Christmas Quandaries - Stockings

"What about Stockings?"

How many of us still dry our socks in front of the fire or wood stove? The number of homes with a fireplace is dwindling. Ok there are still some of us who live in snow country who heat with a wood stove and do hang stockings but we are small in number. No I am not talking about these stockings but the ones which are hung in hopes St. Nicholas will fill them.

Stockings are a long held tradition in our family and I get great pleasure filling them even for our married daughter and her husband. During our child rearing years I had four stockings to fill and now only one and her significant other, this may be why I still do it.

When the children were all here I would fill a stocking with an orange which would represent gold or success, or an apple representing health and nuts for hope. I would add a granola bar and box juice. The kids knew they were allowed to consume anything in their stocking before breakfast, giving me longer in which to make breakfast. Next would be socks which draped out the top and a small present such as the current matchbox car or jewelry. To finish it off I would hang a medium size candy cane. It was truly a work of art in which I took great joy creating.

Stockings were the first ‘present’ the kids could open till after the Christmas story was read and breakfast eaten. The memories around stocking stuffing and opening are very vivid for us.

When Josh, Beth and Chris were no longer celebrating Christmas with us but with Jesus we had to resolve;

“What do we do with the stockings?” 

We still hang all four, now five, stockings on the stair rail. We fill Abby and her husband Josh’s with the traditional fare but for Josh, Beth and Chris’ stockings we decided on a different kind of stuffing. We write notes to each of them each year. Some notes have stayed with the stockings when they are packed away for the other 11 months of the year. Other notes are read and put into keep sake boxes.

I get great comfort having the opportunity of writing the notes. Sometimes I tell them exciting things which happened during that year like if a friend of theirs got married or had a child. Other notes just tell them I love them and miss them.

Some years additional notes have appeared in the stockings written by others in the family or friends. In this way each of them is remembered in this part of Christmas. Their stockings are filled with the gold of love and letters of hope for we have the assurance of spending eternity with them. Eternity is a whole lot longer than the here and now.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth on His name will be saved.” John 3:16

Do you still hang stockings? What do you fill them with?