Advent Calendar - Christmas Stockings

A post for the Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories

When I was a kid one of my aunts made my brother and I some fancy Christmas stockings - I remember mine was blue and purple, a paisley print maybe? The stocking would be left across the end of the bed on Christmas Eve, and after we were asleep Father Christmas would pop by and leave some goodies in it. On Christmas morning the stocking presents would be the first ones to be opened - they were a free-for-all once we were awake, unlike the tree presents which were the formal part of proceedings post-breakfast.

In my head I remember the stocking in question being quite large. Whether this was just from a child's perspective or not I'm not sure, but there must have been a fair few things in it on Christmas morning - presumably carefully selected bulky items to fill it out!

One constant was the apple and orange. I have read that these were traditional English gifts representing health and good living respectively, but don't imagine the tradition can go back that far in history since oranges aren't exactly a native English winter fruit! My parents also always got an orange and an apple in their stocking-substitute, the pillowcase, and remember the oranges as a big deal since they weren't commonly available in England at all back then. A luxury fruit for a special occasion!