Sunday, November 29, 2009

Stockin's!

Okay friends, time to take a poll here. This relates to a very large part of Christmas, a part that is essential to Christmas morning and is also an aesthetic pleasure throughout the season preceding Christmas:

Stockings.

Awesome, yes. Somehow, Josh and I have never had stockings at our home. Both of our stockings have remained at our respective parents' homes, and thus our home has been stocking-less. That's right, Cubbie doesn't even have one! Oh the horrors! :)

So. Here's the deal. I don't knit and while I try to be crafty, my focus nowadays is more on not hurling rather than being overly creative. So, it looks like Cub and I will be taking out the front-wheel drive sleigh tomorrow to hunt down the perfect stockings to hang on our, um, wall. Because we don't have a fireplace.

(Which should make the topic of not explaining Santa to Cub just a little easier. "See, this fat guy in a red suit comes down the chimney ... that we uh, don't have ...")

SO! Here's the dilemma. I've always had a bit of a matchy-matchy house when it comes to Christmas. My whole house is typically done with gold, amber, and clear and frosted glass. Especially snowflakes. But, I kind of think that stockings should be personalized, you know? And while I won't be whipping out the needle and thread any time soon to embroider each footy, part of me wants to veer away from the matchy-matchy path and find stockings that are just kind of fun, you know?

So, I'm curious. What do your stockings look like? Do you have a decorative "theme" throughout your home with which your stockings comply or do you have homemade stockings that are fun and unique? I'm almost thinking of getting some glitter (non-toxic) paint and letting Cub go to town on his. Is that crazy?

So. What do you think??

9 comments:

  1. I've been on the hunt for stockings with a bit more style and character than the basic ones we got at Target the first year we were married. I like things to match as well. I was hoping to find some on etsy but so far no luck. Pottery Barn has some nice (but $$ ones) that you can have monogrammed, maybe worth the investment if you use them for a lifetime? Homegoods had quite a few but none of them went together, just a bunch of random ones. You might try Hobby Lobby as well. Gordmans and Pier1 might be a good place to look as well. Anywhere that sells lots of home decor.

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  2. We don't have anything near a "matchy-matchy" home...we just go with what we like! I have a purple stocking since that is my favorite color. Berek has a simple red stocking with his initial "B" on it, and Brevin currently has a stocking with a big, cheery Santa face on it. When picking out a stocking for Brevin last year, nothing seemed good enough because it wasn't "personal" for him. It was just me picking out what he might like...as a 3 month old at the time??!! When he is a little older, I would like him to choose what kind of stocking he would like to have to be his "forever" stocking. For now, we will stick with the Santa one.

    Stockings are our absolute favorite in our house!! I LOVE your idea of having Caleb go to town making his own!! I would do it if I had thought of it! I say you should go for it!!

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  3. I'm very matchy match. Our house is decorated in a deep red, moss green and silver tones. Our stockings are very simple. I like simple. They are coordinating red/green with our names embroidered from Pottery Barn. I'm sure when our kids are old enough to want to help decorate, the matchy match will go out the window, so for now, I enjoy the uniformity. ;)

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  4. I grew up in a "to each his own" stocking home, bought matching ones when we were first married, decided last year that I don't care for those anymore, and realized this year that we'll need one more for Baby Poe next year so they are not worth replacing just yet. I think we might do coordinating but unique (monogrammed or a different pattern in the same color scheme?) stockings next year. We have an awesome Pottery Barn outlet here, so if you see something there that you like, let me know and I'll see if I can find you a steal here in Memphis!

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  5. I outlawed glitter a long time ago, but that's just me. Mom bought the stockings we have. Their puffy cotton snow men and penguins that hang on Christmas train stocking holders the boys think is the Polar Express train. The kids LOVE them. It's definitely a favorite part of Christmas morning :)

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  6. My mom made our stockings for her house a long time ago, so I grew up with sort of patchwork-y stockings. As you've seen, the stockings I use to decorate at our house here go with the blue, white and silver theme of the rest of the Christmas decor. They were sort of make-shift additions I whipped up one year, but I might get a little fancier when Baby is here for next Christmas. I like Leslie's monogram idea...might steal!

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  7. We bought stockings at Old Navy a few years ago and they are super fun! Jason's is long and skinny and striped...and mine is red and shiny. When we were kids our folks always put our stockings on the foot of our beds (don't know why because we did have a fireplace), but I absolutely loved waking up to something heavy by my feet and diving to the end of the bed and dumping the contents out into my covers. Ahh...good memories. Have fun!

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  8. (Ha ha--Alyson, I wrote glitter PAINT, not just glitter!! I banned glitter from my house just from ME using it!! Forget putting it in the hands of a mini me!!)

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  9. We have matching monogrammed stockings with a D, W and L. We found them at Kirklands! Since we aren't finished having kiddos yet, I'm gonna wait until our fam is filled and then get matching monogrammed ones with all our full first names. I can't do it now in case I can't find them again with my next bebe! But I am loving ours this year. Our mantle looks complete with 3, rather than the previous years 2.

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