Granny has made many Christmas stockings over the years. She’s crocheted them, macramed them, and even sewed them up from Christmas fabric.
She often gives them away. I have several variations of her handmade stockings.
In the beginning there were only five crocheted stockings that hung at Granny and Pap’s house. One for each of them and three for my brothers and me.
Then my brother Steve married and Granny had to add another one. Then Steve and Kim had a baby boy so another stocking was required. Then I married Matt. Then Steve and Kim had another son Mark. You get the picture.
Over the years Granny has continued to add to the stockings she hangs around her living room. As her grandkids began to marry the number increased. And now three of her grandchildren (Steve’s children) are either parents themselves or about to be so there’s yet more stockings to make.
I’ve never really thought about the stockings till this year.
As I helped Granny hang them last week I sort of got teary-eyed over them all.
Whether you are a new baby or a new spouse there’s something really powerful in the knowledge that the matriarch of the family cares enough to make you your very own stocking as a way of paying homage to the fact that you are now part of her family.
Last night’s video: Come Along as we Green Up the House for Christmas.
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The eternal sacred celebrated love of the Matriarchal kind is present in every stitch, embellishment, and addition. My hearts swells and spills over as tears of reverent gratitude for the love displayed in those stockings.
I still have my childhood stocking and I’m 68! Last year, I added my oldest daughter’s fiance to the stocking group. I still fill stockings for my husband and children even though they’re adults. The goodies my husband buys for me won’t fit my stocking.
Our favorite is the stocking and everyone has one! It holds little treasures and treats! Next year we will have a new one to add as we have a new grandson coming in April!
Yes! Those stockings are very special!!!! And will become more precious as time goes on!
Our stockings were real stockings that my Pa had worn as knee high boot socks. I remember oranges, tangerines, hazelnuts, pecans, English walnuts, raisins (the old-fashioned kind that still had grapevine and seeds), and chocolate covered cream drops and candy canes. That was during the ’40s and early ’50s before I ‘aged out’. The stockings were hung on the mantel above the fireplace.
It was a treat to see you and Corrie ‘greening’ your home for Christmas. I swear I could smell the pine.
Blessings to all!
Another sweet story that brings a tear to my eye also. Granny is a sweetheart for sure!! Treasure all the time you have with her Tipper as I know you do. My mama was born in 1921 and when she was living, I remember her telling me about how important their Christmas stockings were because that is all they had to enjoy on Christmas morning. She said they got apples, oranges, nuts, stick candy and little glass containers in different shapes with some type of candy beads in them. She said her and her sister got the doll shaped ones. I wish she had kept those. To me, the stocking is the best part of Christmas morning and if they are homemade, even more special. Tipper, I enjoyed the video last night on the greening of Christmas. Everything you and Corie made was beautiful, but my favorite was the swag. It’s beautiful and you found the perfect place for it. Looking forward to tonight’s reading.
In our family the handmade gifts were always the best gifts. Each one, whether an ornament, comforter, crochet afghan, or a pair of mom’s granny square slippers are cherished and precious memories each time we see them.
Tipper, you and your family are truly blessed to have so many things made by your mom. With care those handmade treasures will last for generations along with the sweet memories of the Granny that created them. I know my mom has been gone for 22 years now but I have sweet memories of her most everyday.
Merry Christmas and God Bless you every one!
Please keep us posted on the number of Christmas cards Granny gets this year. I hope she gets so many it takes her till Easter to read them all.
I still have my Christmas stocking from my childhood. I don’t remember if my mom made it or if someone else did, because I was way to young to ask when I got it since I thought everything at Christmas came from Santa. My mom never said anything different. It was always filled with apple, orange, nuts, a few pieces of chocolate candy and a box of Cracker Jacks, which always contained a surprise toy in it. Us kids were always thrilled with our stockings! My childhood stocking is now a keepsake filled with childhood Christmas memories. All the glitter spelling out my name is almost gone and only the glue still outlines the letters of my name. A few sequins that had been sewn on for decoration are hanging by a thread. I have other stockings throughout my life, but none are treasured like my childhood Christmas stocking. Thank you for sharing your stockings with us Tipper, it brought back great memories of our own.
Granny sets a great example for all of us.
Growing up in Grundy, Va. we didn’t have stockings. We had a shoe box and Santa always left an apple, orange, cane candy and favorite a box of chocolate covered cherries.
