At least we can remember  our various holiday traditions, even if we can’t actually do them all this year.

My mother had some German, not Dutch, heritage and perhaps that’s where our family tradition originated. Or perhaps she just read about it and began it with our small family of four. Nevertheless, we always hung up our stockings on December 5 in anticipation that St. Nicholas – not Santa – would fill them.  December 6 is the feast of St. Nicholas and early each December there were our stockings, with our name printed in shiny glitter, filled to the tip top with candy canes, nuts, chocolate coins, a small stuffed animal, a puzzle or a game and in the toe – always an orange!

I have continued the practice with my own children and now my daughter does the same with her son and daughter.  It was a wonderful way to spread out the holiday cheer, to surprise family members with small gifts, and as we children got older, a fun way to think of gifts for our parents’ stockings as well.

This year on the 6th of December, there will be stockings for every family member, hanging on various mantelpieces around the Northeast, and early in the morning, as we shake out the lovingly made long, wool socks, everyone will smile a bit and sigh, and know that tradition, like love, carries us through the smooth spots and rough, year after year.

 

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