A Poll about Stockings

[barnwife]

I recently had a discussion in which I learned that my FOO might be in an extreme minority with something. It's something I now do with our kids. I don't care if we really are in the minority, I am just curious.

So, without further ado, are the items in Christmas stockings in your household wrapped?

 

[Spryte]

Some items are, some are not. My FOO did not wrap stockings stuffers. My, ummm, second FOO (divorce/remarriage—blended family) did. I liked it, as a kid. DH has no preference on this. So now we wrap some things, leave some unwrapped — whatever strikes the stuffer’s fancy. Last year nothing was wrapped at all. 

[sweet2ndchance]

I choose no but in reality, there is nothing to wrap in the stockings as I generally only put candy or loved food items in the stockings. so I put them in the stocking in whatever packaging they came in.

[Kassia]

I wrap but am ready to be done with that.  It's just way too much wrapping - we do 9 stockings.  Well, I stopped wrapping my own this year so I'm wrapping for 8 now.

[mommyoffive]

We don't wrap anything at all.  Stockings or not.

[mlktwins]

My FOO did not wrap stocking stuffers.  I do not as they come from Santa and he doesn’t have time for that 🤣.

[kirstenhill]

I actually never knew that some people wrapped stocking stuffers! To me the stocking IS the wrapping, just like a gift bag would be if you like bags and tissue paper. Once or twice I've put a layer of tissue paper over the top of the stocking if things are peeking out.  We do a traditional "stocking photo" every year with kids holding their stockings so it's nice to still have a slight bit of anticipation and not be able to visibly see the top items during the photo. 

[strawberries]

Not wrapped here, and not in either of our families growing up.

[Innisfree]

Our stockings are relatively small, and used only for candy and nuts (plus the traditional orange in the toe). So, no, nothing in there is wrapped. Presents “from Santa” go on the hearth under the stockings, and aren’t wrapped either. These days, that only really includes stuff for the pets. Presents from family are wrapped and go under the tree.

ETA  I just checked with dh, and his family had the same stocking tradition, just like my family did.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Innisfree

[fraidycat]

Yes, we wrap the stocking stuffers. 

My mom always wrapped them because we were allowed, actually supposed to, open our stockings before we woke Mom and Dad up on Christmas morning to open the big gifts. It was their way of catching a few more winks of sleep after their late night. The paper slowed us down a second or two. 😁

I carried on the same tradition.

[kokotg]

no...we've never wrapped...not stocking stuff nor non-stocking presents from Santa. I was startled when my Dad married my stepmother and she wrapped stuff in stockings. 

[knitgrl]

Rarely. If the item comes in an ugly, plain box, yes. I picked up an unboxed vintage set of coasters for ds, so those are getting wrapped just to keep them together.

[Granny_Weatherwax]

No, I never wrapped stocking stuffers but not from lack of time. Like a pp stated, I assumed the stocking was the wrapping. I also removed items from most packaging before putting them in the stocking. My FOO never wrapped stocking stuffers either.

[scholastica]

My FOO did wrap and we do. I have no idea if my dh’s FOO did or not. 

[Serenade]

We wrap most of the stocking stuffers.  We use all the scraps from wrapping other gifts, so sometimes stocking stuffers are wrapped with multiple papers, and the wrapping can be patched together anyway.  They do not need to be perfect and beautiful!  That's half the fun.

[alisoncooks]

53 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

We don't wrap anything at all.  Stockings or not.

40 minutes ago, kokotg said:

no...we've never wrapped...not stocking stuff nor non-stocking presents from Santa. I was startled when my Dad married my stepmother and she wrapped stuff in stockings. 

My FOO didn’t wrap the things that Santa brought. DH always thought this was strange, and I never knew any other family that did this!  All the gifts were displayed, and my brother and I would sneak out super early and see everything Santa brought. (I wrap everything now.)

Stockings are mostly food items so no wrapping. Sometimes there’s small gifts - those are wrapped. 

[Farrar]

Some wrapped, some not. Usually in matching tissue paper. My mom was good about dolling everything up. She'd often give each stocking a little tissue paper and ribbon combo color. Generally candy is not wrapped though and there are some things allowed to poke out. So I do the same.

Dh's FOO did not doll up anything. They were feeding frenzy Christmas types. And his father's lack of appropriate wrapping on gifts is an ongoing family joke.

[skimomma]

Wrapped for sure!  If something is awkward shaped, it might go in loose but in general everything is wrapped.  Since I am the procurer and stuffer of all things stockings and I live in a tiny house with no closets, I have to wrap everything as soon as I get it in the house or it could be discovered.  