Using Daddy’s winter socks just didn’t hold enough and with 2 littler brothers we would argue over who got the biggest sock so eventually, we got our own sock with a name. The contents were pretty consistent as juicy fruit, nuts of all kinds, rolls of lifesavers in our favorite flavor, a yo-yo or other small toy, and the best was a special gift in the toe. One year it was 2 ceramic dogs – Lady and Tramp from my favorite movie. Still have Lady as Tramp met his demise in an accident years ago. My first dog was a boy cocker spaniel. He got the name Tramp since I couldn’t call him Lady. The big surprise was getting a set of my own car keys when I was 16. I could drive my parents car! It wouldn’t be Christmas without getting tangerines and kumquats. Opening the stockings was always the first thing we did – presents came later. We take turns in our family each opening one present while the others watched. Made it go slower but so special. This year our first grandchild is having a baby so a great-grandchild stocking will be hung for the first time. I sure enjoyed reading the other commenters memories. Merry Christmas to all!
A touching family remembrance, Tipper. Well said!
I remember my Mother telling me about the stockings filled with an orange, an apple, some nuts and stick peppermint candy for her and her 10 siblings and they were so excited for those stocking gifts on Christmas morning. I said is that all you received — but then I understood the great love of family more as Christmases of old grew near. My Daddy took his vacation at that time, where each year we would travel back down south to my Grandparents. There wasn’t any Disney World at that time, but being at my Grandparents at Christmas was a child’s delight to me. Getting to play with more cousins, sitting around the fireplace eating parched peanuts Daddy had fixed and listening to wonderful stories. Smelling the good food early morning and supper time too, along with the pines perfuming the air when you stepped outside. To me it was a wonderful world and I felt very much loved. Presents don’t have to be elaborate, Love comes through in time spent together. Good cooking helps too:)
Granny is certainly the Queen of Crochet and shows her love to all in her family!
I enjoyed your vlog on gathering the greens. I do the same thing as I love, love, going out and gathering pine and boxwood. I’ve clipped all I dare clip of my son’s arborvitaes and have made five Christmas arrangements to take to friends. My Mother was not only the Queen of old timey Cooking but she was also the Queen of Silk Flower Arrangements. I think I have a tiny bit of that talent for flowers, except I love gathering the real greens and adding carnations. Tipper your greens look beautiful. I love the swag!!!
Beautiful times and wonderful memories. Those memories of the care and nurturing your mother gave can get you through any hard times. Enjoy every second of the time with your mother, and as time marches on the caring she taught you will benefit generations yet unborn. Love the handmade stockings and the beloved pictures that line the wall.
Granny’s love for all of you is just precious and it shows in everything she does for y’all. She is so gifted. I was not so lucky to be accepted by my ex-in-laws and that can be devastating to a person especially around holiday time. I love how you share your families love for one another. It’s very heart warming! Merry Christmas!!
We had generic stockings growing up in the 70s, but my mother made my sister and I new ornaments each year. After I married I inherited not only my own ornaments, but several my sister left behind. For our wedding my mother and all five of her sisters gave us ornaments their families had used over the years, some homemade and some store bought. The most precious were two that belonged to my grandmother, most likely from the 40s or 50s. Each year I continued the tradition and made ornaments for us as a couple—always dated of course—and one for each of the children until they left home. Every Christmas we decorated the tree playing old Christmas records on the record player that I have had since I was a child. Some were my mother’s before I was born—Andy Williams, Glen Campbell, Elvis, the Partridge Family and more. It’s truly not Christmas without those songs. Anyway, as the children and I put up the tree each year while Daddy was at work, we would hang all those ornaments as I told the story of each and every one of them, creating a tradition I hope one day they might pass on to their children. Nearly all of the ornaments are homemade and the few store bought ones do have a story to go with them or are attached to a particular family member or friend. Nothing goes on the tree “just because”—except maybe that fun singing Elvis ornament we bought when we lived in Memphis for a little while. LOL But even that silly thing has a memory attached to it and the kids would always fight to be the one to hang it up and make it “sing”. Sadly, we are alone this year. Two children are overseas in the military and and one lives in another state. The oldest is not one bit sentimental and threw away (gasp!) his ornaments. I wish I could have saved them, but I try not to think about it. The rest are packed away in boxes now with each child’s name on them. We have decided to skip the trouble of a tree and focus on creating new memories, hoping one day the children will come home, bringing families with them so I can continue family traditions they don’t much seem interested in now. Thank you for letting us sentimental folks share our memories.
