I was having a hard time keeping up with stockings for all the new people in our family, so I decided to make it easy on myself and stuff one stocking per family.
In the past 3 years, we have added 5 people to our family – 2 daughters-in-law, 1 son-in-law, and 2 grandbabies!
At first, I thought I’d be like Ty’s Granny who packed stockings for every single member of the family every Christmas Eve (and sometimes Christmas morning if she hadn’t gotten around to it the night before!), but I quickly realized that would be part of the Christmas Queen status I would never achieve.
It was too much.
And trust me, I tried! 2 years ago when there were 3 new family members, I stuffed a stocking for all of them…and about lost my mind. Plus, all those stockings really cluttered up the one place I have to put stockings…the stair bannister.
See how pretty the bannister looks with *only* 12 stockings?!
Notice those lovely needlepoint stockings? Those are all the kiddos. The first few were purchased by my Great Aunt Kay from JC Penny’s. The others were purchased from there and Land’s End when I ran out of options from JC Penny’s!
The red and white crocheted stocking is my childhood stocking. It’s nice and big!
The blue chenille stocking at the top of the stairs is a stocking I bought for Ty long ago. When we first got married, my parents bought him a stocking with a deer wearing a football helmet because he was playing college football at the time. While cute, the stocking itself was rather small and difficult to pack, and well…he no longer plays college football.
As you can see – the bannister is perfect just the way it is, and continuing to add on to the number of stockings was going to quickly make that space look like the front of my refrigerator – a hodge-podgey mess.
So, I did what every normal large family mom does when faced with a large family problem…I called another large family mom. And she told me once a child moves out and starts their own family, their old stocking becomes their family’s stocking. Brilliant!
I followed her advice, and it worked beautifully!
Perhaps you are wondering how this plays out practically. Stockings are only so big, and do people really want to share a stocking?
You can always ask your children if they are ok sharing a stocking with their families, BUT be prepared for their answer to be NO because even adult children are wildly attached to traditions, and if given the chance to keep things the way they have always been, they will opt for that every single time.
So, better to just jump in to a new tradition without asking.
Now, you might be wondering what a packed stocking for a family looks like because you’ve been used to only focusing on 1 person per stocking, and can’t imagine fitting it all into 1 stocking. That’s where you have to get a bit creative (and where your budget will thank you!)
Here’s my method:
- Buy 1-2 small things per person in the family. So, one stocking might look like: beef jerky, a pocket knife, a velour ponytail holder, tinted lip balm, a favorite cartoon figurine, a bath toy, a sippy cup, and baby socks.
- Buy 1 family or couple gift in the form of a gift card. This might be to a coffee shop, a museum, a restaurant, or Walmart or Amazon gift cards.
If you need more stocking ideas or ideas for presents for your adult children and their families, check out the posts below:
Unique Large Family Christmas Gifts
If you are looking to cut the clutter this year and give and receive Christmas gifts that actually HELP you and your loved ones, this post is what you need! Think “Family Gift.”
Everything from Day Trips to Museum Memberships to Appliances (yes, appliances!)
Group & Family Christmas Gifts
Similar concept to the post above, but this is more focused on giving a single gift that works for several children. Think board game, swing set, or motorized dune buggy!
This post explains HOW to figure out a good group gift by sorting children’s likes and interests.
Several years ago, I started doing presents this way, and it has been a hit! Basically, you use a child’s interests to build their Christmas gift list.
Consider each child’s current interest, and then run with it!
Kelly says
I like your idea! I may switch to that when/if the time comes. We have similar family dynamics… I have 9 kids, 5 – 25 yrs old. The 2 oldest are married and we have one grandbaby (and one of the way!). The first two Christmases that we had new daughters-in-law, I replaced our sons’ stockings with mini stockings and gave each couple a coffee shop gc and a bag of specialty chocolates. This year, my large-fam-mom-friend said she decided to not do stockings at all for the grown kids who would not be there on Christmas morn to open gifts/stockings together. I like that idea and will combine her idea with my current tradition by stuffing mini stockings for those who are actually with us. If grandkids start spending Christmas morning with us, I will steal your idea and stuff our child’s childhood stocking with gifts for the whole fam. Love it! Thanks again for the idea! I’ve gleaned many great ideas from you over the years : )
Amy says
Great ideas! We learn so much from our large family mom friends!
Diana says
I put the old-fashioned English stocking items – orange, candy, nuts – in each stocking, same thing each year, and that’s it. Thankfully we started young enough that our kidlets don’t have stocking expectations, and it’s been great. Anything to simplify stockings has my vote! Great job, Amy!
Amy says
Great idea for the stockings!
Melinda Johnson says
I do what my parents always did, an apple and/or orange, some candy, a small gift. But I love that idea for the married kids! I only have one married kid so far and this is his second Christmas married, so I have plenty of time to get this tradition started! We do gifts with them when we are with my in laws (who are big gift givers, but I can just bring it to them and start a new tradition that can continue after my in laws are gone. (which will hopefully won’t be for a long while yet). Then I won’t feel like there’s nothing in his stocking and the house is emptier. Although, for us, it has always felt like the house is fuller! And it’s good to see what others do so I don’t go overboard just with the stocking part. We’ve had to cut back this year due to finances and while it makes me sad on one hand, it has made me reflect more on Jesus all the more (we were already doing it, but can always do more.) I always love your ideas and insights and have been a follower for years and years. We have kids ages 10-23, been homeschooling for 19 years. And I love to share, with younger/inexperienced moms, too, as we should from Titus 2. Keep up the great work and I can’t wait to see how the blog reflects this next phase!
Amy says
Thank you!