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TeaThere’s nothing like the unbridled thrill of waking up Christmas Seeing a stocking full of gifts in the corner of your room in the morning. Even those of us who have outgrown the ritual still feel the rush. Santa Claus Used to be! And he has filled his shoes with chocolates, face masks, socks. lip balm And supermarket candles!
Although most people first experience the magic as children – when the ingredients were about 50 percent plastic, 49 percent sugar and one percent clementine – the tradition has followed a significant portion of the population into adulthood. A 2024 survey found that more than half of adults Give your partner a festive stocking this Christmas at around £62 a pop. And the content has also become bigger. Unlike gifts under a tree, these small luxuries Are simple, small and popular. Or, if we’re using the official term, “bits and bobs” collected by the donor over the course of the year as an extra gift before the main event. You know, just a little thing to make life a little better.
Top Stocking Gifts as of 2023 StudyInclude self-care items like gift cards, snacks, lip balm and makeup. Or, at the low end of the spectrum, 17 percent reported getting coal (classic), sardines, olives and toilet paper. Whatever floats Father Christmas’s boat…
“Somehow, I’m still getting a stocking full of gifts from my parents at 33,” says Katie, from Liverpool, who lives in the family home. “As a child, I always vaguely believed there would be a cut-off point, possibly around the time I moved out and took on adult responsibilities, but that never happened,” she reflects. “I feel like maybe this will go away when we all have partners and kids,” she says of her siblings, “but for now, we’re all quite happy with this ‘kidult’ set-up one day a year.”
It’s a similar story for Ellie from London, who is 32 and has received a stocking for every year of her life when returning to mum and dad for Christmas. “Unfortunately, my parents still come into my room at night to leave a sock at the end of my bed,” she says. “Every year I think it’s probably going to stop and it never does. I know Mom (honestly, it’s not Dad or Father Christmas) enjoys buying gifts for the stockings as much as it is all those down-to-earth fun things you pick up at the stores as you get closer to the time. So maybe this will continue for many years to come, for both her enjoyment and mine.”
One YouGov study It found that 61 percent of women in Britain buy gifts for their family, compared to only eight percent of men. As some children grow up and innocence fades away, they become aware and choose to get some relief from this labor – especially daughters.
“For the past decade, my sisters and I have been buying items for each other’s stockings so that the burden of gift buying doesn’t fall entirely on our mom,” says Katie. “We’re pretty much on the same wavelength: Last year, they both bought me the same Pilates grippy socks without realizing. For us, ‘stocking’ gifts are nice little extras… or funny jokes.”
But when it comes to stockings the women in Katie’s family are far from stopping: “Last year was the first time my brother-in-law joined us for Christmas Day,” she says. “My mother decided she needed a stocking for herself too, and she became very concerned about whether her gifts would be any good. Of course, she was completely amazed by this.”
When you look at it objectively, the concept of stalking is pretty weird. According to legend, in the fourth century, Saint Nicholas heard of a man who could not afford dowries for his three daughters and would throw a purse of coins into the chimney of his house at night so that there would be enough money for the eldest daughter’s wedding. The purse fell into a sock, which was placed near a fire to dry, and Saint Nicholas continued to do so until all three daughters were married.
However, according to the historian and author, there is no proper evidence that this happened. Christmas: a biographyJudith Flanders. “We have no real idea of when or where it happened,” she says. “The first mention dates back to the 1810s in America, where it appeared in a small collection of Christmas paraphernalia from a group of friends, so our guess is they invented it.”
This group of friends included the Nightmare Before Christmas Author Clement Clark Moore and short story writer Washington Irving, who wrote Knickerbocker History of New YorkBoth included reference to stockings. Flanders says of the latter text, “It was supposed to be a history, but it was really a satire.”
“John Pintard, who was the founder of the New York Historical Society, gathered these people together so it was presented as a history – all these changes – but they all remained the same.”
The nice thing about there being no solid origin story for the stockings is that no one can tell you what rules to play by, which means you can get by on it for 100 years if you have someone willing to do all the wrapping. Age limit does not apply.
“You can do whatever you want,” confirms Flanders. “Hang your stocking on the fireplace. Give the sock to your cat! No one can tell you otherwise.” This is as good a reason as any other. Kind of.