Tipper I keep thinking that one of Granny’s stockings would make a wonderful gift for one of your readers. Thank you for your stories. I love your cooking videos!
Tipper, this post is dear to my heart. I am 67 years old, and each year I lovingly hang the stocking that my Mother sewed for me in 1959. It’s a treasure of mine. Next to it I hang the stocking that I’ve made for my husband, 2 sons and daughter. I have just completed a knitted stocking for my granddaughter. This year they hold a different level of meaning as one of our sons died in June at age 19. I dearly love my mismatched but precious row of stockings.
Becky-I’m so sorry you lost your son. Those mismatched stockings sound wonderful 🙂
I am 69 years old and have lost a daughter and then my wife of 48 years last year. I know first hand how much it hurts. I will pray for you and your family.
My stocking was knitted by a friend of my mother’s. I still love hanging it up, even though it has my birth year on the back! I made one for my husband and my kitties have to share one.
Love the love behind the stockings! I have stockings I have make and my baby sister made when she was a teenager just learning to crochet. Just simply treasures and measures of love. We are going to begin a kitchen remodel in January and all this week I have been cooking for work lunches and pig pickins and customer gifts and Christmas…….you get the picture. And, on Sunday we had the cookie baking marathon all day and I got to thinking about all the food that has been prepared in my kitchen in the last 34 years, and I got all sentimental when I thought about this being the last Christmas I will cook in my old kitchen. Even cried a little. So glad I am not the only one that cries when both happy and sad. Have a Merry Memory Filled Christmas everyone…….love to all.
what glorious heirlooms to leave for her decendants. Granny is so talented! I would cherish anything made especially for me.
I think we only had some store bought stockings for Christmas, my wife’s grandmother would crochet baby blankets for the new babies in the family. Tipper, because of you I did nothing but sit around yesterday. I read the entire book that you mentioned and quoted from awhile back, the book was “It’s Not My Mountain Anymore” by Barbara Taylor Woodall. I don’t think I have ever read a book I enjoyed any more than that one, I could not put it down until I had read all of it.
Continuity: that’s the word that comes to my mind when I see Granny’s stockings going up. The family continues and they all gather at Granny’s. I wonder, does she also do shawls?
JC-she has made shawls in the past 🙂
Wonderful Christmas tradition! God bless y’all!
I think Granny’s stockings are wonderful and uniquely inspired art! I can sum up her work and craftsmanship in one word- LOVE. I think it’s evident just how special Granny is because you are special too, Tipper! I’m not a hanging stocking person because they tend to be heavy and present a possible fire hazard by a fireplace. But if I was, I’d certainly be proud to hang a stocking made with Granny’s loving hands!!!
What a wonderful message…God Bless
You are blessed that your family has held together across three generations into the verge of a fourth. Growing up, Sharon and I each had the three generations meeting together. Now it has shifted. My brother has that because his three generations are in one day trip area. We just barely do once or twice a year because we are so far apart.
Tipper, to know what a fine lady you are, one must know your mother also MUST BE a fine lady too! I think I can sum up the colorful, uniquely pretty stockings in a word called LOVE. Isn’t it obvious Granny’s tender, withering fingers have worked all her life in love for the ones who God has given and blessed her with through blood and marriage! I don’t know her, but what I know of her is purely wonderful and the epitome of a loving mother. In all I do concerning adult children (I’d like to choke sometimes as my mind spits fire like a dragon), I recall my mommy and think of her saying to give all I got, love in spite of and try to think as the Lord would want me to and act in a way to bring Him glory and honor. Then I come to my senses in love, patience and wisdom once more…and instead of wrath comes surprisingly inspired kindness in spite of….
What awonderful way to show someone that they “belong to the family”.Merry Christmas to all.♡
Sweet story – family is so important. I also have a close family. They are a blessing from God to me. Take care and God bless ❣️
Our stockings were Daddy,s Nelson socks, the ones with the red heel. There would be an orange, orange slices, a few nuts such as pecans and Brazil nuts. Also there might be some fire crackers. We did not have a mantle, the stockings would be draped on the back of the couch. Our Christmas breakfast was not any different from other mornings but dinner ( noon meal) was quite different at my grandmothers house. Maybe twenty relatives with each family bringing a dish. Ham,turkey, chicken, dressing and several vegetables. Deserts were too numerous to name. This was in the 1940’s in West Tennessee.
