Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Traditions: The CHRISTMAS STOCKING

 By Mary Davis

I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have my Christmas stocking. My Great-Grandma Zola (GG, on my mom’s side), crocheted it for me before I can remember. I always had this stocking growing up.

 

My Christmas Stocking!

 
Each year, my mom—er—I mean Santa—filled it with the same kinds of things.
~A candy cane of some sort stuck out of the top—some times a regular one, some times one of those big, thick, straight ones that were about a foot long and as big around as a closet rod or one of those plastic tube canes filled with another kind of candy like M&Ms.
~Other candy—often Almond Roca. Mmmm!
~A small gift or two.
~A variety of shell-dwelling nuts.
~And deep down in the toe an orange! Always an orange.

 

It wouldn’t be Christmas without the orange in the stocking.

My siblings and I immediately dumped the nuts back into the nut bowl on the table and unwrapped the gifts while eating the candy.

But where did this tradition of Christmas stockings come from?

I found two different origins of this tradition.

The first is probably the most well known as being associated with Saint Nicholas. Nicolas was a nobleman born March 15, 270 AD and died December 6, 343 AD. He became a Christian bishop in Myra in ancient Greece. He used his wealth to help the poor. He heard about a merchant who had lost his fortune. He had three daughters, and because he had no money for dowries for them, they wouldn’t be able to marry and would likely have to become prostitutes. Wanting to help, Nicholas went under the cover of night and threw three bags of gold in through the window, one for each daughter as a dowry. Legend says one or more of them landed in one of the girls’ stocking.



Another source is a Dutch legend. A Netherlands folklore tells of a man called Sinterklaas and his assistant Zwarte Piet (Black Pete) who would annually dock in different towns. After disembarking, they traveled around on a white steed and a mule. Children impatiently waited for them and would put hay and carrots in their wooden shoes for the animals. Sinterklaas, Zwarte Piete, the horse, and the mule would enjoy the treats. Sinterklaas would reward the children’s kindness and devotion by leaving small gifts, like candy, miniature toys, ornaments, and nuts in shells. When Dutch immigrants settled in America, they shared this tradition with their neighbors. Sinterklaas eventually became Santa Claus, and stockings replaced the wooden shoes.


 

My guess is that our current tradition is a morph and evolution of these two.

Does your family do stockings?

Merry Christmas!

 
THIMBLES AND THREADS: 4 Love Stories Are Quilted Into Broken Lives

Love Stitched into Four Women’s Lives

Enjoy four historical romances that celebrate the arts of sewing and quilting. When four women put needle and thread to fabric, will their talents lead to love? #thimblesandthreadscollection
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“Bygones” by Mary Davis (1st Place 2020 Selah Awards winner)
Texas, 1884
Drawn to the new orphan boy in town, Tilly Rockford soon became the unfortunate victim of a lot of Orion Dunbar’s mischievous deeds in school. Can Tilly figure out how to truly forgive the one who made her childhood unbearable? Now she doesn’t even know she holds his heart. Can this deviant orphan-train boy turned man make up for the misdeeds of his youth and win Tilly’s heart before another man steals her away?

Other stories in this collection:
“The Bridal Shop” by Grace Hitchcock,

“Mending Sarah’s Heart” by Suzanne Norquist,

and “Binding Up Wounds” by Liz Tolsma


MARY DAVIS s a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both historical and contemporary themes. Her 2018 titles include; Holly and Ivy in A Bouquet of Brides CollectionCourting Her Amish HeartThe Widow’s PlightCourting Her Secret Heart , “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in The MISSAdventure Brides Collection , and Courting Her Prodigal Heart . 2019 titles include The Daughter's Predicament and Bygones in Thimbles and Threads. She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.
Mary lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-five years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:




8 comments:

  1. Very interesting! I was unaware of the Dutch tradition. My husband and I use the stockings from our childhoods, but only put a couple of token gifts inside. I love your crocheted stocking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I love my stocking too. We still use our stockings and put small things in it as well.
      Blessings,
      Mary
      =0)

      Delete
  2. My childhood stocking was stuffed similarly to yours. As an adult, filling a stocking became more fun to me than the actual gifts, and I took on stockings for my parents and my mother in law for many years. Because I sometimes had to mail them I stopped including the orange, but I had great fun finding things to stuff those stockings with.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It is fun! My daughter enjoyed teaching her boyfriend and then husband about Christmas stockings as his family had never done them.
      Blessings,
      Mary
      =0)

      Delete
  3. For me my Christmas stocking as a child were those plastic net store bought ones.My mom didn't sew or crochet so there were no homemade. The net ones were very popular when I was a child. We always had oranges in a bowl at Christmas. It wasn't until I had my own family that we started filling cloth stockings purchased from the store ourselves. My husband insisted we forego the orange because he thought it was silly growing up. He too had a bowl of oranges on the table. As a child he didn't understand why Santa gave him an orange. He would use his father's sock for Santa to fill it was bigger. Thanks for your nice post. I just purchased the novella collection. Merry Christmas!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! I hope you enjoy the book!
      I remember those plastic net stockings! =0)
      I don't think it matters whether a stocking is handmade, store bought cloth ones, or the plastic net ones, I just think it's fun to have a Christmas stocking.
      Blessings,
      Mary =0)

      Delete
  4. Growing up my family did stockings on St. Nicholas Day on December 6th, as part of the German tradition of St. Nicholas filling the children's shoes that night. We just used stocking instead. I loved this

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wasn't aware of St. Nicholas Day until a couple of years ago. I think that's great that your family kept that tradition alive.
      Blessings,
      Mary
      =0)

      Delete