The tradition of hanging stockings by the fireplace during Christmas time dates back to the 19th century. According to one popular legend, a recently widowed man and father of three girls was having a tough time making ends meet. St. Nicholas, who was wandering through the town where the man lived, heard villagers discussing the family’s plight. He wanted to help but knew the man would refuse any kind of charity directly. Instead, one night, he slid down the chimney of the family’s house and filled the girls’ recently laundered stockings, which happened to be drying by the fire, with gold coins; and then he disappeared.
As far back as 1823, when Clement Clarke Moore wrote “A Visit From Saint Nicholas,” stockings were hung near the fireplace, awaiting a visit from Santa Claus. At the end of the poem, St. Nicholas “fill’d all the stockings; then turn’d with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose”.
Stockings have been an essential part of the Christmas tradition for centuries. Children hang their stockings over the mantle on Christmas Eve, hoping that Santa Claus will fill them with small toys, candy, fruit, coins or other small gifts when he arrives.
