Stockings: A DO- no wrapping most gifts are of the toothbrush,$1 type items along with candy and of course the orange in the toe!

Our family always did stockings, and I'd wrap some of the things and leave others unwrapped. And they were opened first, on Christmas morning of course. After all, Santa didn't fill them ahead of time! (Although my mother used to fill mine ahead of time after I got to be a teenager. One year our cat tried to make off with it - it had these huge tassels, and he decided they were cat toys. He got as far as the step out of the room the tree was in, but he couldn't tug hard enough to pull the stocking up the step.)

Orange in the toe? I think I completely missed that...

You never found an orange in the toe of your stocking growing up? Boy, I sure did! And usually there were some mixed nuts still in the shell, too. I think it must be a southern thing. Oh, and a peppermint candy cane stickiing out of the top!

Yes, we still do stockings. "Santa" brings them. Two of mine play along for the sake of their younger brother.

The presents are small and usually inexpensive, but wrapped. Santa wraps each of the 3 kids' presents in a certain paper, then jumbles them all together on the floor in front of the fireplace. The kids look in their personal stocking to see which wrapping paper is theirs based on how those little gifts are wrapped.

One year when they all believed, Santa left ONE present each, with their names on them. It was a suitcase, and amazingly, it was a full 5 minutes before ANY of the kids thought to OPEN their suitcase, where they quickly discovered a whole slew of other presents. Those poor kids were so stoic, not complaining and trying to hide their disappointment, making the most of their suitcase and turning it into a car, estimating how much would fit in it, etc. I was just about to suggest they look inside when the oldest figured it out. Then they found gameboys, etc., that they had asked for that year. We still talk about it...but I bet I could never pull anything over on them like that again.

We do have stockings at our house. We don't wrap the gifts. We open them sometime Christmas morning. After all the Jolly old Elf has to fill them the night before. The lego ice tray is cool but I want the construction crane myself.

No, my wife and I both grew up with oranges in our toes, and our parents are from Indiana and New Jersey, respectively. However, our family wrapped while hers did not, which made for an interesting first Christmas. Not being a fan of wrapping, though, I quickly succumbed to the lure of easy stocking-filling...

Stockings first, of course, as there are often small foreshadowings of larger things to come.

Our entire family comes from around the country and stays at Grandma's on Christmas Eve. When the kids wake up far too early on Christmas morning, they are allowed to open the presents and candy that Santa brought(normally wrapped) in their stockings. In return, they let Moms and Dads sleep in until a decent hour, and leave the goodies under the tree alone. Even though the youngest grandkid is now 13, and the oldest out of college, they still insist on sticking to this routine!

Also, I hide all of the kids presents in the suitcases. They have searched my attic, but have yet to figure it out, and as an added bonus...I'm all packed and ready to go!

We usually put the batteries for the toys in the stockings. Makes 'em wonder.

I LOVE the lego ice trays! I have to get one for my hubby.

As for stockings, we do them in my family. Our stockings were made by my grandmother. They're such a big deal, when my dad got remarried a few years ago, I made sure my new stepmom had a handmade stocking on our first Christmas together.

We wrap most of the presents. The requirements for stocking presents are the orange, a toothbrush (always made a big deal..."hmm, i wonder what this is?"), a can of cashews, a larger hershey bar, and a candy cane. There are other assorted small gifts in there too. We open them first on Christmas morning before all the other gifts. These are the same things that were in my dad's stocking when he was a kid. A couple of the stockings still even have the walnut in the toe. You don't eat it and I honestly have no clue whatsoever why there's a walnut in the toe, but some of them have it. They've been there (the same walnuts) for longer than I can remember.

Stocking time is always the beginning of the day. I think we like it so much bc it holds all the anticipation of what else is going to happen. All the gift giving (and receiving), the food, and the family. I can't wait to open my stocking now. :)

Stocking presents are mixed; some wrapped, some not. At Mom's and Dad's, we eventually evolved to opening all presents under the tree on Christmas eve (first we just did one, then 3, then ....). But stockings were always opened Christmas morning. Currently, we open everything Christmas morning. We had/have oranges, apples, nuts; plus inexpensive gifts. Currently it seems we wrap based on whether there will be a crowd to watch that person after breakfast (wrapped) vs cases where we know the person will check all stocking contents early in the morning (wrapping not needed).

Stockings - yes
Wrapped - some
Open - Christmas morning first, while parents slept

I don't think I'd vote for my tax dollars to go toward your study. However, studying cow farts - now that's worth it...

Yes, we do stockings (and Santa gifts), but none of the Santa presents are wrapped.

The gifts INSIDE the stocking include the mandatory toothbrush and the also mandatory chocolate Santa (which is why you need the toothbrush). My kids still like Pokemon figures and various trading cards, so those go in the stocking. Under the tree are things like stufed animals, video games, and DVDs.

