Stacks of Stockings — Savannah by Season

Growing up, the highlight of my Christmas evening was passing out the stockings that covered my Mammaw's living room wall. They are all red and have everyone's name boldly displayed, along with a cute felt art piece (mine is a teddy bear). My mom's side of the family held this tradition way before I was even born. We've just added a lot more stockings to the wall, over the years!

It's a pretty easy concept: Each smaller-family buys something for each stocking. The kiddos get enough real gifts from Santa and their parents that morning that there's no need for cousins, aunts and uncles to add onto the pile. With stockings, you can buy something for everyone individually (and it doesn't cost a lot).

We love our stockings so much, we've started this tradition on my Dad's side of the family too. We began last year with some terribly crafted (by me) stockings. I used iron-on printer paper and it just didn't turn out the way I wanted them to be. Browsing around in the after-Christmas stuff at Target last year, I found a bundle of really cute stockings and bought them for 40 cents each! I added on a gift tag with our names, and there you have it: instant new Christmas tradition.

We'll be filling these up tomorrow, as we have a bit of an early-family Christmas this year. Can't wait to see my cousin's open up their's. None of us are really kids anymore and teen/adult-stockings are a little harder to buy for, but it really is fun when you finally find something you know they'll love!

Here's some of my favorite stocking stuffers:

Does your family have a Stocking tradition?

Pro-Tip: I look through clearance items year-round (like the One Spot in Target or the red-line items in Claires) and keep a shoebox-full of stocking stuffers. It's a fun box to go through when it's time to start thinking about filling up the stockings. Hoarding for the win!