Warning to young mothers

[Anne in CA]

Any craft you make with a holiday theme may be considered to be of sentimental value to your children and you may have to see it, year after year, no matter how embarrassing to you it may be. Any time you mention that this might be the last year that you use that table runner, tree skirt, cookie tray your children may screech that of course that will not happen. 

 

Just a warning.

[LaxMom]

:lol: Also, while a tree decorated with entirely edible ornaments may seem like a great idea to protect your treasured breakables from toddlers, you will likely have a sticky, licked, bitten looking tree by Christmas.

[Moxie]

Also, before you make that beautiful cross-stitch stocking, picture yourself with 5 or 6 kids. Do you really want to cross-stitch that many stockings?

 

Or worse, answer the questions of your younger children every year when they are STILL using the fuzzy, red Dollar Store stockings after you promised that THIS would be the year you caught up??

 

Do yourself a favor and pick something easy to replicate.

[Alice]

Also, before you make that beautiful cross-stitch stocking, picture yourself with 5 or 6 kids. Do you really want to cross-stitch that many stockings?

 

Or worse, answer the questions of your younger children every year when they are STILL using the fuzzy, red Dollar Store stockings after you promised that THIS would be the year you caught up??

 

Do yourself a favor and pick something easy to replicate.

 

And this is even more embarrassing if you only have 3!

[Tenaj]

Also, before you make that beautiful cross-stitch stocking, picture yourself with 5 or 6 kids. Do you really want to cross-stitch that many stockings?

 

Or worse, answer the questions of your younger children every year when they are STILL using the fuzzy, red Dollar Store stockings after you promised that THIS would be the year you caught up??

 

Do yourself a favor and pick something easy to replicate.

 

This is my life.  I think the kids have finally given up.  My two oldest have beautiful cross-stitched stockings.  The third kidlet's stocking is about 25% done in my sewing basket so I'm *only* 5 and 3/4 kids behind.    We all have different stockings now for public display.  I did notice that my oldest daughter has her fancy stocking hanging in her room.  

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

DD just found an ornament she made 7 years ago in PS K and said, "Oh yeah, this is from the bad old days."

[GSOchristie]

Also, before you make that beautiful cross-stitch stocking, picture yourself with 5 or 6 kids. Do you really want to cross-stitch that many stockings?

 

Or worse, answer the questions of your younger children every year when they are STILL using the fuzzy, red Dollar Store stockings after you promised that THIS would be the year you caught up??

 

Do yourself a favor and pick something easy to replicate.

I had grand designs on making us stockings the year Asher was born because I was on maternity leave. Then Pottery Barn put them on sale for $19.99 with free shipping and $6 monogram. I never looked back. I just went on every time someone new was born and painlessly ordered a new one :).

[Moxie]

I had grand designs on making us stockings the year Asher was born because I was on maternity leave. Then Pottery Barn put them on sale for $19.99 with free shipping and $6 monogram. I never looked back. I just went on every time someone new was born and painlessly ordered a new one :).

No one likes a braggart.

[Tmhearn]

Also, before you make that beautiful cross-stitch stocking, picture yourself with 5 or 6 kids. Do you really want to cross-stitch that many stockings?

 

Or worse, answer the questions of your younger children every year when they are STILL using the fuzzy, red Dollar Store stockings after you promised that THIS would be the year you caught up??

 

Do yourself a favor and pick something easy to replicate.

I see what your problem is... According to the ages listed in your signature, your kids should be cross-stitching their own stockings. ;-)

[GSOchristie]

http://www.potterybarnkids.com/products/quilted-stockings/?pkey=cseasonal-sale&

 

Here's your chance $18 and free shipping :).

[MFG]

Also, before you make that beautiful cross-stitch stocking, picture yourself with 5 or 6 kids. Do you really want to cross-stitch that many stockings?

 

Or worse, answer the questions of your younger children every year when they are STILL using the fuzzy, red Dollar Store stockings after you promised that THIS would be the year you caught up??

 

Do yourself a favor and pick something easy to replicate.

Only the first one ever got finished. The owner of said stocking is now 31yo.

[Moxie]

Only the first one ever got finished. The owner of said stocking is now 31yo.

Forget cord care, THESE are the things hospitals should be telling new parents!

[zoobie]

I had grand designs on making us stockings the year Asher was born because I was on maternity leave. Then Pottery Barn put them on sale for $19.99 with free shipping and $6 monogram. I never looked back. I just went on every time someone new was born and painlessly ordered a new one :).

Pottery Barn Kids changed the size and quality of their stockings between kids 2 and 3. They're smaller and cheap feeling. Gah!

[GSOchristie]

One of the advantages of having 3 kids in four years, they didn't have time to change the stockings and mess up my mantle :).

[Chris in VA]

If your mom decides your family needs new stockings, don't let her knit them.

 

They stretch.

 

A.lot. 

[gardenmom5]

If your mom decides your family needs new stockings, don't let her knit them.

 

They stretch.

 

A.lot. 

that's what linings are for.  ;p

 

after needlepointing four kid stockings, I eventually did two more for dh and myself.  then I had dudeling, so I did another.  so seven total.   the first year, not sure how, but I did two stockings for 1 & 2 dd when they were little.  1dd was old enough to chose her pattern.  everyone else got what I chose.  I did make some changes to patterns to make them all have a white bar across the top for the name.

[mommymilkies]

:lol:  Especially not big, messy crafts.  Like having each kid do a diorama when you have a bunch of kids.  Or any number of crafts that take up large amounts of space and don't have the decency to be edible and thus timely removed from rotation.  Or ones that the pets insist on murdering and you end up having to make every.single.year. when the kids find the mutilated remains (wool angels are a big feast item here). 

