Day Six

When do you hang your Christmas stockings? Do you hang them as soon as you decorate for Christmas? Do you hang them only on Christmas Eve? Do you have stockings for your pets? Do you omit family members who won’t be there on Christmas morning or just the ones on the naughty list?

A better question might be where do you hang them? I know that tradition says from the mantle, over the fireplace. Does it surprise anyone that more years than not we find other places to hang them. Not doing Santa frees up some of that traditional space. We’ve hung them on bedroom doors, from curtain rods,  on stair rails, backs of chairs... Why do we have stockings if we don’t do Santa? That’s a valid question. Kathleen says it is because she didn’t know how to fit into my secular Christmas world. Ha!

Last year we defied our tradition (or conformed to everyone else’s tradition) and hung stockings on the fireplace. I admit that I left these hanging up for much much longer than I should have. It made me smile every single time I looked at them, so I left them up until Kathleen couldn’t stand it any more.

What’s so special about these stockings? Well they are not the ones Kat cross stitched when we were newlyweds, they aren’t the ones she made in ‘93 or ‘95, or the needlepoint ones great aunt Becky made the boys. The ones we hung last year were simple tan and cream stockings Kat got off amazon for like $20 for 10.  Why so many? My sister Jenni and her three kids were here for Christmas, plus my family of 4 + our bonus son. I just figured matching stockings for everyone would be fun. Plus the neutral colors matched my beach house Christmas theme. 

I hadn’t planned on decorating them, but then I had the younger kids at the house a few days before Christmas while Jenni and Kathleen were at the store and everyone was absolutely dying from boredom, because it was soooo boring at my house. So I busted out some colored sharpies and let the kids write their names and decorate the cuffs. First it was just Christian, Naomi, and Paul (because he’s a good sport). However before long Matthew, Keenan, and even the Bonus Son had grabbed some markers and were personalizing their stockings.  Getting those three to stop video gaming and do anything family related can be next to impossible! It wasn’t the most complicated craft, or the most detailed but for almost 20 minutes I had all the children acting like children together, and it made me so happy. 

So, could there be prettier stockings? Sure. Would I trade these for anything? Absolutely not!  I love those kids so very much, and I absolutely loved having them here, laughing and being a family. Do me a favor? Do something together with your family if you have the chance.