Christmas Stockings

Christmas in every home won’t be complete without Christmas stockings. There may be no fireplace to hang them on, but people always find ways or places to hang their Christmas stockings.  It has become part of the Christmas tradition that children and the kids at heart always look forward to hanging their Christmas stockings during Christmas eve. Aside from gathering around the Christmas tree and opening gifts, people are excited to head towards the red, fluffy stockings lined with white fur and see what little gifts they’ve got inside the Christmas stockings.

There are many stories on the origin of Xmas stockings. Nobody knows exactly how it started and how true these stories are, but the most famous and most probable story includes St. Nicholas.

The story is about a poor man whose wife died and left him with three daughters who are kind and gentle. He is worried that his daughters would not get married because he doesn’t have enough money or gold to pay for their dowries.

One day St. Nicholas, also known as St. Nicholas of Myra, was walking through the town and overheard the people talking about the man’s situation. He sought to help but he knew that the man would by no means accept money from him so he thought of another way of helping the man without directly giving him the help that the man needed. St. Nicholas waited until it was dark, went to the man’s house and climbed up the chimney, he threw 3 bags of gold inside it, a bag of gold for each daughter, enough to pay for their dowries.

The girls happen to do their laundries and washed their stockings. They hung the stockings by the fireplace to dry. The bags of gold that St. Nicholas dropped landed inside each of the girl’s stockings. When the girls woke the next morning, they were surprised to see the bag of gold inside their stockings. They were so happy because the gold is more than enough to pay for their dowries. The girls got married and lived happily with their husbands as they built their own families.

The story about the girls spread through the town and since then, everybody hung their stockings in the fireplace in the hope of finding a bag of gold inside the stocking when they wake up.

Nowadays, Stockings for Christmas come in different sizes, shapes, colors and textures. They are specifically made and used as Christmas stockings. Instead of gold, our Christmas stockings are now filled with small mysterious gifts and candies. If we’ve been bad during the year, we will find coal instead of gifts inside our Christmas stockings.

It is interesting how an old wives tale could start a tradition. After all, who wouldn’t be excited to see stockings full of goodies and surprises just for you?

Low Cost Holiday Goodies That Are Great Stocking Stuffer

Chocolates

Chocolates are great and economical Christmas stocking stuffers. They are bulky enough to give shape to your stockings and surely, almost everybody enjoys a good bar of chocolate from Ghiradelli’s. So buy a couple of bars and stuff it inside the Christmas stockings!

Movie tickets

Other low cost Christmas stocking stuffers are movie tickets. Most theaters sell gift cards of different denomination. This would surely excite your loved one as he or she gets to choose the latest movie and can watch it during the holiday season. To complete the gift, you would probably want to add some extra cash for popcorn and drinks.

Personalized coupons

Personalized coupons are both inexpensive and unique. They may come in handy for the person to whom you’ll give it too. The choices and possibilities are endless, depending on your imagination.
Christmas won’t be the same without Christmas stockings. They add excitement to Christmas and Christmas stockings are loved by children and adults alike.