"The Lonely Little Stocking"

It is making up to be a wild night on the Bayou! The wind is whipping around the house and rain is pelting the rooftop. It is the perfect night for a little reminiscing! One of my favorite Christmas treasures is a little paper booklet in the shape of a Christmas stocking.. "The Lonely Little Stocking". I have no clue exactly where this darling little booklet came from nor when exactly it came into the family. It is a promotional pamphlet for Kerotest Manufacturing Company and I imagine made its way into our family in the late 1950's or early 1960's..I have no way of knowing. I remember hearing this story as far back as memory serves..and that is a long, long time. The story relates the thoughts of a little stocking that was kept in the bottom of a dusty old trunk until one Christmas Eve, a little girl pulled it out. She shook out all of the dust and told her mother that since Santa always left toys for all of the children, she was going to leave him a gift. She would put it in the stocking near the fireplace so Santa would be sure to find it. When Santa came, the little stocking (even though most socks usually have difficulty vocalizing their thoughts) spoke to him, telling him of the little girl's gift. Santa being the magical dude he is, clearly and unarguably can communicate with inanimate objects such as dusty old socks. Santa was impressed with the girl's generosity and left her a very special gift in the stocking thus starting the custom of hanging stockings on Christmas Eve! This little booklet is taken out every year and if by chance any little ones visit the Bayou House, it is read to them. I am not sure if they are enchanted by this little paper book when they are bombarded with movies, computer graphics and television shows for an entire month before Christmas, but I still love the story.

My children's Christmas stockings with one from my childhood on top!

Speaking of stockings, I pulled out my children's Christmas Stockings today. The stockings will surely be hung from the mantel on Christmas Eve even if they cannot be on the Bayou. These are the "old style" stockings..not those knitted or fleece gigantic monsters of stockings that hang from many mantels. Those are beautiful, true..but for some reason I am clinging fast to so many memories from the past. When my first child was born, I found the same type stocking that I had as a child. Then and there I had the foresight to buy several..just in case other babies would eventually join the first..two others did..all had neat "old style" stockings! For some strange reason..I now have about a dozen or so of these. When we were children, my siblings and I would awake on Christmas morn and run to the mantel to get our goodies. Almost invariably, there would be some tin windup toy (I always seemed to get a duck! Why a tin duck? Quack, quack..wobble, wobble..fall over.), an orange (remember..the satsuma?) and a bright shiny penny with the current year's date! (Wow! Santa was amazing!) This tradition was carried over to Santa's visits to our house. The orange would make a huge bulge in the bottom of the stocking and cause it to stretch into the most unattractive shape ever imaginable. (The stocking would be nearly double in length by morning with a grotesque bulge at the toe.) It became extremely difficult to find tin windup toys as everything was being made from plastics (and I could never find a duck!). The shiny penny..I still have that one under control! I am not sure what the penny was for but it was always there in the bottom of the stocking..way down under the orange! Ahh, memories! What better way to spend a wild, wintry night on the Bayou....