Welcome to Mountain Brook Ink's 2018 Holiday Blog Tour! We're so excited you've decided to join us on this journey of family, friends, traditions, and memories over the next month. You as our reader have done so much to pour into our lives, and this season we want to give back to you with insights into our lives AND some giveaways. The more days you follow, share, comment, and engage with us, the more entries you'll have toward a Kindle Fire Grand Prize or one of three Amazon Gift Cards!
OUR CHRISTMAS STOCKING TRADITIONS
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| My Christmas Stocking! |
I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have my Christmas stocking. My Great-Grandma Zola (GG, on my mom’s side), crocheted it for me before I can remember. I always had this stocking growing up.
Each year, my mom—er—I mean Santa—filled it with the same kinds of things.
~A candy cane of some sort stuck out of the top—some times a regular one, some times one of those big, thick, straight ones that were about a foot long and as big around as a closet rod or one of those plastic tube canes filled with another kind of cane like M&Ms.
~Other candy—often Almond Roca. Mmmm!
~A small gift or two.
~A variety of shell-dwelling nuts.
~And deep down in the toe an orange! Always an orange.
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| It wouldn’t be Christmas without the orange. |
As far as I can tell, my great-grandma only made stockings for her great-grandchildren. I suppose because we were still children. When she passed away, my grandma took up the cause. She really went to town and filled in all the gaps. She made one for each of her children and their spouses, so then my parents each had one. Then as each of us children got married, she made one for our spouses and our children as they came along.
My grandma crocheted a lot looser than my great-grandma, which meant our spouses’ stockings were much bigger than our own.
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| My stocking next to my husband's |
This didn’t sit well with my brother. He didn’t like that his wife could fit a lot more stuff in her stocking. So Grandma made him one of the bigger size.
When I got married and she made one for my husband, I didn’t ask for a bigger one, because I love mine made by my GG. It wouldn’t be Christmas without my stocking.
I had cousins who would get up at two in the morning on Christmas morning and then go back to bed. I thought that was a little silly, so I never let my children do that. But I also didn’t want to be woken up at five or six a.m., so if any of our three kids got up before us, they were allowed to dig into their stocking at any time they wanted. One of my son’s would get up in the middle of the night for his. I didn’t care as long as he didn’t wake me up.
Per tradition, I always put an orange in the toe of the stocking, each child’s favorite kind of candy, and a small gift or two. I skipped the nuts because . . . well they just weren’t that fun. Sorry, Mom. She did it to fill out our stockings so they didn’t look flat.
So when my grandma aged out of being able make these stockings and my mom wasn’t able to make them due to medical issues, the tradition passed down to me. I don’t make them for all my cousins and their children and their children’s children etc. As my grandma would have, because I’d never be able to do anything else. I just make them for my grandchildren and my siblings’ grandchildren, and my nieces’ and nephews’ spouses.
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| I just finished this one for my newest granddaughter. |
As you can see, the ones I make are an in-between size.
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Merry Christmas!
Here is a ful list of blogs in this tour.
Stop #1: October 28 – Kimberly Rose Johnson
Stop #2: October 29 - Christina Coryell
Stop #3: October 30 – Mary Davis
Stop #4: October 31 – Angela Ruth Strong
Stop #5: November 1 – Susan Page Davis
Stop #6: November 2 - Amy K. Rognlie
Stop #7: November 3 - Gayla K. Hiss
Stop #8: November 4 - Christa MacDonald
Stop #9: November 5 – Linda Hanna & Deborah Dulworth
Stop #10: November 6 - Richard Spillman
Stop #11: November 7 - Annette M. Irby
Stop #12: November 8 - Miralee Ferrell
Stop #13: November 9 - Jeanette-Marie Mirich
Stop #14: November 10 - Anna Zogg
Stop #15: November 11 - Teresa H. Morgan
Stop #16: November 12 - Kelsey Norman
Stop #17: November 13 - Barbara J. Scott
Stop #18: November 14 - Patricia Lee
Stop #19: November 15 – Linda Thompson
Stop #20: November 16 - Janalyn Voigt
Stop #21: November 17 – Cynthia Herron
Stop #22: November 18 – Trish Perry
Stop #23: November 19 – Heather L.L. Fitzgerald
Stop #24: November 20 – Sara Davison
Stop #25: November 21 – Taylor Bennett
Stop #2: October 29 - Christina Coryell
Stop #3: October 30 – Mary Davis
Stop #4: October 31 – Angela Ruth Strong
Stop #5: November 1 – Susan Page Davis
Stop #6: November 2 - Amy K. Rognlie
Stop #7: November 3 - Gayla K. Hiss
Stop #8: November 4 - Christa MacDonald
Stop #9: November 5 – Linda Hanna & Deborah Dulworth
Stop #10: November 6 - Richard Spillman
Stop #11: November 7 - Annette M. Irby
Stop #12: November 8 - Miralee Ferrell
Stop #13: November 9 - Jeanette-Marie Mirich
Stop #14: November 10 - Anna Zogg
Stop #15: November 11 - Teresa H. Morgan
Stop #16: November 12 - Kelsey Norman
Stop #17: November 13 - Barbara J. Scott
Stop #18: November 14 - Patricia Lee
Stop #19: November 15 – Linda Thompson
Stop #20: November 16 - Janalyn Voigt
Stop #21: November 17 – Cynthia Herron
Stop #22: November 18 – Trish Perry
Stop #23: November 19 – Heather L.L. Fitzgerald
Stop #24: November 20 – Sara Davison
Stop #25: November 21 – Taylor Bennett
NEW!
THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT ~ A sweet historical romance that will tug at your heart. This is book 1 in the Quilting Circle series.Washington State, 1893
When Lily Lexington Bremmer arrives in Kamola with her young son, she’s reluctant to join the social center of her new community, the quilting circle, but the friendly ladies pull her in. She begins piecing a sunshine and shadows quilt because it mirrors her life. She has a secret that lurks in the shadows and hopes it doesn’t come out into the light. Dark places in her past are best forgotten, but her new life is full of sunshine. Will her secrets cast shadows on her bright future?
Widower Edric Hammond and his father are doing their best to raise his two young daughters. He meets Lily and her son when they arrive in town and helps her find a job and a place to live. Lily resists Edric’s charms at first but finds herself falling in love with this kind, gentle man and his two darling daughters. Lily has stolen his heart with her first warm smile, but he’s cautious about bringing another woman into his girls’ lives due to the harshness of their own mother.
Can Edric forgive Lily her past to take hold of a promising chance at love?
THE WIDOW'S PLIGHT is now available in ebook and paperback.
MARY DAVIS is
a bestselling, award-winning novelist of over two dozen titles in both
historical and contemporary themes. Her
2018 titles include; "Holly & Ivy" in A Bouquet of Brides Collection (January), Courting Her Amish Heart (March), The Widow’s Plight (July), Courting Her Secret Heart (September), “Zola’s Cross-Country Adventure” in MISSAdventure Brides Collection (December), and Courting Her Prodigal Heart (January 2019). She is a member of ACFW and active in critique groups.
Mary
lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband of over thirty-four
years and two cats. She has three adult children and two incredibly
adorable grandchildren. Find her online at:
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20 comments:
Mary,how wonderful that this tradition started with your GG. I always wanted to learn to crochet & knit but never did. I love the holidays.One tradition we have is the girls all get together 2 weeks before Christmas and bake listening to holiday music. Having 5 daughters guarantees lots of treats. :)
Carol Luciano
Lucky4750 at aol dot com
My Mother n law crochet and she taught our daughter my daughter is now teaching her two daughters. I could never do it but I love watching my granddaughters learn..
My mom was very traditional, too. We always had the same stocking, and when I got married, she gave mine to me and bought one for my husband. And we always had an orange in the bottom to fill out the toe. ;) We usually had the big candy canes sticking up, also. Some years we had nuts, but not always. I love cracking and eating most nuts, so that wasn't a bad thing for me, but my sister hated the nuts & the orange. :) For my sons, we skip the orange and nuts and just do a few individually wrapped candies, a couple small gifts like card games, notebooks, Star Wars toothbrushes, etc. For my husband, I always give him new socks, because he always loses half of his during the year--I think our washing machine and/or dryer eat them as their fee for being used so much. ;)
I loved reading this. My family's stockings are not homemade...my sewing skills are sadly lacking so I never tried crocheting or knitting. But we love having the stockings hanging on our mantelpiece and filling them with small gifts and candy.
No oranges or nuts, but my mama remembers having those in her stocking as a child.
My grandmother would always put different things in our stockings. My favorite was the storybook lifesavers
Oh My gosh!! my mom did the same thing at Christmas. Candy, a small gift and nuts and orange. It's like she ran out of ideas and just had to put something into our stockings. She also made our stockings.
What a great idea. Love the difference in sizes. Fun!
My side of the family never did stockings but my wife came across a few somewhere and got stockings for the two of us and our two kids. She would fill them each Christmas but somewhere along the way, the stockings disappeared.
I love your Christ stocking traditions. My mom made my brothers and me a flannel stocking that she still up until a few years before she passed away. (She made them in the 50's!) I have no idea what happened to them.
Now, I make the felt ones for the grand-nieces and nephews that come along.
My mom always put an orange in ours, too. With candy, some small gifts and some money.
Love the stockings. I have always wanted to learn how to knit and crochet. However my needles fight. Lol
Cute stockings!
Last year I got the kids each a stocking special we use to get orangest also for stockings.
Linda Marie Finn
I used to make stockings for the kids but haven’t in a long time. I do try to hand craft an ornament for each of the kids and grandkids.
I love the stockings!
Your stocking contents sound very familiar - candy canes, an orange, an apple, pecans, a Hershey bar, a pack of gum. Seems pretty simple compared to today's world doesn't it, but weren't we happy?
When I was growing up we didn't have stockings (actually we had stockings to wear just not stockings for gifts). That was one thing I fixed when my kids were growing up.
I still have my stocking from when I was younger. It's a little worn but we got so many cute things in it. My children still have there's and they still use them. Their children get a kick out of them. Thank you for telling us about yours!!
Love this tradition!! Stockings have always been an important part of Christmas morning rituals for my family too. Usually, we would open stockings first thing, then pause to have a big, yummy Christmas breakfast. Then we opened the rest of our presents afterward. Really enjoying this blog tour!
My mother sewed stockings for my siblings and I. They are modeled after "the woman who lived in a shoe" - with a roof by the top, windows along the length, and a door at the heel. Felt children peek out the windows, and the dad is at the door. As our family grew, she tried to model the stocking family after our real one. So my youngest siblings stocking has a hard haired mother, a father, 3 blonde girls, 2 blonde boys and a grey cat peeking out the windows or by the door. As the first born, mine is the least accurate. But I love my handmade stocking and don't ever plan to use another.
I think it's so cool that you continued your family's stocking tradition. My stocking has always been my favorite "present" to open. And the orange? LOL—it always made the traditional trek to the toe every year. Of course, after my brother and I unloaded all the contents in our stockings, our oranges always made the traditional trek back to the fridge! Now, in my 50s, I cherish the stocking my mother-in-law made for me, and I become like a kid again when I dive into the contents. And yes, the tradition of the orange is still alive and well! Except now, I squirrel it away until I can add it to my veggie/fruit health-smoothie. :)
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