In both my and dh's FOO, as others have mentioned, stockings were fair game before the rest of the house was up.  So when I was little, the things in the stocking were selected based on what might keep us occupied the longest (puzzles, food, activity books, crafts, etc....).  I theory that would also be true in my house before we were empty-nested, but my dd would sleep well past all adults, even as a toddler, and had to be awakened to open gifts every year.

[alisoncooks]

16 minutes ago, Farrar said:

Dh's FOO did not doll up anything. They were feeding frenzy Christmas types. And his father's lack of appropriate wrapping on gifts is an ongoing family joke.

This is how DH’s foo is. Present opening at their house is absolute chaos — no pausing to say thanks or acknowledge anything. No appreciation of a gift before chunking it aside to open the next. I hate it so much. 

Because of the above, when we’re at home we take turns opening gifts, and everyone gets to see it and ooh and ahh over it. 

[Faith-manor]

Unique. Some years we do them, some years we don't. And during the years we do, since I do most of the wrapping, it depends on if I have time to wrap or are just stuffing those stockings at midnight and off to bed. On the years when we have only done them for the grandsons, I have wrapped the items for them for sure.

This year we have stockings hanging up, and the only thing going into them - grandsons will be with their other grandparents in upstate NY - we are putting batteries, candy, dried fruit, and socks (all of our adult sons and our soon to be daughter in law report the need for socks), and so I probably will not wrap them.

[skimomma]

Anyone else struggle to play Santa?  Our house is very small and the stockings hang from the banister on the stairway.  All sleeping people are within 20 feet of that location.  I usually set an alarm in the middle of the night to fill stockings because I am also usually the first one in bed.  The other people in this house stay up for hours after I do so trying to outlast them is impossible for me.  But then I would be lurking around at 4am with crinkly paper and plastic bags and all the noisy things.  One little game changer was to switch to pillowcases.  I have one for each person....eliminating the need for me to try to read labels in the dark.  And they don't make noise!  In our case, they are also a first defense against being discovered since no one in my house knows I use the pillowcases.  I keep them in the laundry basket out in plain sight and no one is the wiser.  And speaking of laundry......no one in my house except me ever opens the dryer door.  This is also a good hiding place for gifts.  Even if someone got crazy and did laundry, I would have at least until the washer ended to rescue the items.  So there is one (tiny) upside to my family's refusal to do laundry......

[Farrar]

My kids have always known I was Santa, so I never had to sneak around. I was just like, okay, I'm taking the stockings to fill, go to bed childrens. Now we all swap stocking names so every year you have someone's to fill. Everyone takes it with them to bed and brings it down in the morning.

[MEmama]

17 minutes ago, alisoncooks said:

This is how DH’s foo is. Present opening at their house is absolute chaos — no pausing to say thanks or acknowledge anything. No appreciation of a gift before chunking it aside to open the next. I hate it so much. 

Because of the above, when we’re at home we take turns opening gifts, and everyone gets to see it and ooh and ahh over it. 

Ugh, this is my in-laws. I’d never seen adults behave like that before spending a Christmas with them; it was awful. They are the same with meals—they just start eating even before everyone has had a chance to sit down at the table. I’m far from fussy nor am I any sort of traditionalist, but they display an ingratitude that just doesn’t sit well with me at all. 

[skimomma]

3 minutes ago, Farrar said:

My kids have always known I was Santa, so I never had to sneak around. I was just like, okay, I'm taking the stockings to fill, go to bed childrens. Now we all swap stocking names so every year you have someone's to fill. Everyone takes it with them to bed and brings it down in the morning.

There are no minor children in my house and even when there was, no one truly believed Santa was real, but somehow I still feel compelled to make it secret.  Dh also fills my stocking and somehow does it every year with me not knowing when or where he hides the goods.  It is probably a dumb thing to lose sleep over but here we are......  I won't even go into the heroic lengths I went to years ago when we spent Christmas Eve in a hotel every year.  

[Kassia]

45 minutes ago, Serenade said:

  We use all the scraps from wrapping other gifts, so sometimes stocking stuffers are wrapped with multiple papers, and the wrapping can be patched together anyway.  They do not need to be perfect and beautiful!  That's half the fun.

I do this too! 

[EKS]

Santa doesn't wrap presents.

