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Teenagers

Parenting teenagers has its ups and downs. Get advice from Mumsnetters here.

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Original poster

Those of you with teenagers who still want a stocking at Christmas

52 replies

offtoseethewizard64 · 17/12/2014 14:00

Do they still hang out an empty stocking for you to sneak in and steal to fill up and replace or do you just put a full stocking in their rooms or under the tree.

When DS was small, he always hung his stocking on his bed and tried to stay awake and catch Santa out . Even though he has stopped believing long ago, he still wants a stocking on Christmas Day. Our tradition was that they could open stocking presents (all indivdually wrapped to give us longer in bed) and then once brealkfast was eaten and everyone was dressed they could move on to presents under the tree. Have just been wrapping the stocking gifts and wondering whether to put them straight in to the stocking or keep them in a carrier bag and let DS put his stocking out on Christmas eve empty.

OP posts:

OodKingWenceslas · 17/12/2014 14:02

We sneak in and fill them same as the little ones.

LikeABadSethRogenMovie · 17/12/2014 14:04

We sneak in and replace the empty stocking with a full one. Last year, one of my teens opened it at 3am they were so excited!

RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie · 17/12/2014 14:05

Yep, we still sneak in.

AndHarry · 17/12/2014 14:10

I still sneak in for my much-older-than-teenage DH :o

IAmAPaleontologist · 17/12/2014 14:14

Mine are still little, and I don't get to sneak in because dd is scared of Father Christmas so insists stockings are hung by the fire downstairs! However, osme of my fondest memories of Christmas are as an older child/teen sharing a room with my sister and cousins and us all pretending to be asleep while muffling our giggles in our pillows listening to our mum and aunt slightly drunkenly trying to quietly stuff our stockings and then sneak in and hang them on our beds. They did start insisting that we left them outside the door though to make their job easier

Original poster

offtoseethewizard64 · 17/12/2014 14:17

Oh no, looks like I will either have to drink lots of coffee and have a very late night or set the alarm clock for early in the morning and do it.
You'd think they would just grow out of these things, but DS, who normally hates surprises, got cross when I asked him what he would like for Christmas as he's so fussy and doesn't really need anything as he says it should be all about surprises.

OP posts:

starfish4 · 17/12/2014 14:21

You could suggest that they leave it just outside their door, as you know they are older and you don't want to risk Santa waking them up! That's what we're going to do anyway, as she says we wake her up if we go in her room!

bridgetsmummy · 17/12/2014 14:23

Our stockings are hung by the fireplace when we put out Santa's treats. Then magically filled by the morning!!

Cerisier · 17/12/2014 14:27

Our teens' stockings are always hung up downstairs, it started when they were little and didn't like the idea of a strange man in their rooms. It has certainly made life much easier each Christmas Eve.

queenofthepirates · 17/12/2014 14:31

39 and still have a stocking from my parents! They made the mistake of saying I could have one until I got married.

Annunziata · 17/12/2014 14:33

One on the door handle, and then we all open them together. DS1 is nearly 25

SwearySwearyQuiteContrary · 17/12/2014 14:40

DD1(15) and DD2(13) still get a stocking because DS(8) still believes! This week I've had a well presented argument from both girls that we should keep the stocking tradition going even after DS knows "Because it won't be fair on him that he's not had as many Christmases as us. " I expect I'll be doing a stocking for DD1, DD2, DS, DG1, DG2, DG3, DG4, DG5……….

Sparklingbrook · 17/12/2014 14:46

My teens have never had a stocking.

Sidge · 17/12/2014 14:47

My DD1 is 16 and still has a stocking! Partly because DDs 2 and 3 still believe in FC and partly because all children should have a stocking IMO

Stockings get hung on the fireplace and filled after everyone has gone to bed, then FC puts them at the end of their bed. Which is a right pain in the bum as 2 of the 3 stockings have bells on them!

For the first time EVER, this year I am getting a stocking too!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 17/12/2014 14:53

We have always put stockings by the fireplace in the front room - that way it was easier to ward off the excited 3am squeals as they ripped the parcels open. They knew they weren't allowed to go into the front room without us, and so we could enforce a slightly civilised time to start the day!

We used to wait until they were asleep, but now they are teenagers (and ds1 is 21), and are capable of staying up much later than us, we just wait until they are all in their rooms, on whatever electronic devices, and do it before we finally collapse into bed.

