  | Christmas Stockings | |||
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Clogs and Stockings | ||||
In other European countries, with a tradition of the Christ Child bringing the presents rather than Father Christmas or St Nicholas, when the tree is put up on Christmas Eve the room is then locked and the presents are brought secretly. In Spain, a similar tradition to that in the Netherlands is enacted on the eve of Epiphany, as children leave out shoes filled with straw for Balthazar's donkey: the wise man will give presents to the children who have been good. The secrecy involved in first filling the stocking and then not knowing for certain what might be inside until it is emptied is an important part of the tradition. When I was growing up Father Christmas left one or two presents under the tree but it was clear that the stocking was his main task. There were certain things that were always included: an apple, an orange, a shiny coin, a bag of chocolate coins, sugar mice. The presents were frivolous and fun and mostly edible.
Like so many of our Christmas traditions, it seems that from Germany or the Netherlands it then crossed the Atlantic to be popularised in the United States. Thomas Nast drew Santa Claus filling stockings in his famous illustrations. And some years previously, Clement Clark Moore wrote the following in his famous poem: The stockings
were hung
by the chimney with care,
What's in a stocking? Whatever you like, really! It can be nice to keep a few bits and bobs that come back year after year, like: -
A shiny 2 pence piece (this may be too symbolic and a pound coin might
be a better idea!) The most important thing, as always is to have fun with a nice tradition... | ||||
The
Christmas stocking is a development of the Dutch and German traditions
around 
The
origin of
the stocking custom is again from a legend of St Nicholas (see Fra
Angelico's depiction, right, c. 1437). In one
version of the story, the three girls helped by the saint with bags of
money for their dowries hang their stockings to dry by the fireplace.
Nicholas, seeing this, places the money in each stocking for them to
find in the morning. This is at the bottom of the German tradition of
the Christmas stocking, which also states that it should include a
present to appeal to each of the five senses.
The
Christmas stocking is also another one of the ways in which a Christmas
tradition can be simple and relatively low cost. While you can buy
readymade stockings, or even make special stockings yourself, we've
always just used really big socks. This has the benefit of limiting
what you can fit inside! Think about how the presents inside can be
symbolic and represent values rather than being high value items
themselves. You can also