Okay, we didn’t have a chimney, but we did have stockings! My Mom went to the mall where a vendor would be putting names in glitter on red and white stockings. I can’t find a picture of them, but I remember they had a Santa on the front that was fashioned after the Hallmark Santa of the late 1960s and early 1970s.
When we decorated the house (probably the day after Halloween–LOL), the stockings were hung on the wall. All 6 of them. The five of us plus our dog, Bubbles.
My Dad worked swing shift for Safeway (in the bakery manufacturing plant). He never had Christmas Eve off. His shift ended around 8 am and he was usually home by 9:30 am. We always opened presents together, my Dad handing them out one by one. In order to keep the natives from getting restless, my Mom allowed us to attack our stockings first thing in the morning.
They were find with all kinds of things from necessities like socks and underwear to little toys and as we got older cassette tapes and perfume/cologne. It must have taken Santa’s Elves forever to wrap all the stuff for our stockings.
Those stockings fell apart long ago. None of our original stockings made it past 1980. The yearly abuse too much for them.
I still hang up stockings, though Santa doesn’t fill mine anymore. Misha’s will have a couple goodies in it, since she’s still a pup.
