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Christmas Traditions: Christmas Stockings
"The stockings were hung by the
chimney with care
In hopes that Saint Nicholas soon would be there"
 |
According to a very old tradition, the original Saint Nicholas left his very first gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor girls who needed the money for their wedding dowries. The girls had hung their stockings by the fire to dry. The next morning when the daughters awoke they found their stockings contained enough gold for them to get married. The nobleman was able to see his three daughters marry and he lived a long and happy life. |
| Children all over
the world continue the tradition of hanging Christmas stockings. In some
countries children have similar customs, in France the children place their
shoes by the fireplace, a tradition dating back to when children wore wooden
peasant shoes. In Holland the children fill their shoes with hay and a carrot for the horse of Sintirklass. In Hungary children shine their shoes before putting them near the door or a window sill. Italian children leave their shoes out the night before Epiphany, January 5, for La Befana the good witch. And in Puerto Rico children put greens and flowers in small boxes and place them under their beds for the camels of the Three Kings. It is a tradition in most countries that good children receive candy and small toys in their stockings, while children who were bad during the year receive a lump of coal. |
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