"There never had been such a Christmas..."

A Very Vintage Christmas post #4

15 days until Christmas

One tradition many cultures all around the world share at Christmas is that of the Christmas stocking. Whether you wait to hang it up until you go to bed on Christmas Eve, or you leave it up all through the season as a decoration, most families hang up stockings that are filled with various kinds of "stuffers" that are taken out on Christmas morning.

The origin of this tradition is not known for sure, except that it comes from some place in Europe. In some places, there is a general legend which is told as to how the practice of hanging Christmas stockings began. This particular legend says that one Christmas Eve night, there was a father and his three daughters who were fretting over what should happen to the girls if their father were to pass away due to ill health, for they did not have enough money to marry respectably. Saint Nicholas was passing by in the street below and he longed to help them. So, legend has it that he stopped and threw 3 bags of gold coins into the window which were safely lodged in the stockings which were hung before the fire to dry. The little family awoke in the morning and they were overjoyed to find the gifts, which were then set aside to use as dowries.

Whether the legend is, in any respect,  true or not, it became a seasonal tradition. In years past, when children did not even expect to receive so many gifts as we do today, it is true that the only gifts they received on Christmas Day were the ones they found in their stockings upon waking. If you were to look at your Christmas stocking now you might note that it is not really that big, and overall, does not hold all that much, so that might not seem like such an agreeable idea to you. However, stockings, which were a mandatory article of clothing for a person's dress back then, were usually much longer, and therefore somewhat bigger, than the stockings we use at Christmas.

There are many different historical accounts or short stories in literature that include the tradition of using Christmas stockings, and that iterate or imply that the stockings were the only means of receiving gifts that some people had. Once such story, which we are going to share with you today, can be found in Laura Ingalls Wilder's book Little House On The Prairie. Published in 1935, it was written by Wilder about her life experiences in the late 1800s, and even includes a chapter about one special Christmas...

Chapter 19

"Mr. Edwards Meets Santa Claus"

"...Laura was anxious because Christmas was near, and Santa Claus and his reindeer could not travel without snow. Mary was afraid that, even if it snowed, Santa Claus could not find them, so far away in Indian Territory...It did not seem at all like Christmas time. Pa and Ma sat silent by the fire...After a longer while, Ma suddenly stood up. 'I'm going to hang up your stockings, girls,' she said. 'Maybe something will happen.' Laura's heart jumped. But she thought again of the creek and she knew nothing could happen. Ma took one of Mary's clean stockings, and one of Laura's, and she hung them from the mantle shelf, on either side of the fireplace. Laura and Mary watched her over the edge of their bed-covers. 'Now go to sleep,' Ma said, kissing them goodnight. 'Morning will come quicker if you're asleep.'

...Then she heard Jack growl savagely. The door-latch rattled and someone said, 'Ingalls! Ingalls!' Pa was stirring up the fire, and when he opened the door Laura saw that it was morning...Laura saw the stockings limply dangling, and she scrooged her eyes shut into the pillow. She heard Pa piling wood on the fire, and she heard Mr. Edwards say he had carried his clothes on his head when he swam the creek...'It was too big a risk, Edwards,' Pa said. 'We're glad you're here, but that was too big a risk for a Christmas dinner.'

'Your little ones had to have a Christmas,' Mr. Edwards replied. 'No creek could stop me, after I fetched their gifts from Independence'...Ma said she would put the presents in the stockings, as Santa Claus intended. She said they mustn't look...Then Ma said, 'You may look now, girls.' Something was shining bright in the top of Laura's stocking. She squealed and jumped out of bed. So did Mary, but Laura beat her to the fireplace. And the shining thing was a glittering new tin cup. Mary had one exactly like it. These new tin cups were their very own...Then they plunged their hands into the stockings again. And they pulled out two long, long sticks of candy. It was peppermint candy, striped red and white...Those stockings weren't empty yet. Mary and Laura pulled out two small packages. They unwrapped them, and each found a little heart-shaped cake...Laura and Mary never would have looked in their stockings again. The cups and the cakes and the candy were almost too much...But Ma asked if they were sure the stockings were empty. They put their arms down inside them, to make sure. And in the very toe of each stocking was a shining bright, new penny! They had never even thought of such a thing as having a penny. Think of having a whole penny for your very own. Think of having a cup, and a cake, and a stick of candy, and a penny.

There never had been such a Christmas."

-Laura Ingalls Wilder

It was not until after this tradition had been in place many years, long after children such as Mary and Laura were children no more, that people began to use special stockings that were especially made for decorative

purposes, as opposed to their everyday articles of clothing.

In countries with Germanic history, such as Germany, France, and the Netherlands, there is a version of the legend that says that shoes were set out before the fire, and filled with straw so that St. Nicholas would come on his mule, and exchange the straw for his steed with goodies. There is a large number of people in these countries today that still set out their shoes according to that tradition.

Most people set out stockings each year with their Christmas decorations. Perhaps you will do so this year, knowing the interesting history behind them. Or, perhaps you will even try out a different version of the tradition, and set out your shoes instead.

Whatever you may choose to do, we hope with all of our hearts that you have a very merry, and A Very Vintage Christmas!

Please join us this Thursday, December 12th, for a look at another classic Christmas song to add to your holiday playlist.