Counting down to
Christmas
I can’t help but still get excited about stockings
I
’ve always loved the idea of Christmas stockings. Last year, my friend Nancy gave me one filled with everything from jewelry, postage stamps and lottery tickets to gift cards and cosmetics. When it comes to Christmas stockings, she definitely knows how to fill one. I’ll never forget the first year I fully understood what Christmas stockings were all about. I was 3 years old, and my parents told me to hang the stocking on my bedpost (because we had no fireplace). Then Santa would creep into my bedroom after I fell asleep and fill the stocking with treats. Sounded like a pretty neat idea to me. So that Christmas Eve, I eagerly hung my little red stocking on my bedpost and began the long wait for Santa.
8 | DECEMBER 2020 |
WWW.LAFIFTY.COM
Every half-hour during that 200-hour night, I reached over to feel the stocking to see if Santa had been there yet. For some reason, every time I opened my eyes, my mother was standing right by my bed, with her hands behind her back. When I’d cheerfully greet her, she’d roll her eyes, sigh and tell me to go to sleep or Santa never would come. When I opened my eyes again and saw her by my bed, I could swear she was sleeping standing up. Finally, I managed to doze off, but within 20 minutes, I was awake and feeling my stocking. I gasped. It was full! I was so excited, I yanked it right off the bedpost and dashed into my parents’ bedroom. “Mommy! Daddy! Santa came!” I
By Sally Breslin
cried, whacking my poor father right on the head with the stocking. “And look what he brought me!” After that, my Christmas stockings always contained only soft items. I also remember trying to outsmart Santa when I was about 5. By then, I’d come to the conclusion that Christmas stockings were a pretty simple way to rake in a good haul if I used a little ingenuity.
ON CHRISTMAS MORNING, HOWEVER, I WAS DISAPPOINTED TO FIND MY STOCKING TOTALLY EMPTY, FLAT AS A PANCAKE.
