More on traditions

My mom's side of the family has a huge sense of tradition that is especially prevalent in the way Christmas is celebrated.  Mom's side of the family's traditions are so deep seeded that they tend to take over any new comer's family tradition and this is especially relative to the Christmas stocking.

EVERYONE has to have this stocking.  If someone marries into the family, guess what?, you get a stocking.  If there is a newborn, guess what?, you get a stocking.

When my mom got remarried, the strangest thing occurred.  As a wedding present, she got OUR stocking from someone she didn't know!  So I began to wonder how common is this stocking pattern?  Some searching on the internet after a fear that our pattern maybe lost came up with some interesting results.

For one thing, this is a popular pattern, and for some reason it has a hold on families all over the place being a permanent fixture on countless family's mantels generation after generation.  The pattern is known as Personalized Christmas Stocking from 1945 by Rae P. Burbank and was advertised in Woman’s Home Companion in November, 1945. (Page 25), and if you look on Ravelry.com you will find many people testifying to their family's tradition involving this stocking.  Karabosse on Ravelry writes:

Everybody in my immediate family has this stocking, made by a friend of the family. A few years ago we realized that my aunt, uncle and cousins had the identical stockings, but made by my uncle’s mother. Well, now my cousin’s getting married and her fiance has (gasp!) only a store-bought stocking. My aunt suggested/demanded that I make Kyle one as a wedding present so he and Stacy could have matching stockings. What a slog this was! My cousin’s stocking was duplicate stitched instead of using intarsia, so that’s how I made his. Now I’m just praying they don’t want matching stockings for their kids-to-be! 

And oh my God, how true this is for my family.

SpiritWings on Ravelry wrote:

I have a story to tell you about this pattern… My grandmother knit 216 of these personalized Christmas stockings. She started the year I was born, and knit one for my dad, my mother, and then me. It was 1956. Over the years, she knit a stocking for every grandchild and great grandchild and many of her friends’ children and grandchildren.

 Anyway, I just thought this was the coolest thing.  And though it is kind of a shock to see that something you thought was a unique and special tradition in your family isn't so unique and special...it is nice to see that there is a connection amongst families that you don't know that is made through a Christmas Stocking.