[Guest]

Christmas stockings should be no bigger than tween's sock or the right size to be completely filled by a 12 oz can of beer if you don't have a clue how big that is.

 

Trust me, just trust me.

 

dil is going to hate me the first year or two, but she'll thank me in the end.

[Aspasia]

I had grand designs on making us stockings the year Asher was born because I was on maternity leave. Then Pottery Barn put them on sale for $19.99 with free shipping and $6 monogram. I never looked back. I just went on every time someone new was born and painlessly ordered a new one :).

Yep, this is may plan next year when new (and final) baby is here. I've been waiting to buy our "forever" stockings all at once. I originally had plans to make my own, but then I saw the Pottery Barn sale this year, and well, I know myself. So Pottery Barn it is...next year. Here's hoping my older kids haven't become too attached to the ugly mismatched Target stockings we've been using since they were born.

[xixstar]

I now need to buy 5 or maybe 6 just in case of those pottery barn stockings.

 

DH was teasing me about our Xmas eve tradition of opening up new pjs and watching a Xmas movie. Especially the part where I finish sewing the pjs just 20 minutes before opening.

[merry gardens]

Also, before you make that beautiful cross-stitch stocking, picture yourself with 5 or 6 kids. Do you really want to cross-stitch that many stockings?

 

Or worse, answer the questions of your younger children every year when they are STILL using the fuzzy, red Dollar Store stockings after you promised that THIS would be the year you caught up??

 

Do yourself a favor and pick something easy to replicate.

 

:rofl:

I managed four hand-made stockings for dh and my three oldest. Then came twins--and it's been store bought stockings since.  My dh suggested last week that we buy some kits and let the middle children stitch their own hand made stockings.

[Amy in NH]

Christmas stockings should be no bigger than tween's sock or the right size to be completely filled by a 12 oz can of beer if you don't have a clue how big that is.

 

Trust me, just trust me.

 

dil is going to hate me the first year or two, but she'll thank me in the end.

 

I made quilted stockings for my family that are about this size.  I've found they are just a tad too small, so stuff usually overflows around them onto the "mantel".  But the regular ones are way too big, in my book.

 

Funny thing: I made six stockings when my 3rd child was a baby, all at the same time out of the same pattern.  Of course we were a family of five then, but I knew we would be a family of six someday (and no more than that).  I even labeled the 6th stocking with her name.

[ThatHomeschoolDad]

I must disagree with the small stockings theme.  We have large ones which allow for multiple placement options for some gifts that would normally go under the tree.  That is the way to fill a stocking, and spreads out the day's un-wrapping.  Plastic lined felt using an old pattern from the 60's.

[Murphy101]

Christmas stockings should be no bigger than tween's sock or the right size to be completely filled by a 12 oz can of beer if you don't have a clue how big that is.

 

Trust me, just trust me.

 

dil is going to hate me the first year or two, but she'll thank me in the end.

And it's a whole lot easier to find somewhere to hang them when you have 10 of them to hang. Ours are all about the size of woman's hand. Just big enough for a bit of candy, gift cards, maybe one small toy. That's it. Some years we hang a little something off the edge of the stocking, but mostly it does the job.

 

But we aren't really interested in extending the gift opening. We have always had a 3 gifts policy. 2 from us, 1 from Santa. Tho every. Single. Year. Dh tries to convince me that we don't calculate the Santa gift, which would bring it up to four gifts each. No, dear, reign it in bc if I can't go nuts at Easter, then he can't for Christmas. That's been the treaty since the Easter Extravganza of 2001.

[Word Nerd]

My mom sewed two ballerina stockings for my sister and me when we were really little. She decided to make one point to the right and one point to the left so they could face each other when hanging. Then another sister came along and messed up the symmetry, so the one stocking facing a different direction than the other two just looks weird. She should have had another child to balance them out. ;)

[GSOchristie]

Yep, this is may plan next year when new (and final) baby is here. I've been waiting to buy our "forever" stockings all at once. I originally had plans to make my own, but then I saw the Pottery Barn sale this year, and well, I know myself. So Pottery Barn it is...next year. Here's hoping my older kids haven't become too attached to the ugly mismatched Target stockings we've been using since they were born.

 

If you order after Christmas, I bet they will be even cheaper :).

[Murphy101]

My dh's grandparents bought tons and tons of those cheap plain solid red felt ones at wackomart for typically. .99 - $2 each. (Well back then they were probably less than a $1.) and gold or silver glitter glue.

 

No matter who walked in the door at Christmas, grandma would walk into the back room and make sure they had a stocking.

 

I imagine as the kids move out and grow families, dh and I will do something similar.

[Forget-Me-Not]

Ah yes, my 5 yo has been complaining about the penguin print I chose for her stocking when she was a baby (because it's not pink and sparkly). I could make her another. . . They go together in about an hour but I'm not sure I want to open that door and have to make new stockings every time someone decides they don't like their print.

[zoobie]

My dh's grandparents bought tons and tons of those cheap plain solid red felt ones at wackomart for typically. .99 - $2 each. (Well back then they were probably less than a $1.) and gold or silver glitter glue.

 

No matter who walked in the door at Christmas, grandma would walk into the back room and make sure they had a stocking.

 

I imagine as the kids move out and grow families, dh and I will do something similar.

That's so sweet! My best friend's MIL hung her son's ex-girlfriend's personalized stocking until they'd been married a couple of years... They've been married 17 years and have two kids and she still has an unlabeled stocking.

[countrygal]

yeah.... my kids were offended when I said I would paint the rest of the ornaments because I wanted some nice looking ones. Oops. I felt bad for saying that actually. You speak the truth. I do watch what kind of crafts we do now since my kids never want to throw anything away. Ever.