Stocking traditions - Christmas - Page 3

[boringscreenname]

We never did stockings growing up, so I have no traditions to go off. We each had a stocking but they were never filled, only used as Christmas decorations. This is the first time I'll be doing stockings. I don't plan on wrapping anything, I hate wrapping, and I have to work Christmas Eve night, so it's easier for me to just fill up DS's stocking.

Growing up we also opened all our presents on Christmas Eve night, so my parents could sleep in, and we could play with our stuff. I plan on having DS open his gifts Christmas morning.

[onemoremom]

Stocking stuffers don't get wrapped here. DS is free to dump his stocking and check out the goodies as early as he pleases on Christmas morning. He can eat the food (chocolates, nuts, etc..), play with the little toys, etc.. (he's also free to try out the cool new spiderman toothpaste and try on the socks, but I don't anticipate that so much )

Basically stockings, along with any gifts that aren't wrapped (sometimes one or two) are free for him to check out and enjoy whenever he gets up. That should be plenty to occupy him at least long enough for the sun to come up and for mom to start the coffee Worked when I was a kid anyway! I loved that there was something easily accessible for me to enjoy while I waited for the adults to get up and be ready.

I can't imagine wrapping all those little things! I also can't imagine being a kid and trying to get into those tiny packages, sounds frustrating.

[dahlialia]

Originally Posted by InMediasRes

I don't wrap the stocking gifts, but usually because they are weird shapes and look worse wrapped than not.

We always find this to be the best part of stocking gifts - trying to guess what each oddly shaped little parcel is, before opening!

[StephandOwen]

We do gifts under the tree then either stockings then breakfast or we do gifts under the tree, breakfast, stockings. Usually it's breakfast then stockings because ds is too overstimulated with everything else by that point so when it calms down later in the day he gets to his stocking.

ETA- no stocking stuffer is wrapped.

[limette]

Originally Posted by lach

Clever! I still remember noticing that Santa's handwriting was an awful lot like my dad's, and a sudden dawning realization that maybe what my friend Robbie had said about Santa was true...

Yeah I remember asking my mom why Santa's writing was identical to hers.

We don't wrap gifts that go in the stockings and we don't dump them out on the floor, just take the stuff out one at a time before the other presents.

I love stockings and it's my fav part of Christmas morning. Maybe because I always have some idea of what I'm getting but the stocking stuff is always a complete surprise.

[butterfly_mommy]

I love stockings (one time DH made me a stocking for my birthday in March )

Christmas Eve we open a gift and it is always an ornament to hang on the tree. I wrap some gifts in the stocking and leave some unwrapped. We take turns opening our stocks as soon as we wake up, our stocking are left by Santa in our bedroom and we sit on the bed to open them. Then we usually get some coffee and open tree presents. then we go upstairs to my SIL's place and my MIL/FIL come over and we have "fancy breakfast" as my niece and nephew call it. Then open gifts from and to my in-laws and then we go to a movie on Christmas afternoon. We see my family a week before Christmas for "phony Christmas" and then again on Boxing Day.

I love the new jammies on Christmas Eve night for photo ops on Christmas morning. I think I may incorporate that.

[Storm Bride]

Originally Posted by limette

We don't wrap gifts that go in the stockings and we don't dump them out on the floor, just take the stuff out one at a time before the other presents.

This is what we do. When I was little, my parents didn't have stockings for each other, and we kids were allowed to just dump our stockings or whatever before mom and dad got up. As much as I loved it, I've discovered that I really love watching my kids empty their stockings, so they get us up, and we all come downstairs and do our stockings together.

I love stockings and it's my fav part of Christmas morning. Maybe because I always have some idea of what I'm getting but the stocking stuff is always a complete surprise.

Stockings rock. It just wouldn't (didn't) feel like Christmas without one. That said, I love stuffing them even more than I love opening them.

[claras_mom]

Originally Posted by noobmom

Those of you who do stockings for the kids, I have two questions:

1) Do you wrap the presents in the stockings or just stick them in there? I don't mean the things like oranges and such, but if you have a little toy.

