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?!

We have stockings here but they are just filled with sweets, the main presents are under the tree from Santa. But we are Irish so maybe a little different to UK.

We do them. If at home I normally leave them in lounge and hung up christmas eve. When we stay at other peoples houses i will put them in bedroom in an attempt to stop them waking everyone up at the crack of dawn.
Presents are wrapped apart from chocolate and obligatory satsuma.

I LOVE stockings ❤️❤️❤️

My family go in for it in a big way. We always had little toys, chocolate, a calendar maybe a book. They were hung on the door handle and we were allowed to open them in bed before breakfast. Big 'under the tree' presents were for after breakfast. Thinking about it I'm sure mum (single parent) did it that in part to keep us busy with stuff while she got on with lunch and breakfast stuff.

My husbands family only do tiny stockings, they get some sweets (like a couple from a selection box), a £2 coin, a new toothbrush and toothpaste and batteries - that's it. But they get a whole load of extra little nonsense presents under the tree which my family would have put in a stocking. I prefer it 'our way' and that's what we'll be doing with our daughter when she's old enough (first Christmas this year!!!!!).

I made stockings for me and DH a couple of years ago, making one for DD now. They are knitted and lined with cotton to make it sturdy.

❄️🎄🎅

Yes, everybody gets one, little things only.
When dds still believed in Father Christmas I was very careful about using different (cheaper!) wrapping paper from other presents (all else was always from family).

Stockings always went on the end of the bed.

Yes, we do and pretty much do the same as we had as kids.

DH made their stocking from felt - so very little give which means you can't fit too much in. Which is no bad thing (IMO) but some things are piled up underneath, like books.

Father Christmas brings the stocking which, in our case, is hung on the mantelpiece but DH and I grew up with it being placed ay the end of our beds. No1 child was a shit sleeper so we didn't even entertain that idea!

We don't wrap them, our parents did.

Type of fillers for your kids ages...

bubbles, pants, socks, chocolate, toothbrush, hairbands, small book, small puzzle, pens, rubbers, marbles, torch

Agree you need to have the whole “mince pie and carrot” ceremony. I loved my stocking on the bed as a child - the excitement of a rustling weighty sticking in the dark was fantastic.

Top Tip for Bed Stockings.... buy two of the same stocking so you can throw the filled one on quickly and whip the other away. Or start with the stockings on the door.

We do a chocolate orange rather than a satsuma and something with nuts in. DS (15) is getting electric paint to paint on circuits, a tape measure, small SAS handbook, smellies and all the small bits of tech ( memory/graphics cards that don’t look much under the tree, USB sticks and fancy chocolate like chocolate pizza.

We have small stockings for the DCs. They are left downstairs and DH brings them up 'if they are full when he goes to bed'.
this started as our DDs are adopted and a) we promised DD1 we wouldn't lie to her, and b) she didn't like the idea of a strange man in the house.

They are ~8 small wrapped presents. They come into our room to open them.
Traditionally held stuff like

• chocolate coins
• character T-shirt
• small cuddly toy
• bubble bath
• small toys from eg Hawkins bazar

Everyone gets a stocking here even the dogs. My dc are 16 and older. We put our stockings on the back of the dining chairs and open them after Christmas dinner. This started when the dc were tiny and was to encourage ds3 in particular to join us at the table (he has autism) Now it's a routine that has stuck and nobody wants to change it.

Everyone gets stockings in our house.

I'd recommend not buying ones that are too big (easy to get big stocking fillers when they're little, less so when they're older) and stockings get left outside bedroom doors here. We used to do end of the bed, but the stress of not trying to wake them when removing them to fill them and then put back was too much!

All stocking get dragged into me and DH's room to open on our bed before we go downstairs.

Everyone staying in the house on Xmas eve gets a stocking, it is not age dependent!

They are hung by the fireplace downstairs and are magically filled by the time people get up in the morning.

We light the fire, get coffee and cinnamon rolls and open them together.

We have always said that "Santa brings little treats and surprises" so foodstuffs, new toothbrush, bubble bath etc, bits of makeup for DD now she's early teens, pencils, socks, beer for DH, nonsense, lots of consumables . I usually put in a toy for dS2 as he's still little. If anyone, including my mum who is 81 doesn't still believe in Santa they are not letting on.

We had pillowcases as children. Mine is almost 50 years old.

My children have giant sacks made when they were little- you could fit a 3 year old child in them. Named.

My DH has a smaller sack that I made him when we got married.

Overnight guests get a named sack bought just for them that they take home.

All gifts from parents/hosts come in the sack. Tree gifts are from relatives/friends.

As little children they put them on the end of their beds and we had to sneak in and get them. Now they hang them on their doors and we push the filled sack into the room

They are opened together- taking turns with breakfast- bacon rolls and champagne.

Everyone gets a sugar mouse, chocolate coins and an orange.

Stockings are my favourite bit and I have a tendency to go a bit OTT with them- last year there were 20 things in each. It's small, practical but fun things. The only bit that's 'expensive' is the book. There's chocolate coins, notebook, pens, bath stuff, toothbrush and paste, small collectible item, small cuddly toy, socks/underwear, campblanket badge, edible stuff... And an orange.

Adults get one too but not as much stuff.

We had pillowcases as a child until we were around 18, I wanted similar for my children and got them personalized sacks when they were little - they are a good size, not giant but not tiny. Presents are wrap (but not blindbags or treats).

They leave them downstairs by the tree, we also leave out a carrot for the reindeer and milk and cookies for Santa.

I usually put about 15 things in there, some of the gifts are quite big a boardgame or puzzle but also smaller blindbag items or craft bits. They also get a selection of edible treats; jellybellys, choc coins etc

I love shopping for stockings and usually spend too much (trying not to put 'tat' in there)! DD1 is 11 and getting definitely getting harder to buy for this year.