One year, we told ds1 that he and his brothers could come in at 7.30am (and no earlier), to wish dh and I a happy Christmas, and then we would go downstairs and unwrap the stockings - to be honest, I had little or no hope that they would actually listen to that instruction, but hoped it would result in a slightly later than normal start to the day.

At 7.31am, he and his brothers trooped into our room, and he said, "Good morning mummy and daddy - Happy Christmas - and I have been sick three times!!" Poor lamb had picked up a tummy bug, and didn't realise that force majeur applied, and the 'not before 7.30am' instruction didn't include emergencies!

Jupiters2ndMoon · 17/12/2014 14:59

I just keep the sacks and fill them as wrap. Then I sneak in and leave them at the bottom of the bed.
Ds1(21) nearly didn't get his last year after a comment about his sack presents always being quantity over quality!. So I left his sack by the tree. His face when he thought he hadn't got one

Original poster

offtoseethewizard64 · 17/12/2014 15:49

SDTG Your poor little one being sick and not being able to come and tell you because he didn't want to disobey! My DS used to have a habit of trying to talk to me (about something trivial) when I was on the phone. I used to tell him that he was never to interrupt when I was on the phone unless the house was on fire or his sister was having a seizure (she has epilepsy). He was not as obedient as your DS though so I frequently had to ignore him and then ask him at the end of the phone call if either of the 2 permitted events had occurred

We always put the stockings in bedrooms so they could open them without going downstairs, as they weren't allowed down until we were out of bed when they were small.

DS will want his in his room where he can reach it when he wakes up so he doesn't have to get out of bed lazy arse

OP posts:

madwomanbackintheattic · 17/12/2014 15:57

We use bedroom door handles for stocking deliveries for adults/ teens but end of bed for kids. The stockings are all left in the living room though - they just get filled and delivered once everyone is in bed. Everyone gets one, including any adult guests we have. Some years dh and I have had the mother of all evenings dangling stockings (with bells) on long bits of string down open stairwells, as an adult guest had been given a bed in the open plan basement in a nook at the bottom of the stairs. We didn't feel able to sneak down into an adult man's bedroom.

I can confirm that the dexterity required gets more difficult, the more Christmas festivity is involved

Heyho111 · 17/12/2014 19:20

Mine don't sleep till redicous o'clock so I just place a stocking outside their door. Only problem now is they don't wake up in the morning. It's gone through extremes. 5.00 in the morning to lunch time.

Silkchiffon · 17/12/2014 20:19

Yeah that's my problem Heyho - no need to stay up, I just get him to leave the stocking at the end of his bed and then go in around 8am knowing he won't be awake for at least another 3 hours!

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 17/12/2014 20:20

I know, offtosee - I didn't realise how literal children that age were.

Leeds2 · 17/12/2014 20:37

My 16 year old always leaves her stocking on her bedroom door handle, because she didn't like the idea of someone strange going into her bedroom when she was little. Works perfectly well now, and she still has a stocking.

FishWithABicycle · 17/12/2014 20:45

A Santa Secret.

let there be 2 identical stockings.

One is hung up empty. The other can be filled at your leisure as many days before Christmas as you like. Then all you need do is a quick swap - no midnight stuffing required.

Also: When we were teenagers it was agreed that stockings would be henceforth hung up downstairs on the mantelpiece so that Father Christmas didn't have to wait till everyone was fast asleep before doing his deliveries.

MagicMonday · 17/12/2014 20:54

I still get a stocking

chocoluvva · 17/12/2014 21:12

DD called from her room, "I can hear you Santa" as I took her stocking off her door handle 'silently'.

Last week she asked in a very small voice - she lives in town during term now she's a student - "Em, mum, will I be getting a stocking at Christmas this year?".

What are your teens getting in their stockings?

DD (18) is getting chocolate, dates, a mini panettone, moisturiser and cleansing wipes, a mini bottle of flavoured balsamic vinegar, three tiny dishes for nibbles, 3 x sachets of Heinz squeezy instant soup, tin of sardines in tomato sauce, jar of pesto, 3 x water-filter cartridges, pen, sheet music, a music magazine, bottle of raspberry flavoured vodka, Satsuma, £2 coin, and a toothbrush.

DS (15) is getting a pack of rock star cards, chocolate, a pomegranate, lava lamp, 5 x boxers, toothbrush, CD, calendar, pen, phone powerpack, Satsuma, £2 coin, magazine, beanie and a music stand.

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