I haven't figured out yet if my kids are just slow and still believe or if they're concerned that the number of gifts might go down if they admit they know about Santa, but at the ages of 11 and 14, neither has admitted they've caught on.

The presents from family are unwrapped on the 24th. The kids each get to unwrap one gift before church. When they were little, they could take that with them to church and show it to Pastor. The rest of the gifts are unwrapped after church.

Stocking gifts are always wrapped. Growing up, one consistent gift was a half-pound Hershey's candy bars -- mine and my mom's was always Special Dark. Yum! I think this is the first year I have dropped that tradition. We generally save the stocking for last.

Yes, we do stockings because I spent a great deal of time sewing them myself when the kids were little. Make sure you admire them tonight when you come in the house for dinner - (Jim will be picking you up to make sure you are here even if we get a foot of snow.) The gifts get wrapped and they are the first thing to be opened on Christmas morning. Most anything goes in the stocking. Candy, mints, toothbrushes, underwear (Adam & Jacob's favorite), interesting guy toys. . .It's my favorite shopping to do and I have a lot of fun with it. The dog gets a stocking too - hers was made by Adam. We wrap her stuff too because it's very entertaining to watch her open the gifts. Jim grew up with the tradition of the stocking being hung on his bedroom door knob. I think this was to keep him busy so he didn't wake his parents up so early. His tradition beats mine though - I had a stocking but there was never anything in it. My stocking was also the ugliest one - which led me to make new stockings for everyone in the family one year.

I don't remember stocking gifts ever being wrapped in our home. They were opened after the "main presents" were opened.

Stockings in our family were filled with bulk candy, and things like stickers, little plastic toys, stuffed animals, none of it wrapped. A couple years we got those little clementine oranges. They were opened first, and usually gave my parents an extra hour before they were dragged out of bed. In fact, thinking about it, our stockings were a lot like our Easter baskets, minus the jelly beans and chocolate rabbits! I grew up in NYC, but a lot of our Christmas traditions came from my father, who is from LA. He was a real stickler about the holiday, like how and when to decorate the tree. My friends would have their tree up right after Thanksgiving, but we didn't get ours until the week before Christmas. And all the decorations had to be just-so. Ah, good times!

Orange in the toe is a must. Followed by mixed nuts in their shells. (Hazelnut breaking contests on the kitchen floor is the afternoon entertainment.) Lottery tickets! My grandparents would bring them down from NY before Texas had lottery. Then of course chocolate and small wrapped gifts that are usually funny presents.

Never heard of toothbrushes in a stocking.

For the stocking; a pomegranate, gold foil wrapped chocolate coins, a couple of clementines (put the rest of the box's contents in a fruit basket.) and an assortment of goofy little toys. How about dominoes, pick-up sticks and a bag of marbles?
But here's the best kid's Christmas morning surprise: Buy a churchwarden pipe (the kind with the loooong stem) and leave it with the traditional half eaten cookies & milk offering near the tree. "OH, MY!! Look kids! SANTA FORGOT HIS PIPE!!!" Put it out the following year for him to retrieve and he may even thank the kids for their kindness. My boys'eyes got as big as bagels about that one.
Whatever you do...do it from love and build some memories for them.
Love your down home sense of silliness.

Stockings when I was young, 50+ years ago. Always opened first thing Christmas morning. Nothing was wrapped. My parents missed on using them to get more sleep that morning. Always small inexpensive things like candy. No oranges, but the oranges where I grew up were sour. Peppermint sticks were a must. Fat ones if possible. Nuts were good, in the shell or out. NO TOOTHBRUSHES! If there was soap, it was fancy. Stockings are not supposed to be practical, period!

I found lumps of "coal" one year that fit perfectly in a stocking and contained a Hot Wheel car. I recycled them the next year and put my nephews' gift cards in them.

We never had stocking when I was a kid, but my husband insists on one for everyone, including the dog and cat. He is more excited to see the little stuff like candy, tubes of hand lotion and hand sanitizer for the car than his big gift.

We do stockings. They're wrapped and contain mainly things we could use like toothpaste, dental floss, gum etc and some fun some gifts mixed in. They're opened before the rest of the presents.

It is so interesting to read all these responses!

Stockings: Yes!
Wrapping: Yes!

Growing up, we always got a few little inexpensive toys or practical items (though NEVER a toothbrush) plus LOTS of candy. We never had oranges or nuts.

My kids are very young so I'm new at the stocking-filling thing, but I actually bought them toothbrushes and toothpaste for their stockings this year (with characters they like on them)! I had no idea this was a normal thing in some homes! Maybe I'll throw in an orange too!