The History of the Christmas Stocking

There are several versions, depending on who you ask & where you look...but here is one look at it:

Taken from World Of Christmas.net
Come Christmas time and all the kids start hanging colorful stockings above the fireplace mantle. The tradition of hanging stockings is being practiced since decades. However, most of the people do not know the exact history of Christmas stockings. They are still in the dark as to how the custom came into practice. For all such people, we are providing the legends surrounding the history and origin of Christmas stocking.



The Dutch Theory
As per the Dutch theory, the tradition of Christmas stocking was introduced in America by the Dutch. It is said that in the 16th Century, the children staying in Holland kept their clogs, filled with straw, by the hearth for the reindeer. At the same time, they placed a treat for 'Sinterclass' (Santa Claus) near the fireplace in the house. As a return gift, the Sinterclass used to leave some gifts for the children. With time, the clogs became stockings and Sinterclass became Santa Claus.

The Nobleman Theory
A nobleman and his wife had three daughters and they were living quite happily. One day, the wife contracted some fatal illness, which led to her untimely demise. Devastated by his wife's death, the nobleman squandered all his wealth and property. Since he was left with no money, he had to move into a peasant's cottage, along with his daughters. Soon, the time came for the daughters to get married. However, the father had lost all his wealth and could not afford to give any dowry.

As time passed, the father started getting more and more worried about getting his daughters married. One day, St. Nicholas of Myra happened to pass through the nobleman's village and heard the villagers discussing what the father was going through. St Nicholas knew that the father would be too proud to accept money from him. He decided to wait till dark and then, went to the nobleman's house and threw three bags of gold coins from the chimney.


The same evening, the daughters of the nobleman had washed their clothes and had hung their stockings by the fireplace. The bag of gold coins dropped into the stockings, one bag for each daughter. When the family members woke up in the morning, they found the money in their stockings. The father utilized the money for marrying away his daughters, each with a generous dowry. Soon the villagers came to know of St. Nicholas' generosity and started hanging their stockings by the fireplace.
 
 
Wikipedia adds to the above story in saying,
This led to the custom of children hanging stockings or putting out shoes, eagerly awaiting gifts from Saint Nicholas. Sometimes the story is told with gold balls instead of bags of gold. That is why three gold balls, sometimes represented as oranges, are one of the symbols for St. Nicholas. And so St. Nicholas is a gift-giver.



A tradition that began in many European countries, originally, children simply used one of their everyday socks, but eventually special Christmas stockings were created for this purpose. The Christmas stocking custom is derived from the Germanic figure Odin. According to Phyllis Siefker, children would place their boots, filled with carrots, straw, or sugar, near the chimney for Odin's flying horse, Sleipnir, to eat. Odin would reward those children for their kindness by replacing Sleipnir's food with gifts or candy. This practice, she claims, survived in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands after the adoption of Christianity and became associated with Saint Nicholas as a result of the process of Christianization. Today, stores carry a large variety of styles and sizes of Christmas stockings, and Christmas stockings are also a popular homemade craft.

Many families create their own Christmas stockings with each family member's name applied to the stocking so that Santa will know which stocking belongs to which family member.

A 'Square Stocking' is a box sent by the charity Uk4u-Thanks! to UK servicemen who are overseas or injured at Christmas.


PlumpStocking.com also agrees with this story.

HERE is a personal story-telling about the first Christmas stocking, from the grandfather of Sam Hoffer's husband. Her blog is My Carolina Kitchen.

Although the above story is now just a tale of folklore, many have come to use the stocking as a decoration and space to fill with "stocking stuffers" or presents of the sort. It's another way for children to receive more.