Making Joshua's Christmas Stocking

JoAnn just hung Joshua's Christmas Stocking on the fireplace mantle in Iowa. It is an old family tradition. Our (JoAnn and I) Christmas stocking were made 40 plus years ago by my mother. Since then JoAnn made stockings for each of our children. Our daughters have carried on the tradition with their families.

When Tim and Lonita got married JoAnn made a Christmas stocking for Lonita. Now JoAnn has added a stocking for our youngest grandson, Joshua. That makes 2 generations of family she has made Christmas stockings for. She used my Christmas stocking as a model for Joshua. They both have a locomotive on it, although mine is much smaller. When Tim saw the locomotive he was really excited. Isn't it interesting how mom's know exactly what to do.

As each of our children has left home they have taken their Christmas stocking with them and in their own way created their own family stockings. The tradition is now in its 4th generation. It is so much fun to see the kids excited by their new stockings and on Christmas morning to see them dig into the stocking for their goodies. Joshua is just the latest and not the last of the 4th stocking generation. So as it is an old tradition for us, it is a new tradition for each of our grandchildren.

The Iowa McLean's Stockings

At some point we may have photos of all of the Christmas stockings to share. It is always exciting to see how they have morphed (changed) over the years.

Below are a few shots of the construction of the stocking.