What I’d find in my Christmas stocking every year as a child was often the best gift of all. Santa would fill mine to the brim- where surely the hook was about to give way to the weight of the goodies inside.
I never thought much to what the meaning could be- this tradition celebrated in many American homes every Christmas Eve. I just knew it was magical and exciting.
There is an old European legend about kind Saint Nicholas being sensitive to a family that had been well off but just lost all their money. He heard them crying as he made his rounds bearing gifts- they had nothing to eat or make them happy. There were three daughters and they had no money for dowries to marry be married.
The family was too embarrassed to accept any charity so St. Nicholas saw a different way to bring them gifts. The three daughters had washed their stockings and hung them over their fireplace to dry. In the night, he quietly climbed down the chimney and placed three purses of gold in each of the girl’s stockings that would be enough to marry them off. When the family woke in the morning to find this blessing, they were very thankful to God and the noble St. Nick.
I’ve hung the stockings in our home this year- I have four to be filled now. We’ll leave treats for Santa and his reindeer. And we’ll think of those really in need all over this world. Hoping Santa doesn’t miss a single stocking this year.
