. We've always had them downstairs next to the tree but now the kids are a bit older I might put them on their door. I put any presents I've bought that fit in it tbh sometimes more expensive stuff like games or whatever but mostly nice snacks, fancy bubble bath or similar, some kind of fidget toy, often a torch because I don't know where they lose them but they do, books, arts and crafts stuff, xmas socks, pencil case .

Our elderly neighbour knitted stockings for my 2 dc when they were little. She said that she didn't "turn" the heel so more would fit in! They are large, misshapen things but knitted with love and my dc (now 17 and 19) still like putting them out on Christmas Eve and remember her when they do (she passed away about 9 years ago now).
I wrap everything that goes in them (and thanks to her they can actually fit quite a lot!!)

We do cheap stockings totalling around £15-£20, bits from Wilko, poundland etc. Usually a puzzle magazine rolled up or a tube of Pringles to add a bit of bulk. Socks, shower gel/bath bombs and cheap stationery seem to be our stocking essentials. Although this year DC are doing each other's stockings so it could be a very different mix!

We leave them hanging on bedroom door handles and the kids can open them before we're up. Now they're getting older they aren't up at the crack of dawn but usually still find them all together on Christmas morning in one of their rooms opening their stockings. It's lovely and I'm very glad they don't seem to be growing out of it!