Christmas Traditions: Stockings

The tradition of hanging stockings by the chimney can be traced to an early legend of the original St. Nicholas in the 3rd Century. The legend tells of how he tossed a small bag of gold down the chimney belonging to a family with three daughters that needed help. The gold landed in a stocking that was hung up to dry.

In Holland, the stocking tradition took the form of a shoe. As early as the sixteenth century, children placed wooden shoes by the hearth on the night of St. Nicholas's arrival. The shoes were filled with straw and sugar, a meal for the saint's gift-laden donkey. In return, Nicholas would insert a small treat into each clog. However, if the children had been bad, they might expect a lump of coal instead. Today’s clogs are usually filled with candies and small toys.

Clement C. Moore seems to have popularized the American replacement of the shoe with the stocking in his 1822 poem A Visit From St. Nicholas: “stockings hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there”. American author Theodore Ledyard Cuyler wrote of how his family hung stockings at the fireplace for Santa Claus at their farm in western New York in the 1820's.

Hanging stockings was a more prevalent custom prior to the popularization of the Christmas tree. In the mid to late-1800’s, a debate as to whether one should observe the custom of hanging stockings versus decorating a tree with presents underneath continued for many years. Though the stockings were filled by St. Nicholas in Clement C. Moore’s poem, a Christmas tree was not mentioned. In the books Kriss Kringle's Book, and Kriss Kringle's Christmas Tree - A holiday present for boys and girls, Kriss Kringle ignored the stockings hung by the fireplace and hung his presents on the branches of the small tree that he brought with him. The debate over which custom should be followed soon gave way to the idea of having both.

The stockings that were hung by the fireplace, were initially, and remained for many years, those actually worn by the children. Today’s specially produced Christmas stockings are much bigger, allowing for more and larger-sized presents and treats.