A Felt Stocking Family Tradition

For three generations our family has created felt stockings for new family members to use at Christmas time. Every generation is a different color.

The tradition started over 60 years ago when I was a child. A friend of my parents made stockings for everyone in our family. Mine has been repaired over the years from time to time. It holds such special memories for me.

After my husband and I were married, my mother made him a stocking too and added bits and pieces to show some of his interests at that time. She also added the year that he joined our family. His has a few scars that need attention this year.

After my daughter was born, my mother continued the tradition and made her a stocking as well only hers was red to indicate a new generation. I have added a few things to it over the years as my daughter’s interests have changed. My mother made one for each of our two sons as well.

After my mother passed, as each of our children married, I continued the tradition and made stockings for their spouses too.

With the arrival of the first grandchild, I changed the color of the stocking to green to indicate another new generation. As they grow up, I will add other bits and pieces as their interests develop. I continued to make new stockings for each new grandchild. (This year I plan to reduce the size of the yellow numbers on a few, they got way too big! Some of the dates have been removed in these photos for privacy.)

The stockings stay with us for now and they don’t travel when we travel for the holidays. They are somewhat fragile and every year I need to made repairs of some kind or another. As my mother did before me, eventually they will be given to each family to use or display, as they wish. The whole family loves seeing these stockings appear every year for Santa to fill if the family is here. The stockings are hung even if the family members are not here. It is a very special family tradition.