‘Tis the season for people to decorate their homes for the holidays. A lot of homes in Hamburg decorate their homes with large socks called stockings, which are a Christmas tradition originally from the first stories of Saint Nicholas. Saint Nicholas was a 4th-century bishop that was what originally inspired Santa Claus from his generous acts. The story goes that Saint Nicholas helped a poor family of four by dropping bags of gold for the three girls down the chimney, which ended up landing in stockings that were drying by the fire. That gold changed their lives, which caused them to spread word of that miracle, and people hoped Saint Nicholas would come to them next, therefore creating a hopeful tradition.
Most students that go to Hamburg celebrate Christmas and participate in the tradition of stockings. However, chimneys are less prominent in current houses, which causes a lot of students to decorate their railings or bookshelves with their stockings instead. These stockings are not just for the kids, but for most pets and parents as well. Families buy each other items called stocking stuffers to literally place inside stockings until the stockings are full. Most stocking stuffers are given based on what the person may like or dislike. However, over the years, students develop opinions on what the best or worst items to find in the stocking may be.
Seniors Kameron Driebelbis, Madden Dietrich, Delaney Muller, Andrew Koval, and Oliver Pursley have shared their opinions on these surprising items in their stockings.
Kameron Driebelbis finds that his favorite thing to find inside his stocking is snacks and candy. However, Kameron says “deodorant is the worst thing to find since I have too much already.” Madden Dietrich says that she loved finding gift cards for Dunkin’, Amazon, Walmart, Target, or any other places because they are “useful to me, and allow me to choose what I want instead of hoping for the right thing.” Delaney Muller says she likes finding personal, handwritten notes in her stockings because they are “sweet and unique gifts.” She despises finding socks because it is “just weird to pull socks out of a larger sock.” Andrew says he is very happy when his family “puts chocolate or specialty beef sticks and jerky” in his stocking for Christmas. He says “bad items in stockings are back scratchers or toiletries, and anything with little to no use.” The last senior to share their opinion is Oliver Pursley, who agrees with Delaney about socks being the worst “because why would you gift someone socks? It is an impersonal gift that most people do not want.” Oliver says the best is “probably those little figures that an individual likes, much like how I like cats and red pandas and I’d be happy to find figures of those in my stocking.” Also, Oliver says they think anything meaningful like a letter would be a valuable gift. Oliver also mentioned how art supplies or jewelry are also great to find in a stocking.
Two students who are not seniors also shared their views on stocking stuffers. Greta Fink said her favorite thing to find is gift cards, similar to what Madden said. She said “finding random useless stuff in my stocking is the worst.” Landon Poulios says that he “really likes finding chocolate because it is a nice treat that will usually last me until Easter.” However, Landon says he dislikes finding any health product since he says he “buys that for myself, and finding those items like deodorant in my stocking is like a hidden message, which is pretty rude.”
Overall, students at Hamburg seemed to agree that gift cards and personal items like a letter are great for stockings, while deodorant and anything with little to no use is terrible to find in a stocking. Happy Holidays!
For more information on the origin of stocking stuffers, visit https://christmasenthusiasts.co.uk
