Stockings

Did you hear the one about the toddler who was astute enough to hang a pair of tights instead of stockings, for himself and his siblings?

There are many versions of the legend of the Christmas stocking; but most of them appear to involve Saint Nicholas, three coins, and three impoverished young ladies.

When they hung out their hosiery to dry by the fire, they could have had no idea that they had ‘invented’ the ultimate personalized Christmas stockings!

Christmas stockings are relatively easy to make; in the shops you can find felt Christmas stocking kits, and patterns for hand-knit Christmas stockings or cross stitch Christmas stockings which will make life much easier if you are a handcrafts-type of person.

However, you can make your own Christmas stocking pattern by laying out a sock on a sheet of brown paper, and going around it, drawing a much larger circumference, of course. You are then well on your way to creating an heirloom Christmas stocking! To make up, you just cut two of this pattern, on the fold, and sew it from the long and curved parts on the inside.

Hem the top, and thread a cord through to have a means of fastening the stocking after it is filled with shop-bought Christmas stocking stuffers or your own selection of goodies, according to the hobbies, ages, and tastes of the intended recipient.

If the stockings are not made from seasonal fabric, you can decorate them with appliqués, cross-stitch or needlepoint. Christmas stocking decoration is part of the Christmas fun; scissors, felt, and fabric glue will keep children entranced for hours – well, minutes!

Older children can be given their own needlepoint Christmas stocking kit, and, knowing that they can expound upon their work in the years following, they will tackle the project keenly.

Some stockings are a work of art; Victorian Christmas stockings are almost too delicate and beautiful to be used; so the chances are that any family lucky enough to own one will just display it on one of the Christmas stocking hangers that attach to a shelf or mantelpiece, holding the other stockings… but leave it empty so as not to mar it.

Stockings, essentially, are a part of the Christmas gift themselves. A child who has glued together two Italy-shaped bits of fabric is no less proud of his efforts than a Home Economics student presenting you with her needlepoint Christmas stockings, which would have taken her hours of painstaking work.

Stockings can be as big or small as you like; they can even be, perish the thought, the sock that is left after its partner has gone AWOL. Size does not matter when it comes to stuffing stockings; remember, a box holding a solitaire diamond ring can easily fit inside a baby’s bootie – which, for the nonce, would qualify as a Christmas stocking.

Christmas stocking holders are designed like mug-trees, to hold a number of stockings – and this solution is brilliant if you do not have a mantelpiece, or the equivalent, in your house.