Stockings are a huge deal in our family, probably the biggest deal of all, and we don’t even use them. They become their own “present” with individually wrapped items in a larger wrapped box placed under their stockings. Each person has a unique paper too so as not to get confused with anyone else’s. It is seriously the kids’ highlight each Christmas if you ask them. I always have fun throughout the year finding things to put in them. Some items stay the same year to year, some items fit a theme that mysteriously emerges within my shopping, and some are just totally random because I think they will love it. So much fun and it takes forever to get through them. I love that part too.
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The kids enjoy stockings, of course they do, but I’m getting tired of getting things for them. I’m at the age, I do what I enjoy, I want a simple life.
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I’m the stocking maker in my family. Most are cross stitched but a few are embroidery (too expensive now to buy those kids but sometimes I find them at the thrift stores). They aren’t the same but sometimes I do ‘themes’ like both my cousin’s boys got teddy bears decorating a tree. When I was estranged from my sister, she was worried about her son getting a Christmas stocking (I got over it and he got a stocking on time). He’s now worried I’ll die before he has kids. BIL just got one last year and they’ve been together for 30 years (he never asked!) Daughter’s boyfriend got one last year even though they aren’t married because she asked. Other daughter’s boyfriend doesn’t have one yet because, well, I’m not convinced it’s permanent.
I have a whole bunch of kits in my sewing room but just haven’t had the drive to do them. Spend too much time on CC…
I don’t fill them, just make them. My daughter with live in boyfriend took her stocking last year and really looks forward to them each filling the other’s stocking. Daughter who is still in college leaves her stocking here, even though she won’t be here for Christmas. We also have a few for guests (no names on them).
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We took a Christmas Cruise one year and the stockings had to sail too.
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@sevmom and @twoinanddone, I am trying to figure out what to put in stockings that will come on vacation with us that are things we’ll actually want with us and to take home!
FWIW, we’ve always celebrated before or after if we are traveling for the holidays. It would give me a lot of anxiety to try to pack gifts ; )
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@gardenstategal The stockings travel. When we have Christmas in our home, we fill them (husband likes to do that). When the stockings travel, we will bring the stockings and sister now(or my late parents or inlaws put things in them ). Husband usually adds a couple things he gets when we get there. We travel with the stockings, not the contents!
@momofboiler1 We are traveling this year and packing gifts for it. Just finished wrapping this afternoon. Glad to be done though!
We traveled though most times out of state for Christmas, even when our kids were small, so we could see family, so are used to packing gifts and traveling with them.
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We don’t wrap things that go in our stocking. My mother bought my kids VERY large stockings. I used them for a long time, and now this year I have large Christmas themed bags with lots of stocking stuffers in them. (I seem to have gone “over the top” this year - next year kids may be sad).
Do others wrap or leave stocking presents unwrapped?
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I wrap and use different paper for my people.
My mother was lucky to get stuff wrapped at all. Sometimes just a box. Often with the wrong name on the package.
Yes, we had a lot of swapping on Christmas morning. “Oh, that’s not for you, that’s for your sister.”
Different wrapping? Not a chance.
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Same!!! Everyone gets their own design! So easy bc then don’t need labels!
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My mom knitted all our stockings. I added my youngest’s name because mom didn’t put her name on because she was a newborn and wasn’t sure what we were going to call her. They are regular sized. She did make one giant one that I just use a decoration. No way I’m filling that thing. Santa doesn’t wrap presents at our house. Mom & Dad wrap. If the present is unwrapped it’s from Santa. I do most of the stocking filling, but my husband gets a few things here and there too and I think the kids have added a thing or two in the last year or so.
When I was a young adult I loved finding some fun stocking stuffers to put in my mom & dad’s stockings.
I have my stocking from when I grew up but that is not the stocking I’ve used since Married. I bought all our stockings years ago as each child was born - they are all a quilted variety and then I cross stitched their names in.
I also love doing the stockings - I think I’d give up giving presents before stockings! Lol
I save the scraps from wrapping presents and wrap the stocking items too. I don’t tag them but each person has their own bag that I put them in prior to Christmas and I also put their initial on the back of each package with a sharpie.
My kids would be hugely disappointed to not have stockings, they love them. I’m happy to take the time to curate the goodies and get the stockings filled!
I love the direction this thread has taken. We are currently having a stocking crisis, as we can’t find the box with the stockings. I’ll try again this morning, and hopefully it will turn up in the storage room. Our kids each seems to have about a half a dozen stockings each - I don’t quite remember how we’ve managed to accumulate so many - but the ones they love best are the cheap ones my mother picked up at a discount store one year when we visited her in Florida for Christmas. They like them because they are HUGE. My mother also started the tradition of topping the stocking with a stuffed toy, and we still have to do that as well. We generally celebrate a German-style Christmas, with the presents coming on Christmas Eve, but the stockings are for Christmas morning. I’m feeling a little stressed this year, as I don’t have nearly enough stuff yet to fill those giant stockings, but I do at least have the stuffed toys ready. (Mind you, my “kids” are now 20 and 22.) The dog also has his own stocking, but he’s easier to deal with.
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I wrap the gifts for the stockings, I think for my kids, the fun is in opening them.
Worst case, if you can’t find the stockings, you can use Christmas bags… I started overflowing the stockings, and this year we are having our family celebration on Christmas Eve, at my son’s house. So I’m just taking the stuff in big bags, and leaving the stockings here.
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H and I both have stockings, I buy mostly practical but nice stuff for his. He puts some candy in mine… 
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Stocking items are mostly unwrapped, but some things if they are nicer might get wrapped.
As I mentioned, the kids have two. One is about 36" long. The other is regular sized. The big one often gets the jumbo packs of underwear and socks but also dumb dollar store toys - even now. Candy mostly goes in the smaller ones. And then the cooler type things go wherever they fit best.
H was adamant that Xmas morning always be in our house just us. So we never had to travel. I loved that. But now we are in that transition period. We won’t be home for Xmas - overseas if the plane leaves on time - so the stocking aren’t going with us. I’m not doing anything with them this year. A bit sad, but we are looking forward to the trip more!
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I hope someone fills your stocking! And that you don’t have to do your own haha. There was a bit of a tiff in our household one year when the stocking filler was mad about how their stocking sat empty unless they filled it themself. That doesn’t happen anymore.
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Great idea from my perspective, but I think I would get some serious pushback on that! Our stockings have traveled all over with us - they’ve been from Tokyo to Hawaii, Cuba, Florida, everywhere we’ve happened to find ourselves on Christmas morning.
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