Tell me about your stockings

[Kathyis6incheshigh]

ie the ones your children hang up for Father Christmas, not the ones you wear with suspenders, obviously.

We always used my dad's old woolly hiking socks so now we are doing the same with dh's.
Am I behind the times? Are you meant to have specially-made king-size red ones trimmed with tinsel that play 'Jingle Bells' when you poke them?

Get the smallest stocking you can otherwise it will cost over a £100 to fill it.

Ah that sounds wise

I made some out of some IKEA material. Stars and deer, every festive . Big enough to hold a colouring book is my main criterion.

As children we used to use hiking socks until the year Father Chrtistmas brought us all annuals and had to go to the airing cupboard and get out some pillow cases because he realised at the last minute that the socks weren't big enough. Apparently...

I made some for DSs from the curtains I had as a little girl. They aren't massive but liliacs right about the cost mounting up as you buy stocking fillers. It's one of the nicest parts of Christmas, filling their stockings.

First year I have done DS a stocking and he's 4 - had a lovely one from BHS but it is huge and has taken a lot to fill it - could have bought a couple of computers games instead for the money but DS will love it.

So no-one is still using hiking socks then?

Never mind, I will carry on.

DS's is a short but wide Santa head (obv less disturbing than it sounds...) - his power rangers annual will fit in this year but still not huge and expensive to fill!

Ours have large sacks!

We do not spend a lot on the stocking presents so don't over fill them.

On Christmas morning our DD asks if she can open the present gives me a lump in my throat that she is willing to wait, the fun is watching her and DS climb to the bottom of the sack to find their presents.

Dd has a homemade one. Got to make one for ds this year. But they're not huge and i'm trying to fill them with some cheapish/useful bits, plus some choccie But my dc are only 3 and 8 months so not into anything yet!

We have two exactly the same for DS. That way you can fill one as you go along and you have the empty one to put out, thus enabling a swift switch over.

This was a tip on here last year, and as I nearly got caught the year before I think it is a jolly good one.

Bree, you are well-named

Great idea. Sadly, have run out of fabric...

Like the idea about 2 the same. Of course, as I am using hiking socks I have

These ones people make, are they stretchy? Because I always liked looking at a well-stuffed stocking and trying to guess what all the funny-shaped knobbly bits are (ooer Missus).

Hoyes, nothing like a festive knobble for putting a smile on yer face, missus.

we have knitted ones. ds's is woolly, dd's is knitted cotton. neither of them are huge, but very stretchy.

Not stretchy here. Medium-sized red/white cotton gingham, with a white fleece star appliqued on the front (made for ds's first christmas for peanuts when similar for White Co. cost ££). Man, I must have had time on my hands back then!

I think we all like to give our dc's the things we liked to have as children. My mum made our stockings and my dc's are very much like the ones mum made us. They are out of felt and i only put in things that fit. They are wide enough to fit a dvd(have tried some for dd this year!) and will fit books if they are small or bendable. I guess you can make them out of anything. My mum also wrapped our presents when we got older so that you could do the feel and guess thing.

Snap Eddas! The one I made is also really similar to the ones my mum made for us - only nowhere near as good as hers...

"I think we all like to give our dc's the things we liked to have as children"

Yes exactly Rudolph. I am just trying to recreate my own childhood really.

and in my case the things I would like to have had but didn't get So dd's bedroom is a mass of pink stuff

Kathy you've got me reminiscing about my stocking when I was little- I always had my dads navy hiking socks and they look and feel lovely when they're filled.

Dp not into hiking so dcs have really nice soft sctockings I found in ELC last year

stocking fillers[for a girl] a tangerine,nuts,choc coins,a little bottle of 4711 perfume for a girl,new toothbrush,thank-you notlets & a pen,mini torch,braclet,sparkly tightsall,a party popper all wrapped in tissue paper dont need sellotape.!!Aaah ..sweet memories

We have sacks I'm afraid BUT they dont get 'filled' as part of the fun for us is getting the whole arm in to get the pressies out.

This year DD1 (3.8) is getting:
a banana
a pair of 99p dressing up shoes
an animal mask
a little pony (89p froma asda)
a pack of chocolate buttons
a little miss christmas book.

Cost about £7 I think.

DD2 is only 1 so is getting the banana, buttons and little pony.

An interesting question.

For our dtds we originally bought large three-foot-long stretchy stockings.
3 years later we realised what a mistake this was, when we were overrun with faffy rubbish that we'd had to buy to fill the enormous whopping stockings...

Then we bought some that were about 8ins smaller, but 4 years later we have decided even these encourage too much rubbish-buying, leaving not enough cash for the truly apreciated gifts. We have invested in the common, non-stretchy smaller stockings you can buy, and let them choose their own.

TMI?

That's what happened with us, dp's mam has always brought their grandchildren their stockings. It was so large it would take me months to fill them and cost a fortune, that is why I brought my kids much smaller stockings the following year.