Why do we hang Christmas stockings? The history of the holiday tradition

[libertybele]

Why do we hang Christmas stockings? The history of the holiday tradition

It’s the holiday season, which means it’s time to hang Christmas stockings.

But where exactly does the holiday tradition come from? According to History.com, hanging stockings comes from a legend about Saint Nicholas.

In that legend, Saint Nicholas gave three poor sisters gold coins and dropped the coins down the chimney. One of the coins went into a pair of shoes that were left on the hearth, while another coin went into a pair of socks that were hanging by the fire to dry, the site states.

Because of that legend, on Christmas Eve, children in Scandinavia leave their shoes on the hearth, while children in the U.S. and the U.K. leave their stockings on their bedpost or near the fireplace in the hopes that the stockings and shoes will be filled with treats, History.com reported.

https://www.foxnews.com/lifestyle/why-hang-christmas-stockings

[Kamaji]

So that somebody will put goodies in 'em for us!

[libertybele]

A Visit from St. Nicholas
By Clement Clarke Moore

'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;
The children were nestled all snug in their beds;
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her 'kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter's nap,
When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow,
Gave a lustre of midday to objects below,
When what to my wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature sleigh and eight tiny rein-deer,
With a little old driver so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment he must be St. Nick.........

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43171/a-visit-from-st-nicholas

[mountaineer]

I am amazed at present-day advertising for "stocking stuffers," which always seem to be very high-priced trinkets. As children, our stockings got the same treats my parents - who were young children when the Great Depression started - got, namely, an orange, some walnuts, and a few treats like that. Understanding what it was like for their families during that era helped make me less enamored of acquiring and accumulating things, I believe. I'm satisfied not to have high-priced trinkets, in other words. 

In this house, we don't have a fireplace, anyway, just a woodburning stove. No place to hang stockings. 

[jmyrlefuller]

I am amazed at present-day advertising for "stocking stuffers," which always seem to be very high-priced trinkets. As children, our stockings got the same treats my parents - who were young children when the Great Depression started - got, namely, an orange, some walnuts, and a few treats like that. Understanding what it was like for their families during that era helped make me less enamored of acquiring and accumulating things, I believe. I'm satisfied not to have high-priced trinkets, in other words. 

In this house, we don't have a fireplace, anyway, just a woodburning stove. No place to hang stockings. 

That's pretty much the way it has always been with the Fullers as well. Fruit and some cookies stuffed the stockings. And an occasional lottery ticket. (Though now I laugh that Hochulstan is now printing on those tickets "Lottery tickets are not to be given as gifts to children." Even as the state never cared before. Killjoys!)

[mountaineer]

(Though now I laugh that Hochulstan is now printing on those tickets "Lottery tickets are not to be given as gifts to children." Even as the state never cared before. Killjoys!

[Right_in_Virginia]

We still hang our stockings (the same ones from when we were kids) ---- even when it's the two of us.  Santa's filled them with some of the best surprises!   

Merry Christmas!