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| The Tabor girls - Christmas 1974 |
I actually have the stocking I used when I was a little girl. My mom made it out of felt. Each one of us had our names on ours and a little toy pinned to the top. Mine was a Santa head. You would pull the cord at the bottom and Santa's eyes would open and the toy/pin would light up. It's still attached to my stocking and the eyes still open, but not without difficulty.
When our oldest was born my husband and I went to K-Mart and looked at stockings. I had little time (and skills) at the time to make stockings for everyone so we found pre-made stockings that we liked. We bought four since we knew we'd have at least one more kiddo at some point. I got felt at the craft store and cut out letters to glue our names on our stockings. It wasn't quite like mom's, but the intent is there.
We didn't hang our stocking by the fireplace. We just laid them on the tile by our lovely fake fireplace. I'm sure my parents were most likely concerned that having the stockings hung would just be temptation for us to pull at them and pull something down on our heads!
We open our stockings first thing in the morning...before presents. It gives parents time to enjoy that first crucial cup of coffee while somewhat appeasing the kids' desire to get into some goodies. I can appreciate that more as an adult.
Where do you put your stockings and when do you "open" them? Is it a new tradition or is it what you used to do as a kid?
