The History Of The Christmas Stocking

The classic film “Santa Clause Is Coming To Town” would have you believe that the tradition of Christmas stockings began when young Chris Kringle was attempting to hide presents for the village children from the Burgermiester. There is some truth to the legend as the origins of the Christmas stocking are intertwined with the legend of St. Nicholas.

The legend of Saint Nicholas is believed to be based on a 4th century Bishop named Nicholas of Myra. As legend has it, he was travelling through a village when he overheard the villagers discussing a local man who had become widowed. This man and his three daughters were very poor and he could not afford the dowries for his daughters to become married, which at the time meant that the girls would become homeless upon his passing and unable to support themselves. That night, Nicholas dropped three bags of gold down the chimney. The daughter’s stockings were hanging by the fire to dry and each one was filled with a bag of gold, saving the entire family from destitution. As the story spread, it became a custom to hang stockings on St. Nicholas Day and later on at Christmas Eve. Saint Nicholas was rumored to have continued the tradition of leaving gifts for the poor, which is why the legends of Saint Nicholas, later known as Santa Clause, became so popular.

The tradition of Christmas stockings are older than the German Christmas Tree. In fact, when Christmas trees first started appearing in the late 1800’s in the United States, there was debate about how the Christmas Tree was replacing the tradition of stockings in some households in New England and how the new idea was erasing a holiday classic. Some people were outraged. In 1883 the New York Times wrote an article about their distaste for the Christmas tree and how it symbolized greed as it was introduced into the States because more presents could fit under a tree than inside a stocking. It appears that the commercialization of Christmas is nearly as old as the traditions themselves.

“The extent to which, of late years, the Christmas tree has superseded the Christmas stocking has been seriously lamented by persons of artistic and devout tastes. The stocking was for so many years associated with Christmas without seemed inappropriately and insufficiently celebrated. The German Christmas tree — a rootless and lifeless corpse — was never worthy of the day, and no one can say how far the spirit of rationalism with begins with the denial of Santa Claus, the supernatural filler of stockings, and ends with the denial of all things supernatural, has been fostered by the German Christmas trees, which have been so widely adopted in this country.” -The New York Times, 1883

The History Of Stocking Stuffers

Did you ever wonder why oranges are often found as stocking stuffers? Some legends say that the bags of gold Saint Nicholas put down the chimney were actually three gold balls instead of coins. The orange symbolizes a ball of gold. That is how the orange became a symbol of St. Nicholas. Citrus fruits at the time were harder to come by, especially in Northern regions and were a rare and expensive treat. Symbolically, they represent the gold for it’s color and for it’s cost. They became special traditional gifts. In the Edwardian through the Victorian eras, gifts of fruit were common and local fruits, nuts and foods were also used as decorations, which is why you still see garlands or ornaments made from dried apples, oranges, popcorn, or fresh cranberries.They were a luxury that made a thoughtful and appreciated holiday gift.

In the 12th century, nuns, inspired by Saint Nicholas, gifted stockings with fruit and nuts to the poor. Which is why nuts, fruits, and candy became traditional stocking suffers. Along with these edible gifts, small toys and games became the custom for children.

By the Victorian era, the Christmas stocking was the most important gifting tradition of the holidays. It held the recipients main gifts; usually something to eat and a small toy. Many gifts were handmade. People didn’t traditionally do a lot of bigger gifting until later when the Christmas tree became more popular. Stocking gifts besides fruits and nuts included jams and preserves, spices, pennies, coal (for good luck! Not for bad children), peg dolls, paper dolls, painted toy animals, art supplies, paper windmills, needlepoint gifts, sewing supplies, marbles, and wooden toys. Women would often be gifted things such as pincushions, fans, aprons, handkerchiefs, and perfume. For men; scarves, cigar cases, tobacco, and homemade cookies.

Source: Smithsonian (1918)

These traditions differ by country and region, but many of the traditions are similar and originated around the same time. Some of the legends involve shoes by the fire or a door instead of stockings. Some traditions have the stockings hanging on a bed post instead of a fireplace mantle. These days, instead of using everyday stockings, decorative stockings for this purpose became a tradition in the early 1800s. The first recorded mention of these decorative stockings comes in the poem The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore. In 1809, the first written record of stockings in the United States comes from a book by Washington Irving; the Knickerbocker History of New York.

The Christmas Spirit

The tradition of the Christmas stocking is tied with the beginning of Christmas as we know it in Europe and the United States. Many of these traditions came out of Germany and Scandinavia. Through the stories about traditional Christmases in Europe, the author Washington Irving, brought these Christmas Traditions to New York and New England in the early 1800s. In fact, his classic Christmas tales were behind the inspiration for Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. Irving’s detailed and heartwarming stories about the spirit of Christmas set the scene for Dickens and inspired him to make his ghostly tale.

The author of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is best known for his spooky Halloween story, but Washington Irving was the one who brought the legends of St. Nicholas and the Christmas Tree to the United States. In a way, he is the true father Christmas of the United States. His classic retellings of European traditions inspired thousands to recreate them here. And today it doesn’t feel like Christmas without them. He didn’t invent these traditions, but he preserved them in writing and even created society events to make them well known. Many Christmas celebrations are credited to him and his St. Nicholas Society of New York City that he managed from 1835-1841. Yet, a couple decades before, a Dutch society held a festival in New York City in honor of St. Nicholas and stockings were recorded at the event. It is likely that these traditions traveled with earlier Americans as they migrated to the states. Irving’s writing and “sketches” as he called them, shared the traditions with the masses and endeared them to Americans across the country.

Before Washington Irving gave Christmas the traditional and heartwarming reputation it has today, it was often banned or discouraged by officials in England and the US because it was used as primarily a festival where heavy drinking and shenanigans occurred. According to the Bible, Jesus was born in September and not in December and the December 25th was traditionally a pagan holiday to celebrate the gods who were believed to have been born on December 25th. As Christianity took over Europe, many of the pagan holidays were erased through the Christians taking over their holidays and traditions and claiming them as their own.

People took over the day with wild parties and heavy drinking to erase the origins of the pagan holidays, much like how Americans have claimed Mardi Gras and Saint Patrick’s Day as their own with wild parties and caricatures of the original holidays. Washington Irving gave the stolen holiday a new reputation and restored integrity into the day. In a way, finalizing the theft of the holiday from the pagans, but also creating a new meaning and purpose into the day, a holiday spirit that many cherish today.