The tradition of the Christmas stocking seems to have originated in around the third century and involves the Bishop of Myra who became known as Saint Nicholas. The legend goes that there was a righteous and honorable man whose wife had died, leaving him to care for their three daughters. The tradition in that country at the time was that a daughter had to have a dowry to be able to get married, as this man was poor he felt bad thinking his daughters would never be able to marry. One day this information came to the attention of Nicholas the Bishop of Myra, so late one night he went to the man’s cottage. Looking in the window he saw that the daughters had washed cloths and hung them around the fireplace to dry, noticing their stockings hanging with the rest of their clothes he took out three small bags of gold and carefully tossed them through the open window into the stockings. The next morning as the daughters were gathering their clothes they found the bags of gold, now they had money for a dowry! Of course each girl married well and lived happily ever after. As this legend grew more people began to leave stockings or small sacks hanging around the fire place in hopes that Saint Nicholas would leave them something as well.
A little further north in Holland, children used to set out their wooden clogs with straw in them, Father Christmas would feed the straw to his reindeer and leave a treat or small gift in the clog for the child. Italian children had a similar tradition of leaving their shoes out by the door so that Papa Noel would leave a little treat or something in them. In France the children left their shoes indoors by the fireplace and would then find treats or small gifts in them. In Puerto Rico the children would use small boxes, where they would put flowers and other greenery to be left for the three Wise Men or the three Kings.
Christmas Stockings in America:
As with any legend there are several variations. But the most likely way that hanging stockings became an American tradition was from all the different immigrants’ coming to America and bringing their own traditions with them and then being in close proximity to each other the traditions began to merge and alter into what we have today. Another person that helped the tradition of hanging stockings by the fireplace was Clement Moore and his most famous of poems A Visit from St. Nicholas, which today is called The Night before Christmas. And as anyone who has read the poem would know, it says, the stockings were hung by the chimney with care in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. So a combination of different traditions and legends and famous poets gave birth to an American tradition. And today the Christmas stocking is an essential part in the celebration of Christmas in America. Although the practice of using everyday wearable socks has given way to specialty Christmas stockings. Today there is a wide selection of Christmas stockings for everyone and even a selection for pets.
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