Advent Calendar - Christmas Stockings

     A few years back my mom made Christmas stockings for my brothers and me. If you’ve ever been to any craft store or craft department in a large retail store I’m sure you’ve seen these kits. The ones that were felt appliqué with tons and I mean tons of sequins and beads, that all had to be hand sewn. Mom could have picked any kit and I’m sure at one point, okay maybe at a couple points, she wished she would have.

     Each of us had a different Christmas holiday character on the front of our stockings, mine has Santa. As you noticed I used present tense, I still have it. I’m pretty sure that both of my brothers’ do, I think on one was “Frosty the Snowman” and the other one was “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer”. My mom is a very crafty lady and loves to make things with her hands that hold meanings and memories, these stocking do that and the tradition carried on. I remember when my mom would sit in her brown plaid chair and open each little plastic packet of sequins and beads, then work to separate them by color in a metal muffin pan. We were instructed not touch that muffin tin, no matter how pretty and shiny everything was inside of it. We listened and didn’t touch it; we were playing around and bumped it, so that’s not technically touching it. Boy did those sequins fly and make a pretty rainbow of color on the living room floor. Problem is mom didn’t think it was that pretty, once we finished helping her clean them up and separating them by color we didn’t care to see another rainbow of sequins again.    

     Remember I said that I still have mine and the tradition carried on. Well it has, once my oldest son saw my stocking he wanted one so I did as my mom had many years ago. I believe I have finally completed that tradition and now have the same felt appliqué, sequin and bead covered stocking for everyone in the Rodesky household.