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Stocking fillers for Friends

5 November 2008

The term "stocking fillers" has its origins in the fourth century. Legend has it that the three daughters of a widowed nobleman who had fallen on hard times in what is now Turkey (then Asia Minor) were the first ever recipients of stocking fillers. A kindly man dropped a small bag of gold down the chimney for the oldest daughter's dowry, without which she would have been unable to secure a husband and risked being sold into slavery. He returned to repeat his kind gesture as each daughter came of age. By chance, the bags landed in the stockings which the girls had washed and hung to dry on the fireplace, thus becoming stocking fillers. On the first two visits, he managed to leave his gift unseen but on the third occasion he was caught in the act by the grateful father, who thanked him profusely.

The kindly man was Saint Nicholas from which the name Santa Claus is derived. He wasn't called Saint Nicholas at the time, since you have to be dead to be made a saint, so he didn't actually become Saint Nicholas until a hundred years after his death.

In some versions of the story, he throws the bags of money through an open window but this is not such a romantic image as him climbing onto the roof and dropping them down the chimney into the stockings.

The stockings in question would not have been sexy silky numbers, seamed nylons, fishnets or lacy topped hold-ups but something rather more functional for keeping out the cold. "Nylons" didn't appear until the 1940s as nylon was not invented until the 1930s. Stretch nylons didn't become available until the 1950s (thus doing away with the need for a seam down the back) and tights (or pantyhose) began to take over the market in the 1960s.

The idea of hanging up tights for Santa to fill never caught on (despite the potential for twice as many gifts) which is probably just as well as "tight fillers" wouldn't have the same ring as "stocking fillers". The American term "stocking stuffers" is also used but in the UK we associate stuffing more with the turkey (the one we eat, not the country where the story of Santa Claus originated).

In some European countries, it is shoes, not stockings, which are left out to be filled with gifts, originating from a version of the story in which it was the girls' shoes into which the gold was thrown.

In Holland and Belgium, the legend grew that Sinter Klaas came on a white horse, not on Christmas Eve but on 6th December, St Nicholas Day. Dutch children leave carrots and hay in their shoes for the horse. The Dutch settlers introduced the tradition to America where his name became Santa Claus. He has similar names in other countries, including Greece and Japan.

In England, a legendary old man dressed in green, known as Sir Christmas, Old Winter, or Old Father Christmas, visited homes and feasted with families. At first, he did not bring stocking fillers but somehow, he and Santa Claus merged into one character and the names became interchangeable. Meanwhile, other countries have similar legends about a Father Christmas or a Christmas Old Man, In Russia, Grandfather Frost, who wears a long red or blue fur trimmed coat and rides in a horse drawn sleigh, brings New Year gifts. Italy's Father Christmas doesn't arrive to put gifts in shoes until 6th January, in celebration of the gold, frankincense and myrrh brought by the wise men.

Nowadays the term "Stocking Fillers" refers to small inexpensive gifts of the sort that might fit in a stocking, even if they are not actually put into one. The term suggests fun gifts that provide the receivers with the kind of thrill they got as small children when they opened their stockings on Christmas morning.

For inexpensive instant thrills for your friends, you might opt for a Flying Monkey with a cape, a Flying Pig with an oink, a crowing Flying Chicken or one of a range of Mopod characters which dance when their phone rings.

If you are looking for the sort of stocking fillers which will give your friends hours of fun, opt for a "Build your Own" scale model vehicle, a Sudoku Mug, an LCD game or a Juggling Gift Set.

Alternatively, a Grow your Own Gift Box will provide slower paced entertainment that lasts long after Twelfth Night and well into the New Year. You can pick anything from daisies to grass, from cacti to chillies or from carnivorous plants to tea and coffee, any of which would make unusual stocking fillers.
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