John Furr is a long-time friend of the Bices, who spent his career working in advertising and marketing.  Today he consults with the Quacker Factory.  He’s married to Nancy, a friend of Jeanne’s since first grade in Fond du Lac, Wisc. Jeanne asked John to share thoughts about Quacker Factory from time to time.  Please send him your thoughts and questions to John@Quackerfactory.com, or on Facebook.


As Quackers everywhere know, Jeanne recently brought you a choice of 8 Christmas Stockings with a Girlfriend Tee.  It was a fabulous Today’s Special Value which many of you ordered. But it got me wondering:  why do we hang stockings at Christmas anyway?  How did the tradition get started? I decided to do a little research, and here’s what I found.

Like all good legends, the story of the Christmas stocking has many versions. The original story has evolved to allow for differences in culture, time period, and good old fashioned story-telling. So it's hard to pin down exactly how the Christmas stocking tradition started.  

Here’s the favorite version of Rebecca Roberts, who’s written on the subject:
Once there was a father with three beautiful daughters. Although the daughters were kind and strong, the father despaired of them ever making good marriages, because he didn't have enough money to pay their dowries.

One day, St. Nicholas of Myra was passing through their village and heard the locals discussing the plight of these poor girls. St Nicholas knew the father would be too proud to accept an outright gift. So he waited till dark, snuck to the man's house, and dropped three bags of gold coins down the chimney.

The daughters had spent the evening washing clothes, and had hung their stockings by the fireplace to dry. The gold coins dropped into the stockings, one bag for each daughter. In the morning, they awoke to find enough money to make them each a generous dowry, and all married well and happily.

As word of St. Nicholas' generosity spread, others began to hang their stockings by the fireplace, hoping for a similar gift.

There is plenty of debate about when American kids started hanging their stockings by the fire on Christmas Eve. Some give credit for the idea to Thomas Nast, who drew stockings on the mantelpiece in his 1886 illustrations for a George Webster story called "Santa Claus and His Works." But while Nast did create the popular modern image of Santa Claus as a white-bearded, red-suited, boot-wearing jolly man, he cannot be responsible for the stocking tradition. That's because Clement Clark Moore's famous poem, "A Visit from St. Nicholas" was written 64 years earlier. And as every Christmas buff knows, that poem includes the following immortal lines:

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care
in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.

So we may never know exactly how or why people started hanging stockings at Christmas.

Today we often wonder just what to put in the stockings of family and friends.  Shopping can be difficult and expensive.  But I think there are things that can make great stocking stuffers, that can be easy to give, and don’t have to cost much.  Here are a few ideas:

• A note with a invitation to have lunch, or go to a movie, or go for a ride to a local attraction

• A collection of favorite recipes

• A promise to help with lawn work in the spring

• A variety of greeting cards for various occasions and some stamps to mail them

• Pictures of friends or family

• A piece of costume jewelry you haven’t worn in a long time, along with the story behind it

• A poem you love

• A note telling them how much they mean to you

• OK, OK, a little box of chocolates is always nice, too!

The perfect gift always reflects that you understand the person, and choose it with them in mind.  It doesn’t have to cost a lot.  It really is the thought that matters. (This is an especially nice ‘lesson’ to teach kids and grandkids.)
So this Christmas, hang your stockings with care.  And may they be filled with joy and happiness!

Merry Christmas!