Added: 01/05/2007 |
Ideas for Decorating With Your Christmas Stocking and History Surrounding ItGermany is where the Christmas stocking tradition began. In the old days, children used to wash out their socks and hang them by the fire to dry. Poor children only had maybe two good pairs of stockings for everyday wear and would use one of these as a Christmas stocking on Christmas Eve for Santa to fill with goodies. As times began to change, Christmas stockings were made to use just for the purpose of hanging for Christmas decorating every year. Children would still hang their beautiful stockings by the fireplace on Christmas Eve in anticipation of a visit from Santa; he would fill them with fruit, nuts, books and toys. This is just one of many tales that have emerged through the ages.
One of the oldest legends states that Saint Nicholas would leave the toys, candy and even some coins in poor children’s stockings which were hung by the fireplace to dry after a good washing. Saint Nicholas knew that the children would find the gifts on Christmas morning when they went to put their stockings on for the days wear.
Most of the legends and stories surrounding the Christmas stocking and its use in Christmas decorating are very similar in the telling and their contents.
The legend of children who were naughty getting coal instead of goodies in their stockings is said to have started in Italy.
Some helpful ideas on decorating your stockings to make them your own and unique from others are as follows: Buy a pre-made Christmas stocking, without any kind of decoration on it. Use glitter-glue in your favorite color and write your name wherever you want on the stocking, let stoking dry for about 3 hours to be sure it will not get messed up when hanging.
You can also use letters which can be ironed onto the stocking. Choose letters in the color you will want, place them in the position you’d like and press gently with an iron to make sure they adhere to the fabric. Isn’t that simple and easy?
Using fabric with Christmas scenes or Christmas decorations on them is another unique way of decorating your stocking too. Buy the fabric with the patterns you like, use craft scissors to cut out the piece of fabric you want to use. Buy iron-on transfer paper at your local fabric or craft store and iron-on to the underside of the fabric you intend on using. Peel paper off fabric and position on stocking where you want it, then gently press iron over fabric. Fabric will then be adhered to stocking. You can use fabric paints to go around the edges of fabric and to add your own kind of decorations to it too.
To help aid you in the hanging of your Christmas stocking along with your Christmas decorating you can use ribbons in an assortment of colors or bough’s of Pine along your mantle. Adding a fresh Pine wreath above your fireplace also adds a lot of holiday cheer, not to mention the wonderful aroma of the Pine throughout the season’s festivities.
If you lack a fireplace and mantle to hang your Christmas stockings, don’t fear. There are other ways to hang them for Santa Claus’s visit on Christmas Eve night. You can place them on the backs of your chairs; you can tie them to your stairway banisters or hang on the bedposts of your bed. Placing it on the Christmas tree is also another great and simple idea. Santa would be sure to find it nestled there.
The easiest and most simple way specifically for stocking hanging, they just sit right on your mantle and your stockings loop goes right on it.
You can also use garland attached across the mantle, just make sure to secure it with a stapler or some small nails to keep it from falling down. You could use thumbtacks also. Attach old timed wooden clothespins, which are still available today, to the garland either leaving them natural or painting them in holiday colors. Just clip your Christmas stocking right on to the clothespins and there you go.
The way mostly everyone hangs there stockings though is simply with small nails attached to the mantle and then the stockings are placed on them. The nails can then be covered by tinsel or boughs of garland hung around the fireplace.
Whatever method you use for your Christmas stocking and your Christmas decorating, just remember the joy and love this wonderful time of year brings to each of us. Also the importance of giving to those who are less fortunate than us and helping make their Christmas a very merry one. After all, that is the one lesson we should all remember at Christmas and everyday thereafter.
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