Thanks for your post each day and so much information on so many topics.
Granny is so talented. Love hearing about her and seeing all her creations, especially her Christmas tree with all her hand stitched ornaments.❤️
Herman, I am also from West Tennessee and Christmas at Grannie’s was like the ones you had at your grandmother’s house. These Christmas dinners are one of my most precious childhood memories.
I still have my stocking that my mother made for me when I was an infant. I was only 2 months old, that 1st Christmas. To add worries to a set of new parents, my father ended up very ill and his factory went on strike that winter. On top of that, they were not married & suffering from the disapproval of both families. My grandmother told of going to visit & finding my mother rolling out pie dough with an empty glass mayo jar. They had nothing. Maybe the stocking was the only thing I received (I have never thought to ask, as it is a painful time that my parents do not like to talk about). The stocking is remarkable because my mother is/was not the most crafty person My 3 other siblings have store boughten ones that she just glittered their names on. It is special to me. My mother had to make ‘replacement’ stockings for us to hang at her house, as we have left home & taken ours with us. My husband’s family had generic stockings that didn’t even have their names on them! They are just 4 identical cloth stockings for each sibling. He didn’t get to bring anything from his home (because nothing survived) and Christmas was usually a painful time for him. He struggles to get the gist of Christmas sometimes, but has gotten better over the years. This year there will be a new stocking added under our tree. I am surprising him with a new bloodhound puppy that I am going to pick up tonight. All our pets over the years get their own stocking and I get teary eyed as I am decorating. I can’t bring myself to throw away their stockings after they have passed. Some are almost 20 years old! I am hoping to make some happy Christmas memories tonight & hope he is surprised. It has been hard keeping this secret for a month!!!! Wonder what name will get glittered on the new stocking??? Any suggestions? I am thinking “Robert The Bruce”. (Read about Robert the Bruce’s Bloodhound, Duncan. Pretty good story!!!!)
Patty, to someone that loves hound dogs, nothing is any pretty than a floppy ear bloodhound puppy. Some of the police departments in my area are turning back to the bloodhound dogs to use to search for people that have gotten lost. Nothing better than a bloodhound, this is what they were bred to do.
Well, Randy, it made the hubby cry when I brought him home & his “stocking is hung by the chimney with care”. He is a chocolate brown right now, with those big hound dog eyes, ears, & paws. He slept through the night & has only had 1 accident in the house – so, better than expected. Today, my husband & I go play Santa & Mrs. Claus at the the hardware store (where our teen daughters work) and I guess he is going with us to be a little ‘elf’. My husband said it was the best gift & exactly the dog he was wanting. He has kept all 4 of us laughing because his paws are so big that his body can’t keep up with his feet! I could do without all the chewing, though.
Any suggestions for a name? You would not believe how hard it is to find hound puppies (other than beagles & we’ll never do beagles again!) in NY. Everyone is breeding those dang Australian Shepherds, Labs or Golden Retrievers. Don’t care if I ever have any type of shepherd. We grew up with Border Collies (on our farm) and they drive me nuts! I hope you’re having a great day Randy. Always enjoy reading your comments & pray for you alot!
You have a wonderful family, Tipper! I am pleased to be a part of it. You all understand what it is to be family and Granny is at the top of the list!
That truly is a wonderful welcome and a beautiful tradition! Thank you for sharing the joy of Christmas.
When I married into my husbands family, I got my first stocking made by his aunt, 52 Christmas’s ago. Now I am the stocking maker for our family. We have added 2 sons by love, and 5 grands. Our stockings are made from felt and decorated. The stockings are so much fun on Christmas morning!
Acceptance must be earned. Ol’ A Dubya seems to have made Granny’s cut! He must be doing something right. I know he can track, but can he pick (and I don’t mean beans)? How’s he feel about the banjo or maybe the dobro? If nothing else get him some spoons or a washboard or even a cowbell. We can work him in somehow. Listen to me. It sounds like I’m looking for my own stocking on Granny’s wall. Maybe next year. She needs something to do while watching all those westerns. The blog is awesome and has really inspired my own creativity. Merry Christmas!
Geoff- he can pick! We need to include him in the next music video 🙂
This is so sweet. Got a little teary eyed myself. Merry Christmas.