Thinking ahead......."Stocking Stuffers"

[Annette R.]

Our family loves to get state lottery scratch-off tickets in their stockings. It's part of the tradition to all "scratch" to see if anyone wins. Our son loves his stocking as well. In fact now that he is married and a father, he still insists that I bring his stocking. It just goes to show you its the simple things.

[Nancy M.]

Stockings are one of our family’s favorite traditions. A few years ago, our three kids (including significant others!) started making a date a few days before Christmas to get together to go stocking shopping for DH and I! They really enjoy it, and pooh-pooh me when I tell them they don’t need to feel obligated to continue, as it’s more difficult each year for them to get together due to work schedules, etc. Part of the reason they started this was watching my DH over the years as he excitedly would go stocking shopping for their stockings on Christmas Eve; I gave up worrying about how much he was spending, because he enjoyed it so much!

[Nancy M.]

I will be having my 18 month old grandson here for Christmas. We will have a tree and do some decorating for the first time in many years... We always use to be gone for Christmas holidays visiting various relatives.

This will be the first Xmas we will stay home. I have no idea on what we will do for our holiday traditions. I think we will start some new traditions. I anticipate some arguments about the baby spending time with the father's family. We try to divide the time evenly, but their idea of what would be equal time is weighted on THEIR SIDE. There were arguments last year when the couple were together, I do not know what will happen this year when they are estranged. MY DD has said the baby will be home on actual Christmas Eve and Day... no traveling. Who's home I an not sure. The baby can go to family parties on the weekend before and after Christmas but the actual day... he will be home....

We will see...

Stocking Stuffers ... I like new pJ-s, slipper socks and home made gifts... dvds, computer games are great... inexpensive kind... I find great games and software for $10....Most of the DVDs I like watching can be bought from the $5.00 bin at Walmarts ... books by my favorite authors are great. Both of these items can be an oldey but goody version. I do not need the newest bells and whistles. Of course quilty stuff....



My hubby is easy... choc chip cookies and chocolate (sugar free) Jars of fancy nuts, tickets for after Xmas special events or plays, Coupons for personal or special favors... ie back rub, foot massage, a special dinner ( ie lobster, shrimp or lasagna -home made from scratch. ) etc.

We both tend to like the home made ...or the I know this is what you love type of gift giving. For the past 5 years we have not bought each other anything major... We decide we did not really need anything so why waste the money. If and When we need or want something that is when we go for it... ie vacation in Florida for 3 weeks last winter... We got a great deal on tickets and just went for it.
I loved it ... I think I got a FQ from every QS in the state... 32 Florida type FQs...

This year grandson and daughter are in the house... what more do we need?

[Nancy M.]

Maybe you gals can help me with a stocking issue... my aunt knit stockings for us when we were kids, so my Mom used the same pattern and knit them for all of our spouses and kids. From her own experience stuffing, she learned to make them SMALLER! Mine was lined with a REAL cotton stocking, thus is as big as a real leg, up over the knee!
So anyway, here's the problem. The original cotton stocking lining is ALL torn up. (too many things with sharp edges over the years?) and I can't find a source for a replacement! I totally don't want to try to make one... any ideas?
Florence

[Nancy M.]

I crocheted our socks to look like knitting. They stretch like crazy and you can put in an incredible amount of stuff. I never lined any of ours--so they could stretch. The only holes we have are from dogs chewing them (and the kids wouldn't let me make them new ones). So, I wonder if you could just take the lining out and see how that works. What kind of sock was it lined with? Tube sock?

[Nancy M.]

just take the lining out

maybe I'll try that. It was just what used to be a regular cotton knit stocking-- I don't really remember anyone wearing anything like it, I think they were "old fashioned" 50 years ago (when my stocking was made!), but a ladies' stocking, only cotton instead of nylon, thick like tights, but "pre-pantyhose". My grandmother may have worn them...

Florence

[Susan B.]

Oh my, you all have given me a real case of “I miss my Mom.”
My family’s tradition, too, was fruit, nuts and candy. Our stockings were knee-high socks.

I have no idea where Santa Mom shopped for Christmas, but we all had a perfect, gigantic Red Delicious apple, a gigantic Naval orange & a huge tangerine, the likes and size of which we never saw the rest of the year. The Brazil nuts were always the last to get eaten…who could crack those? Almonds and filberts (hazelnuts) were the first nuts eaten. We always had ribbon candy, and the kind of candy with the little picture in the middle. It’s now very hard to find that candy in my neighborhood (another excuse to ask the internet). Each child got a candy cane and a chocolate Santa.

Every year was the same, except for the nightmare year when Mom decided to get earthy & gave us some horrific stuff called horehound candy. Lordy, was that stuff awful.

OK, time to start on the stockings for the grown-up kids.
Thank you all for stirring up the memories.

[karen f.]

Oh my, you all have given me a real case of “I miss my Mom.”
My family’s tradition, too, was fruit, nuts and candy. Our stockings were knee-high socks.

I have no idea where Santa Mom shopped for Christmas, but we all had a perfect, gigantic Red Delicious apple, a gigantic Naval orange & a huge tangerine, the likes and size of which we never saw the rest of the year. The Brazil nuts were always the last to get eaten…who could crack those? Almonds and filberts (hazelnuts) were the first nuts eaten. We always had ribbon candy, and the kind of candy with the little picture in the middle. It’s now very hard to find that candy in my neighborhood (another excuse to ask the internet). Each child got a candy cane and a chocolate Santa.

Every year was the same, except for the nightmare year when Mom decided to get earthy & gave us some horrific stuff called horehound candy. Lordy, was that stuff awful.

OK, time to start on the stockings for the grown-up kids.
Thank you all for stirring up the memories.

Sue that is EXACTLY what we got in our stockings each year and what I put in my kids stockings! We called those gigantic red delicious apples sheepnose apples because the bottom looked like a sheep's nose. You're right that we never saw fruit like that except at Christmas so it was all quite magical and special. Karen

[karen f.]

ok, I'll admit, I LOVE horehound candy!!

[karen f.]

We didn't get much candy but horehound was one of my granny's favorite and since she was the one buying--yep I like it too.

[Judith T.]

Do you remember Fleers bubble gum and Abazaba hard taffy with the peanut butter filling?

[Susan B.]

ok ya'll, so I'll guess I'll have to give it another try after all the passing of the decades. Where do you get it?

[Judith T.]

Sue, I don't know what you mean by "it". I found this gigantic candy store in the outlet in Monterey, CA, on Cannery Row when I went to Asilomar. The candy was in barrels, all of the stuff that I grew up on.

[Susan B.]

I don't know what you mean by "it".

So sorry, I didn't "use my words." I had made a comment about my mom giving us horehound candy one year instead of our traditional Christmas candy. Neither my brothers nor I would eat it. Folks here have said they like it, so I said I would give "it" a try again, knowing adult tastes differ from children's. I know of no candy stores in the Washington DC/Annapolis MD area, though there may be a chain store that carries this candy.

It would be fun to include it in the stockings of my adult children, just for the fun of telling the tale.

[Judith T.]

Why not try the Vermont Country Store. We used to get a catalog from them. Glad you clarified the meaning of "it".