Get to Know TJM: Christmas Stocking Traditions!

At TJM, we love sharing family stories and traditions, and there’s no better time to do so than the holidays. For many of us, Christmas stockings have long been a highlight of the season. Here are some of our favorite memories of them:

Matt Fischer

Growing up we always had stockings, and they were the first thing we opened on Christmas morning. 

Now my whole family has heirloom or custom quilted/knit stockings from the grandmothers or great grandmothers with the exception of myself. I refused to accept a custom stocking, as I was, and am, perfectly content with my Sears Roebuck 1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Michaelangelo stocking. It's getting threadbare but it is still the stocking I use to this day. 

Stockings typically get filled with candy and health/beauty type items. The stuff you don't like buying as an adult, but you know you need them.  So I look forward to some soap and ChapStick, along with tons of chocolate, each year!

Shannon Moore

Yep, we follow the stocking tradition. My mom actually has upheld a family tradition. My great grandmother cross-stitched mine and my brother's.  Now my mom has cross-stitched mine and my brother's kids, which is rough, there are 6 of 'em. 

We typically put little knickknacks in it. Small things like candy, Hot Wheels cars, lotion, gift cards maybe. Those we open Christmas morning as everyone is going around the circle opening their gifts. 

Jess Rodriguez-Marcano

Growing up, we never followed the tradition of Christmas stockings. Instead, my mom (a.k.a. El Niño Jesus) would leave a small gift under the pillow or at the foot of the bed to wake up to Christmas morning. I always looked forward to that and hope to continue the tradition with my future children. Happy holidays!

Rick Cundiff

Well, our fireplace came out of a box at Christmas time and was made of cardboard, so it didn’t exactly have a good spot to hang a stocking. Not to mention the fact that there was no chimney for Santa. (Luckily, the jolly old elf apparently was a good locksmith – he still managed to leave things under the Christmas tree.)

All was not lost in the stocking department, though. My cousins and I always got store-bought stockings pre-filled with candy and small toys.

Times have changed. Now I have a hand-made stocking of my own, complete with my name, made by my wonderful wife. She has one as well. We still don’t have a chimney, but Santa finds a way to fill them with candy, little toy trinkets and other goodies every year.

Sandy Matolo   

I didn’t grow up with the tradition of hanging Christmas stockings, but as an adult I started doing it more as part of the holiday décor. One year, I was pleasantly surprised to find a full-size bottle of Grey Goose in my stocking. I honestly couldn’t believe the stocking didn’t fall -- it made the whole tradition feel a lot more exciting after that.

Courtney Cole

In my family, we have stockings at home as well as at my parents’ house for everyone. In our house, we have the tradition where Santa leaves candies and a few little trinkets in everyone's stockings. At my parents’ house, that's where things get crazy, haha! My mom is obsessed with the magic of Christmas and the thought of Santa. For the adults in the family, our stockings are filled with scratch offs and gifts cards, while the kids will get small books and toys.