Stockings how does it work?

[Sakura03]

My son is now three and I thought he should have a stocking for Christmas. I’m Danish and decorate my house end of November ready for the 1 December, as a child I always had advent calendars and we had an advent candle so I naturally carry on those traditions but I need a little help when it comes to his Christmas stocking, do I go for a good quality stocking, is it “important” to get it personalised? Does it go up on display with all the other decorations? How much do you spend on stocking fillers? Tia.

My lo has a personalised stocking that was a tad expensive, but I bought it for their first Christmas, so I viewed it as an investment.
The stocking hangs up as a decoration during Advent in the middle room of the house, near our small tree. Then is filled on Christmas Eve. It's only small and so will have books, sweets /chocolate, small toys etc.
Usually there will also be presents under the main tree and a large sack of presents at the family house we go to early Christmas morning. This year, due to covid, I've bought a sack for those presents to go in.

I think everyone does them slightly differently! I made (very badly!) my DCs, and they stay packed away til Christmas Eve then come out at bedtime to great ceremony and are laid out alongside the snacks for Santa.

I fill them with special snacks, fun bath bombs, maybe a pack of cards, and usually a teddy poking out the top.

Ours aren't personalised. They got hung on the bedroom door handle on Christmas eve so that they got opened first thing. Kids used to bring them through to our bedroom to open.

Mine have personalised sacks instead of an actual stocking. I couldn't find decent sized stocking that would fit anything good in. They put them out on Christmas eve with milk and mince pie for santa.
I just put all little things in them. Domt really have a set amount to spend.

It varies, so there is no right or wrong. In our house the children put them outside their bedroom door when they go to bed ( but some families put them in bedrooms or near the fireplace) and the stocking is filled by Santa with lots of small novelty items ( in our house 30 items ish from a sticker to a toy car) the items are wrapped. Our children open their stockings before breakfast and other presents after breakfast. Our children don’t have personalised ones but they are lovely ones from the Disney store that they’ve had since they were little.

He's three - any large sock or stocking will be fine! The fun is what gets put in it - some chocolate, a satsuma, a rolled-up magazine and a toy - the hope is he will play with the contents for a bit after waking you up way too early in the morning!

Of course you have to leave out snacks for FC and the reindeer - sherry and mince pies is the English tradition, milk and cookies in America, plus a carrot. In my house it's whisky and mince pies.

When your kid asks why the bite marks on the carrot are the wrong way round in the morning, you can feel very proud! And shrug.

That said, my kids have huge personalised stockings they were given for their first Christmases, and filling them is a challenge - I tend to put boxes of cereal in to make them look full!

Ours aren’t personalised.
Shh, but if you get two identical ones, it can make Father Christmas’s job easier (just swapping an empty one for a full one is much less likely to wake a child than actually stuffing presents in in the same room).

I never had stockings growing up but seem to be in the minority!
My own kids were given humongous stockings from my MIL. I put any gifts from people outside the family in as gifts from santa (me) went under the tree. As they got a bit older I couldn't really fill them and my sister got them beautifully cross stitched ones with their name. But they only could take a few little bits (like pack of cards, harmonica, ball, chocolate). I havent bothered last few years (both teens now).
I prefer the look of presents piled up under the tree.

Growing up I had one that was nice but I think it was pretty standard. My mum personally didnt display them, she was very OCD with her decorations Haha, she would make a big thing about me and my sister decorating the tree and then she would move them all around so they were perfectly neat once we went to bed 😂 so our stockings would just appear on Christmas morning.
With my DD her current stocking is really lovely, nothing fancy it's just from M&S with penguins on and it goes with all my decorations. But I'm about to have another baby and I cant find the same one! So I'm going to get us personalised ones on esty this year, even for me and OH as we only get eachother a few little bits that fit into a stocking any way. I am going to get them with colours similar to the tree and hang them up when I put decs up too. It's a personal thing, department stores sell lovely ones that are not personalised so you can go either way :)

Top tip. If you are leaving stocking at the foot of the bed, buy 2 identical ones. The child leaves one out, then you fill the second and swap them over. Saves you having to wait until their in a deep sleep, then risk waking them when you sneak in for the empty.

Ours have sweets, small toys, socks and some fruit. Then the bigger presents are downstairs under the tree.

Sorry and also we put her main father Christmas presents in her stocking. And presents from us under the tree. She is 4 so gets overwhelmed when there is a lot so I'm not buying her little bits at this stage. For instance shes asked for buzz, woody and jessie for Christmas. I'm going to have all three poking out her stocking in the morning and that's it:) under the tree I'll have the bits from us. A lot if people just get pjs, pants, small toys and treats as I did growing up in the stocking. We might end up doing that later on, but right now she doesnt need little bits :)

We have stockings that are small - size of a welly boot sock. They hng on the fireplace from the day we decorate the tree, then I fill them when the children are in bed on Xmas eve and they go on the floor next to their presents as they are too bultybto hang back on the wall.

