Before we get on to why Christmas stockings are hung by the fireplace, we will know what are Christmas stockings in general. They are an empty sock or a bag that looks like a sock that is usually hung on the eve of Christmas. It plays one of the most essential parts in the Christmas tradition.
For centuries it has been present but a very less amount of attention is normally given to it because of the obsession about Christmas trees.
The reason the stockings are hung by the fireplaces is because Santa Clause would come and drop some goodies, usually known as stocking fillers, inside them before he leaves. Myth says, St. Nicholas was strolling through the town one day where a man lived, who needed help and heard the villagers discussing that family’s plight.
He wanted to help but knew the old man would not accept any kind of charity. Instead, one night, he decides to go down the chimney of the their house and fills the girls’ stockings, which happened to be drying by the fire, beside the fireplace, with gold coins or as per another variation suggests, he threw three bags of gold through an open window, one of which landed in a stocking. And then he wasn’t seen around.
Next day when the girls woke up in the morning, they were overjoyed to discover the greatest gift of their lives. Because of St. Nicholas, the daughters were finally eligible to wed and their father could rest mentally and physically thinking his daughters wouldn’t have to be lonely all their lives.
Though there are several variations of this story, this one stays as reason why the tradition of hanging stockings by the fireplace, continues.
