Each year families all around the globe purchase Christmas stocking kits to make personalized Christmas stockings, place Christmas stocking holders on their fireplace mantle and hang their stockings in anticipation of a visit from Santa Claus, St Nicholas, or whoever he may be in any given country. But do you know the history of the Christmas stocking?
No one knows when or actually where Stockings became part of household Christmas traditions around the world, but it is known that the tradition springs from a legend surrounding St. Nicholas who was the inspiration for Santa Claus.
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History Of The Christmas Stocking
The Legend Of Saint Nicholas and The Christmas Stockings
As the legend goes, there was an impoverished nobleman who was raising his three daughters on his own after the death of his wife.
The daughters were very close in age and as they became marriageable age, the nobleman did not have the money to pay for his daughters dowry.
Without a dowry, the young girls could not make a good match and were unlikely to marry at all.
The nobleman was beside himself, feeling he failed his daughters and condemned them to living the life of poor old maids.
One Christmas Eve, the daughters who had few clothes, washed their clothes and hung them around the house to dry, hanging their stockings next to the fireplace so they would dry by Christmas morning.
St. Nicholas, happened to be passing by the area where the nobleman lived with his daughters and heard the sad story regarding the poverty.
Deciding to help, he went by the nobleman’s house, but found the entire family had retired for the night.
Spying the stockings hanging by the fireplace, he got an idea.
Placing gold in three small bags, he dropped the bags down the chimney where they landed in the stockings of each of the three girls.
The next morning the three girls woke up and when they went to put on their stockings, they discovered the bags the gold.
They used the gold to pay their dowry and all three girls married well much to their father’s delight.
Need ideas to put in your Christmas stockings? If you have teenage girls, these gift ideas are perfect for them.
Santa Claus and Christmas Stockings
As the legend of Santa Claus was based in part on St. Nicholas, it was only natural that people did not want to lose the legend of those gift filled stockings.
So the Christmas stocking tradition was born and people around the world embraced it either in fact or in spirit.
Of course not every country used stockings as part of their Christmas traditions.
Countries such as France, the Netherlands, Hungary and Puerto Rico use shoes in some manner either for offering treats to Christmas visitors and their pets, or as a receptacle for gifts.
Christmas Stockings in America
The first printed reference to Christmas Stockings being hung near the chimney appeared in Clement Moore’s poem “A Visitor From St. Nick.”
But the idea of the Christmas stockings came from the early settlers who brought their own Christmases traditions with them.
Later with the arrival of the Christmas Tree, the Christmas Stocking became more of a decoration place to place small gifts and treats while the larger presents were wrapped and placed under the tree.
Today Christmas stockings have become highly decorative and is used both as a place to place small gifts called stocking stuffers and as part of a home’s decorations.
It isn’t unusual to see Christmas stocking attached to a fireplace mantle, around a doorway or even hanging from the foot each family members’ bed.
In many households, Christmas stocking are also hung for household pets and filled with dog or cat (or even bird treats) and toys.
The history of the Christmas stocking may be a little bit foggy, but the presence of these stockings in the home add to the fun, excitement and décor of this special holiday.
Christmas Stocking Ideas to Consider
Pack 4, Unique Burgundy and Ivory White Knit Christmas Stockings 14
Christmas Stocking, SMTHOME 18Windy City Novelties Tall 15
