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How can I Decorate with Christmas Stockings?

Lauren Romano
Lauren Romano

Every Christmas you’ll see stockings being sold in stores and people purchasing them to put them up in their homes. The image you may have is of them hanging on the fireplace mantle or banister and being filled with goodies to dive into on Christmas morning. They can, however, be quite a versatile decoration that you can use elsewhere around your home to decorate for Christmas.

While you may not expect to see Christmas stockings in a bathroom, it can be an unconventional way of adding some holiday cheer. Consider hanging tiny stockings around the outside of the bathtub or putting large ones on your shower door. If they are taped on well, chances are they won’t fall off even when they are brushed against.

Christmas stockings are traditionally hung over a fireplace.
Christmas stockings are traditionally hung over a fireplace.

Instead of having plain knobs or pulls on your drawers, consider giving them a bit of a holiday touch. Having Christmas stockings on your drawers could make you feel festive even when you’re picking out clothes to wear for the day. To hang them, take a paper clip, hook it to the loop on the top of the stocking then wrap the other end around the handle. Small stockings would work better than the large ones as they take up less space and won’t get stuck in the drawer when you’re trying to close it.

Many people choose to open their stockings on Christmas morning either before or after breakfast. Think about hanging the Christmas stockings on the back of each individual person’s chair at the kitchen or dining room table. They can serve as decorations and then get filled up the night before they’re going to be opened.

When choosing Christmas stockings to decorate with, take into account the colors in the space you want to put them in and how much room there is to work with. There are many sizes of stockings from tiny to very large and they come in various colors and patterns. With all of the types that you can buy, there are sure to be some that can work well in any room of your home.

Considering that Christmas stockings are a symbol of the holidays and they are inexpensive, they are a good way to add a little decoration to a space that you may not know what else to do with. In addition, they are a simple way to wrap and give small presents in a traditional way. When decorating, make sure to keep filled Christmas stockings out of the reach of children or pets until they are actually given them to open.

Discussion Comments

bythewell

@umbra21 - That sounds like a pretty good tradition as well. Especially since it seems pretty difficult to find plain and simple stockings to decorate these days. They are all velvet or embroidered Christmas stockings with which it's quite difficult to do anything creative.

Making your own stocking holders seems like a better idea.

umbra21

@pastanaga - We have something like that, but they are the stocking holders, rather than the stockings themselves.

One Christmas mom helped us each to make a christmas stocking holder out of clay. We used air drying clay back then (which was really difficult for me, as I remember thinking it would take forever for the thing to dry) but now you could use quite a few different materials. I imagine kids could make some amazing stocking holders with polymer clay, for example.

That way you can have any kind of stocking you want, including felt Christmas stockings and change them with the kids as they grow up.

It's pretty easy to make the holders, just make a flat base with a hook sticking out so that they can rest on a flat surface and hold the stocking (no need for tape).

If you're worried about decor in general, only give your kids red and white clay (or red and white paint). That way they should look presentable in most Christmas color schemes.

pastanaga

My mother doesn't tend to ever throw out Christmas decorations, but she loves looking in the stores the day after Christmas for bargains, so we have boxes and boxes of the stuff.

But the things that get pulled out every single year are the personalized Christmas stockings we've had since we were very young.

I don't even remember making mine, although mum said that I helped. And my youngest sister's stocking was made later because she hadn't even been born when we made the first lot.

They are just simple red felt stockings, with our names spelled out in glitter. Nothing fancy. And we have other kinds of stockings that go up around the house as well. But those ones will always be extra special.

I think it's a wonderful tradition for any family and a way to differentiate from the decorative stockings and the real Christmas stockings.

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    • Christmas stockings are traditionally hung over a fireplace.
      By: francisco
      Christmas stockings are traditionally hung over a fireplace.