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Christmas stockings are an essential part to one’s Christmas holiday decor. After all, where will Santa put your small gifts if you don’t have a stocking hung by the chimney? There are many Christmas stocking designs to be bought today. The tradition actually started a couple of centuries ago with a sock or a bag. It took quite a while to get the traditional stocking design we have today. Now many of the Christmas stockings are made with cotton or poly materials with cute sayings, character heads, or beautiful embroidered pictures. Some families go for the silly with Tweety or other animated characters. Others may make a Christmas stocking each time a child is born. This stocking usually has the name and year the child was born. The Christmas stockings are then stuffed with small toys or gifts like jewellery, candy, and other things that might get lost under the tree, but fit well in the sock style bag. The history of the Christmas stocking can be traced back to ancient times when a noble had three daughters. This noble did not have a great deal of happiness because his wife died. The daughters had to take care of the running of the house, but the father did not have a lot of income, which meant the daughters had no dowry. The daughters were washing socks one evening and left them by the fire to dry. It is said Santa came to them, moved because of their lack of fortune and therefore inability to get a husband. He left three gold bags in the socks to help the daughters marry. This myth based in truth is how the Christmas stocking came to be. The tradition of Christmas stockings has grown even further in the years. It is said that a child who is not good all year will find instead of gifts in the stockings a lump of coal. The tradition does help keep children in line to be good all year, with small disruptions. Today many families don’t have fireplaces, but they still hang stockings on the wall or other areas to help Santa. In some traditions the gifts placed in the stocking should resemble the five sensory organs. In most cases the gifts are food, perfumes, or jewellery. Today some offer gift cards for stocking gifts. It just depends on your own history as to what will be found within.
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