[Farrar]

3 minutes ago, MEmama said:

Ugh, this is my in-laws. I’d never seen adults behave like that before spending a Christmas with them; it was awful. They are the same with meals—they just start eating even before everyone has had a chance to sit down at the table. I’m far from fussy nor am I any sort of traditionalist, but they display an ingratitude that just doesn’t sit well with me at all. 

Just in defense of the feeding frenzy types... my paternal grandparents' house was a bit like this. It was super chaotic. But it was small, they were poor, there was a lot of good humor to it. It wasn't because they weren't grateful. It was because people were coming and going and there wasn't always room at the table (or even on the floor) and adults were often just as ready to see everything opened. I have a lot of thoughts about this sort of thing. It rubbed me the wrong way seeing it in my in-laws as well. But also, the older I've gotten, the more I've been able to draw some distance and think about traditions in a different way. I don't know... it's complex. There's a beauty in the frenzy too, even if it'll never be what I personally gravitate towards.

[Soror]

No, I didn't even know that was a thing people do. I keep stocking stuffer items put away until the night before and then just put it in that morning. I actually like wrapping presents but stockings are usually just snacks that tend to be odd sizes and they are so small it seems like a waste to wrap it. 

[Starr]

28 minutes ago, Farrar said:

My kids have always known I was Santa, so I never had to sneak around. I was just like, okay, I'm taking the stockings to fill, go to bed childrens. Now we all swap stocking names so every year you have someone's to fill. Everyone takes it with them to bed and brings it down in the morning.

Great idea. This will be our new go to when we all land in the same place for Christmas some fine year.

[Farrar]

Just now, Starr said:

Great idea. This will be our new go to when we all land in the same place for Christmas some fine year.

It's fun! We started doing this when I was in college and it was actually really nice for multigenerational connections. Like, being a young adult filling a grandparent or great-aunt's stocking is nice. Or having to do your sibling's. It's sort of fun.

[marbel]

We don't wrap stocking gifts but it hasn't anything to do with time, just habit. My parents didn't wrap stocking gifts either. Not sure about my husband's family. Now everyone gets something for each person's stocking (there are only 4 of us, all adults), which is fun. We do sneak around but I am always the last up so the last to fill. When my kids were very little and my husband very busy/more absent-minded than now, I always put something in my own stocking so it wouldn't be empty in the morning. (And he was always sheepish about it and finally got it together.)

Not to do with stockings, but my husband's family didn't wrap gifts from Santa. They were just under the tree unwrapped. That threw me off the first year but whatever. We (husband and I) never did Santa so our kids knew the gifts were from their grandparents. (Which ticked the grandparents off.)  

[73349]

We do stockings (contents not wrapped and heavily slanted toward candy) but not Santa.

At our house, DS and I send DH out of the room and fill his stocking. Then I step out so DH and DS can fill mine. Then DS must go up to bed so DH and I can fill his. He is never more cheerful about going to bed on time than Christmas Eve.

[theelfqueen]

No. Not wrapped. 

[SKL]

A special / nice item such as jewelry will be wrapped.  But most of our stocking stuffers are relatively unexciting and unwrapped.

[Loowit]

We don't wrap stocking stuff.  Neither DH or I grew up with wrapped things in our stockings.  Gifts from Santa were also not wrapped, they were just left next to the stocking or near the tree with a tag.  Now we won't do big Santa gifts anymore, just stockings, and still not wrapped.

I had never heard of Santa wrapping presents until I watched a show with my kids when they were little.  They were very confused because at the time they still sort of believed in Santa.  But they decided it was because all the countries have their own Christmas traditions and it was a British show, and Santa of course is good about sticking with traditions for people's countries.

[ScoutTN]

Santa gifts are not wrapped here, so no wrapping on stocking gifts. Even though we are way past Santa!
 

[*Jessica*]

3 hours ago, Farrar said:

It's fun! We started doing this when I was in college and it was actually really nice for multigenerational connections. Like, being a young adult filling a grandparent or great-aunt's stocking is nice. Or having to do your sibling's. It's sort of fun.

I’m totally copying this tradition as soon as my youngest finds out it’s us filling her stocking every year!  

[Brittany1116]

Some years we wrap, others we don't. Stockings are generally just treats and small or cheap items. 

I am going to start doing the assigned wrapping paper scrap in stocking each year so no one knows which gifts are theirs until they get their stocking. My kids picked their wrap this year so we can skip labels, but they have been asking why they don't see any with their paper. LoL They are hidden and only extended family's gifts are out. 

