For many families a favorite Christmas tradition is stockings stuffed with goodies!
While the exact history of hanging stockings is not known there may be a connection to the saint with which the holiday is most closely associated - Saint Nicholas. The lore around the stocking angle is that an impoverished father had three daughters and worried about their prospects for marriage. St. Nick is believed to have filled their freshly washed (and drying) stockings with gold thereby enabling their nuptials. The tradition of placing an orange in the toe of a stocking is related to this story ... most can't fill stockings with gold (and fresh fruit was not always easy to come by at that time of the year, making an orange almost as good as gold), so the tradition of swapping gold balls or coins for fresh fruit was born. Those who are naughty, though, may find their stockings filled with lumps of coal!
So with what should stockings be filled? Candy, chocolate in particular, is always a good choice (hey, by that time the Halloween stash is long gone, eh?!); Another excellent choice is Almond Roca ... one of my favorites! Salt Water Taffy is another favorite of many! Gum is also good.
If you want to go retro, use this as an excuse to introduce your children to Pez candy! If you can't find your old dispensers you can get some Mickey Mouse themed ones right here. If you're a Star Wars buff click here. Another good throwback choice is Necco wafers. Smarties have a nice balance between sweet and sour.
One of my favorite's (not that I'm dropping hints ... ) is Goetz's Caramel Cremes. There's a licorice version that I have not tried. While licorice jelly beans are one of my favorite flavors, I'm not sure I'd enjoy the licorice creams as much as the caramel ones.
Small tins of Altoids would work nicely to stuff a stocking ... some like peppermint, I prefer wintergreen as I find the peppermint just a little too intense, but don't forget some like cinnamon. How about you? If you're not sure - give one of each!
There are plenty of ideas here to stuff your families stockings to the brim and beyond - but there is more to stuffing stockings than candy and other yummies, and I'll offer some of those in the next post ... so please check back!
Is there anything I didn't mention that you would like to see offered?
Disclosure:
Anne Eklektikos is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
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