In general, I don't wrap. I sometimes fold items I'm sending into tissue paper, which the stocking filler can then keep or not.

2) When do you open the stocking relative to when you open the gifts under the tree?

Stockings are first, but we're not really hard-core about it. Our family's Christmas breakfast is usually stollen and coffee, so it's not a full-on, stop everything meal; just something to eat while opening.

I was thinking that we might do the stocking before breakfast and the gifts afterwards.

If I were planning a cooked breakfast, this is how I'd do it.

[nolansmummy]

Originally Posted by noobmom

Those of you who do stockings for the kids, I have two questions:

1) Do you wrap the presents in the stockings or just stick them in there? I don't mean the things like oranges and such, but if you have a little toy.

2) When do you open the stocking relative to when you open the gifts under the tree?

I was thinking that we might do the stocking before breakfast and the gifts afterwards. In DH's family they do "Christmas Eve gift" which is when one person gets to open a present on Christmas Eve.

1.We don't wrap the presents in the stockings, too much work. My mom never did either and neither did mil, so i suppose its tradition not too

2. The kids get to open the stockings as soon as they get up, well, anytime after 5am. they can do this without us being awake. My mom did this for us as kids and i think its genius. They get a little taste of Christmas, and we don't have to get up at 6 with them.


For Christmas eve, in the past we have opened our pjs. This year i'm going to wrap up a family basket- pjs, a book, a Christmas movie, some cookies and hot cocoa or something like that and a small gift for each kid. I think it will be fun.

On christmas a.m, we get up around 7-8am (depending on how early kids are up) then we immediately go downstairs and open the presents under the tree. Breakfast is eaten afterward and is something simple, like muffins or cranberry bread with fruit.

[treemom2]

Well, we don't wrap the presents in the stocking (they are usually little cheap things--hair things, yo yos, pens/pencils, an envelope of yen for a yearly shopping trip on New Years, etc. . .). We hang the stockings until Christmas eve then when they are full they go on the couch. Santa usually brings each child a bigger gift (DD is getting a digital camera and DS is getting a telescope) and a family gift (this year a DVD player for the car--hopefully it will stop the fighting in the car) which will be all loaded up and ready to go with a bow under the tree. We open all gifts from family/friends on Solstice (we don't celebrate Christmas--except Santa) and when the kids wake up in the morning they can run downstairs and dump the stockings (which I'll hear since we all co-room). If we put junk food in their stockings, we do ask them to wait until after breakfast before eating them (but don't stress over it too much since we go sledding after breakfast anyway). I do tend to get up earlier than my children so I just pop the breakfast casserole (ham and asparagus bread thing) in the oven so it's nice and ready when they get up.

[Kidzaplenty]

Stocking gifts are wrapped sometimes, and sometimes not. For us, stockings are always the very last thing we do. Mostly, I guess because there is always sweet treats in in and we did not want the children eating them all up before they even got to the gifts.

[BetsyS]

Originally Posted by ASusan

If you have a child, you don't get a stocking! That's the plan, anyway!

How very, very sad!! Stockings are always a MUCH better part of Christmas than any present could be.

[terrainthailand]

How we did it when I was a child: no gifts Christmas eve, we would wake our parents up Christmas morning and then wait at the top of the stairs while they got coffee and did whatever they needed to do (after reading all of these responses, I am assuming this might be too much to expect of my children ). Some times we did gifts first, sometimes stockings. Breakfast was after. Some stocking gifts were wrapped, some not.

I have no idea how we will do it in our family, but I like the Christmas Eve jammies idea. I also kind of like the idea of not wrapping Santa gifts, but I really enjoy wrapping!!

[east carolina]

Here stocking are for St. Nicholas Day (December 6th). So we hang them up before Dec. 6th and stuff them on the night of the 5th to be unstuffed on the morning of the 6th. Small gifts are unwrapped and usually chocolate and fruit bulk up the stocking.

Gifts under the tree are wrapped and are opened after dinner on the 24th.