A stocking is the only part of Christmas where the budget is small and the hit rate is expected to be high. That is a harder brief than the main present, and it rewards a rule or two.
One of Each, Not Six of One
The stockings that land are the ones with variety of kind rather than variety of colour: something to eat, something to wear, something to keep, something to use up. Six small ornaments is a stocking that gets emptied politely. Four different categories is a stocking that gets talked about.
The Keepable One Should Be Datable
The item that survives to next December is almost always the one that can be attached to a year – a knitted miniature, a carved ornament, anything that goes back on the tree. Twelve of those and you have a tree that is a family record rather than a colour scheme.
Fill Order Matters
- Heaviest and least interesting at the toe, where nobody looks first.
- The keepable one two-thirds down, so it arrives after the sweets and before the boredom.
- Something visible at the cuff. A stocking that looks full from the doorway is doing half its job before it is touched.
