Most people will put up Christmas stockings during the Christmas season. If you have a fireplace, they are often hanging from the mantle. These resemble flat fabric boots, often red in color, and will have a white frilly top from which the stocking will hang.
The tradition for most people that celebrate the Christmas season is to fill the stockings with small gifts. Although these are typically used for the benefit of children, it is customary for adults to also exchange gifts using these stockings.
There is a trend that is becoming more prominent which is the use of big Christmas stockings instead of small ones. Let’s discuss this trend, as well as the origins of this tradition which seems to have begun centuries ago.
The Origins Of The Christmas Stocking
There are many origin stories regarding Christmas stockings. One of the most popular revolves around a man by the name of St. Nicholas. While going through a local town, he noticed that the villagers were in distress and he wanted to help them out.
As the story goes, he would slide down chimneys into houses, placing gifts in recently laundered stockings. This tradition took hold, and continues today, primarily benefiting young children during the Christmas season.
Why Do Many People Use Big Stockings For Christmas?
The use of larger Christmas stockings has been gaining traction. For many decades, small stockings were used. However, it is now quite common for children to have exceptionally large or long stockings, all of which will be filled when they wake up for Christmas.
Parents will place very small toys into the stockings, and the children will have fun pulling them out. Perhaps it was originally designed to simply provide more small and inexpensive gifts. However in our technological age, many of the smaller gifts for Christmas tend to be very expensive.
Where Can You Get These Larger Stockings?
Due to the popularity of this trend, more businesses than ever before are manufacturing larger Christmas stockings. They are not just larger, but also much more diverse in their styles, often using many different colors and patterns on the exterior.
All of them will be designed with a loop at the top which will make it easy to hang just like the smaller versions. They may also have pictures of reindeer, Santa Claus, and even snowmen on the exterior, as well as depictions of Christmas trees, snowflakes, and even festive and heartfelt words.
By simply searching for larger Christmas stockings online, you will find a multitude of websites that have them for sale. You will also be able to locate these in your local town or city, typically a month or two prior to Christmas.
Why Buy These?
The main benefit to using these larger stockings is that it tends to make children happy. Parents enjoy providing their children with as many gifts as possible, and stuffing a stocking that is exceptionally large will certainly improve their spirits.
It also is reflective of the tradition of giving as depicted in the story of St. Nicholas. However, smaller stockings for Christmas will continue to be used. The larger ones are simply trending right now and will likely continue into the foreseeable future.
Big Christmas stockings are really no different than the smaller variety. The only true difference is that more Christmas presents can be placed inside of them.
If you are a parent, you will enjoy the many minutes where your children will happily struggle to pull out all of their small new toys. It’s a great way to provide excellent memories.
You can also order these from companies that will place their names on them. This will make the Christmas season for your kids even more special. From a general perspective, however, these larger Christmas stockings are now a normal part of the holiday season.