[Tap]

I usually wrap in tissue paper. Just a little something to slow down the process and make it more fun, but not full on wrapping with foil paper and bows

Sometimes, if there is one left outside the stocking (ie too big), it is wrapped nicer.

Edited December 12, 2022 by Tap

[barnwife]

5 hours ago, EKS said:

Santa doesn't wrap presents.

Disclaimer: Some of the following is TIC. I'll leave it to individual posters to decide which parts qualify.

Wrong. Absolutely wrong (at least in this house).

First, thanks to everyone who has answered.

Now...I'll let it be known that in my FOO everything gets wrapped, stocking or not. I actually didn't know that this wasn't the case for everyone until I was an adult. When my sister married BIL, I was horrified (rightly, of course) to learn that Santa didn't wrap stuff in his house growing up. A few years later, a friend showed me a picture of their living room, in which nothing under the tree was wrapped. It was all from Santa and they didn't do family gifts. Again, I was horrified. Part of the fun of Christmas growing up was stretching gift opening as long as we could.

We could usually make it until almost lunch (with a break to go to church).

FWIW, Santa doesn't use special paper. He uses whatever he's got for stocking stuffers and presents. He even reuses paper! (Clearly he cares about the environment.) Also, with 5 kids in this house, it is time-consuming, but it isn't changing.

[EKS]

22 minutes ago, barnwife said:

Wrong. Absolutely wrong (at least in this house).

Must not be Santa then, because Santa doesn't wrap presents.  He has enough problems driving the sleigh all around the world in 24 hours.

 

[Drama Llama]

Santa wraps here.  The last couple years, he's gotten a packet of new socks, nothing fancy the kind that's 10 pairs for $10 at Target, and wrapped things up in those.  It's environmentally friendly, plus it makes the presents bigger so it takes less to fill the stockings.  

 

Sorry, I misspoke, he had his elves knit socks that look exactly like those 10/$10 ones at Target.  Of course Santa does not give Target socks!  

[Drama Llama]

6 minutes ago, EKS said:

Must not be Santa then, because Santa doesn't wrap presents.  He has enough problems driving the sleigh all around the world in 24 hours.

 

Of course Santa does not wrap the presents.  ELVES wrap the presents. 

[EKS]

18 minutes ago, BandH said:

Of course Santa does not wrap the presents.  ELVES wrap the presents. 

Most certainly not!  It's not in their contract.

[Boymama5]

Growing up the things in the stockings were each wrapped. I just don’t have the time, energy or desire to, so I don’t wrap anything unless for some reason it’s too big for the stocking. We do stockings on St. Nicks day so that’s different too. Nothing in them for Christmas morning. 

[Pippen]

Growing up we had mostly candy and if we had other items, they most often weren't wrapped.

When my kids were small and very early risers, I started wrapping every little thing and include some items to keep them occupied. They could come out early and take the stocking back to their bedrooms and have at it until a set time. It made the start of the Christmas day soooo much easier for everyone.

Now I include mostly candy and wrap nothing.

[marbel]

When I was a kid... Santa used special paper for the gifts he left us. It was the same every year, and looked a lot like wallpaper. 

(I never found out how my mother came to have that big roll of wallpaper, and where she stored it in our little house.)

OK, I know I shouldn't say this because I get that people do things differently, and my way isn't the right way for anyone but me, but it seems seeing all unwrapped gifts under the tree would not be as much fun as opening? And it would be horrible to see, say, a guitar and then realize it's for your older brother and you got a xylophone? 

I do agree that it is environmentally sound, much better than wrapping paper (or wallpaper). 

[knitgrl]

Interesting. We never had gifts from Santa. A stocking, yes. (Also, because my mother learned from her mother, who was an Anglophile and apparently that is the way things were done in the UK way back when, stockings were laid at the end of children's beds. Which, after becoming a parent, I decided was genius, because it buys you at least 30 more minutes of quiet on Christmas morning.) But Santa never left any gifts under the tree. This created some confusion after marrying dh, because Santa put gifts under the tree at his house when he was growing up.

[footballmom]

Santa brings one wrapped gift for each child and does not wrap stocking things.  Santa’s main elf does an excellent job curating stocking items each year that delight the kids and are a balance of fun and practical.  She should probably negotiate for an end of season bonus 😉 

[LifeLovePassion]

Nope. I have even gone so far as to not wrap gifts, but just pile packages under the tree as they arrive (in our busiest years) and I made cloth bags too. I didn't like the extra waste associated with wrapping of time, money and non recyclable paper.