Christmas Stockings

We heart stockings

If there’s anything more festive than a row of stockings hung up by the fireplace, we don’t want to know about it! Take this Harry Potter fleece number or this plush Friends ‘You Are My Lobster’ beauty – how could you fail to get in the spirit of things when hanging one of these up?!

But where the heck did the tradition come from?

Well, like many Christmas rituals, there’s some uncertainty about the origin, but most people seem to think it came from the story of Saint Nicholas, said to have lived about 1,700 years ago in Turkey. Apparently, good ol’ Saint Nick had a fair amount of £££ and was happy to share it around. One day, while strolling through town he heard the cries of a poor family. Charitable Saint Nick felt for them and so he climbed up on their roof that night and dropped three gold balls down the chimney. As luck would have it, the balls dropped into the three daughters’ stockings that so happened to be drying by the fire at the time – nice!

Stockings properly entered popular culture in the West in the 1800s when Clement Clarke Moore wrote the poem ‘The Night Before Christmas,’ with the line ‘the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there’. But in your average house, golden balls were replaced by sweets, treats and gifts (and the odd satsuma).

Stockings round the world

Stockings aren’t really a thing in most countries round the world though. Brazilian children get presents in their shoes and Puerto Rican kids put a shoebox full of grass under their parents’ bed on December 5^th to receive gifts and sweets!

No fireplace? No problem!

But what if you don’t have a fireplace? A common problem if you’re renting, living in a flat, or happen to own a house that doesn’t have a mantlepiece.  Well we say mantles are yesterday’s news - there are plenty of options for hanging your stockings in a creative spot where Santa is certain to find them. Just make sure whatever you’re hanging them from is secure! From bannisters to doorknobs, bedposts, solid shelves, coat hooks, a ladder leant against a wall or a wall-mounted curtain rail, you’ve got this covered. We’ll be there to help…right after we’ve finished untangling the fairy lights!