December 16, 2010

St. Nicholas Day A.K.A. Stocking Day

Has anyone ever heard of stocking day? Before I met my husband I never had either!
In my family you get your stocking Christmas morning while you wait for your mom to finish cooking breakfast. It's a stall tactic to keep us occupied long enough to not realize we were not able to open the gifts under the tree yet! ;) As we got older this tradition stayed the same. We always get to open our stockings first. They were always filled with candy, lotto tickets, $5 gift cards to Dunkin Donuts or McDonalds, and other small fun items.

Okay, back to stocking day. My husbands family celebrates this day on December 6th every year. It's kinda like a mini Christmas at the beginning of the month! Here is what came in my kids stockings from my in-laws this year:
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I finally asked my mother-in-law what this tradition is all about and she told me when she was younger she always celebrated St. Nicholas Day. Every year on the 5th they would put their stockings out (or in history people would put their shoes out) and on the 6th they would get to open them. She said she remembered always getting an orange in the bottom of her sock and what a big treat it was to get fresh fruit. She admittedly goes a bit over board for the grand babies, but loves to spoil them! ;)

We are so blessed and I am definitely aware of it (and very grateful for it). My kids are also very spoiled because we now do both stocking day and a candy filled, small items stocking on Christmas morning!
How do you handle all the old and new traditions? Do you and your family combine your holiday traditions?

13 comments:

Alicia xoxxo said...

Great idea! I just posted this morning about my family's traditions! I really like this idea of stocking day! Maybe when we have a baby we will incorporate this tradition into our other traditions! My family has a lot of traditions, which I just love! We did get stockings when we were younger. One at my grandparents house and one to entertain us on Christmas morning at my parents while we waited to open presents! At the bottom of our stocking there was AWLAYS an orange. My grandma and grandpa started that tradition.

vintch said...

what a fun, new tradition for your family! stockings are one of my favorite parts of christmas! they are so compact, but you can really feel the love that goes into making them. it takes a lot of thought to come up with tiny things to stuff in there:) love it!

Natalie {Designer Bags and Dirty Diapers} said...

I love that idea! We might have to start that tradition next year! My parents still do huge stockings for us Christmas morning and I love it! Now mine is usually filled with make-up, jewelry, gift cards, all sorts of great stuff. I will def be continuing that tradition with my little man!

Lindsay Hosanna said...

I love the little socks that look like socks and shoes they got your little bean. haha! those are sooo cute. Can't wait to see you guys again! xoxo

Jewels said...

My mom still does it for me every year...and I'm 28 LOL. When I was in elementary school (private Catholic school) we would put our shoes out in the hallway and the teacher would put little treats and such in them for us. It gets you excited for the holiday but also helped to remind us about important aspects and traditions in history. http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=38

Finder said...

so funny post



http://howcanufind.blogspot.com

Mila said...

That is absolutely one great idea.

Emma said...

I Love this idea ! Spoiling kids is Fun. Our tradition is that Santa comes on Christmas eve at our house because I am too excited to see the kids open their presents lol. I tell them that Santa has so much to do that he is getting the presents to our house early to save time. : )

Christy Sparks-Arrajj said...

Thats an adorable and FUN idea!!! However, I will have to stick with stockings being "opened" on Christmas Morning. I NEED that distraction for the kids while I get the coffee brewing (and in my cup/mouth) as well as get the camera's ready for action!!! I LOVE CHRISTMAS! Just talking about it is getting me so excited! Growing up, the stockings were my fave...they were always filled with AWESOME gifts (and lots of them)! So of course, now, I have a serious stocking stuffer obsession and end up getting WAY more than will fit in the stockings....and we have LARGE stockings!!!! ;)

Unknown said...

how cuutee! I love the softies :) hungry caterpillar is one of my faves!

xoxo

Cassi said...

My boyfriend's family celebrates St. Nick's day with a big special family dinner and they each open one present - an ornament. When he and his siblings started going away to college, they moved their St. Nick's day celebration to a day later in the month (during winter break) when everyone could be home together. This year, we're doing it next Tuesday!
I hadn't celebrated that before, but with my family we always had stockings on Christmas morning with an orange, candy and little presents. My parents still did a stocking for me until just a couple years ago when they gave it to me to hang up at my own apartment :)

Lara Paches said...

Like your hubby's family, mine has always done stockings on "St. Nicks eve" or Dec. 5th. I have not lived with my parents for a couple of years now but when I went over there last night my stocking was hung on the mantle full of goodies, hehe. About 10 days late but thats ok! Made me think of this post :)

Playing Hooksies said...

thanks for the mini history lesson. I had seen some bloggers posting about St. Crispin's Day, but no one had given an explanation as to what it was all about yet. :)

Cute stockings - your kids are lucky ducks!

http://playinghooksies.blogspot.com/