We all wake up together and no one goes down unless we are all together. No earlier than 5.30 is the general rule!

Children open whichever they choose in whichever order they like. Usually all stockings and large presents done and dusted by 6am and then we can crack on with the day.

Only presents from grandparents come later.

In the olden days when I was a child we used an actual sock! I was always jealous of my brothers as they used adult sized sports socks and mine were much smaller in comparison

In our house the stocking goes up with the tree and hangs empty. Want an brings stocking toys and one main present. These are wrapped in Santa paper. Other gifts are from us.

Stocking gifts in our house are little nicknacks like chocolate, bath bomb, pens, stickers, toothbrush, any smaller toys (in size and price).

My 2 year old has a handmade one I bought at a stall at the hospital. This year she has got slippers, a yo-yo (she asked for one for some reason ), some chocolate and a sticker book. I don’t spend a lot at Christmas in general so up to you how much you want to spend.

Ours are the same style but different designs, so each child knows whose is whose. They are made of felt. They are brought out in Christmas Eve and are placed next to the fireplace. We have an open fireplace with a chimney.

It works however you want it to work :)

We never had stockings, we had a sack/pillowcase that went out on Christmas Eve before bed.

Everyone does stockings differently. It's just a matter of choice. My DM made my son's for his first Christmas. His is personalised, but mine wasn't when I was a child.

I have a couple of ordinary stockings that hang in the fireplace as decoration, but the "real" stocking appears in DS's christmas eve box.

I fill it with sweets, bubble bath and decent small toys like cars or art/craft stuff. (basically whatever is small enough to fit in). I don't put novelty or party bag type items in there, but others do. I would say I spend around 20-25 on the stocking, but that's not set in stone.

Stockings are the best part of christmas. I love them!

We hang them on doors on Christmas Eve here job the outside of their doors so it's easier to fill. Theirs are personalised from GLTC and quite big. I had a stuffed stocking with lots in it when I was a growing up, all wrapped, and it still brings back very happy memories so I do the same for my children with lots of interesting things - low value but good quality (i buy bargains all year round for them).

I probably spend about £120 on them.

All presents round the tree are from us/family, not Father Christmas.

I went on a mad dew Ng bibgevwhenni was pregnant and made personalized stockings for about 10 people

DS' stocking is about the size of a child's welly. It comes out Christmas Eve and hangs on his door handle. It's filled with small things to keep him occupied until we open the tree gifts: book/magazine, tangerine in the toe, a small Gameboy keyring (with games!), Minecraft socks etc. We open gifts around 11 after we've had breakfast, walked the dog and made a cup of tea . I used to put a pack of novelty pants in, but he was continually unpressed, even though they were "oh look, silly FC brought you pants!" they got this face so I'm sticking to socks.

DH gets socks, too! And a book, chocolates, CD (I'm old fashioned), other stuff that will fit.

I'm in a different country and also enjoy their Christmas Eve customs and 5th January. It's a great mix of cultures and traditions and now Christmas is properly 12 days long.

You can do what you like. In fact, you SHOULD do what you like as what is special is having your own family rituals at Christmas, isn't it?

Our mum used to cut up her old tights. We always had chocolate money, a satsuma and a pound coin in the toe, and then all the things we needed for the year wrapped up as presents -- sellotape, shower gel, pens for school. Some people might think that was crap but we loved it because it was our thing that our family did and it brought us great joy. I'm smiling now just remembering!

We spend about £20 on stocking fillers and just have a small one which is not personalised. For us, stocking fillers are just little bits like books, socks, stickers,
stationary. They are put out on Christmas eve.

However it varies so much. Some people spend hundreds on stockings, others say that all presents are from father Christmas etc. Etc. There isnt really one right way to do it and kids dont seem to realise that everyone does it differently! So just do whatever you like ,:)

Crikey my typing!

• A mad sewing binge when I was pregnant.

When he's asleep, I take the stocking to the living room to fill, then leave it at the foot of his bed, on the duvet. As a child I LOVED the crinkly present noise at my feet as I woke up and realised "he's been!"

Stocking gifts aren't wrapped, the stocking is the wrapper.

Don't get into a tradition of leaving it at the foot of the bed or in the bedroom! In years to come your DS will be so desperate to see Santa that the slightest noise in the room will wake him abd you'll be creeping around til the small hours trying to fill the stocking. Speaking from bitter experience - Much better to establish a traction of doing it downstairs, or at least on the bedroom door.