On the 4th Day of Christmas...

Day 4: Stockings from Santa

For as long as I can remember I have always had a red velvet stocking with my name on it. Everyone in my family has the exact same stocking. Even Barkley has a stocking.

When I got married, Brigham quickly acquired his own red velvet stocking as well, courtesy of my mother.

And last year when we were at my parents for Christmas Andy got his own little stocking.

I thought about asking my mother for our stockings this year, but I was pretty sure she wouldn't send them, so I decided to make some of my own.

Instead of the red velvet, I went with felt. And they actually have furry white felt, which I used for the tops. The snowman, Christmas tree, and Santa are also made out of felt.

Andy gets the snowman stocking...

I get the Christmas tree...

And Brig gets Santa climbing up the chimney.

For those that don't know, Brigham is a little obsessed with rock climbing. So, when I asked him what he wanted on his stocking he went into great detail explaining how he wanted a little cottage at the bottom with a long winding chimney with Santa climbing to the top.

That sounded a little too intense for me, so we made his entire stocking brown as if it were a chimney and then put Santa on that. The rope around his foot is some extra yarn I had. I just stitched it down like I did the felt. The part I am really proud of is how I got the chimney bricks.

It's super simple.

I just took some Elmer's glue and drew lines in the pattern I wanted. I took my finger and lightly drew across all the lines and VOILA! I had chimney bricks.

I haven't added names yet, but I think I will in the future...

Our plan this year is to give just the stockings from Santa. We think it'll help keep us from getting too over the top with presents. Plus, Andy's birthday is just two weeks before Christmas so we don't want to spoil him rotten. That's the grandparents' job. :)

We are also planning on giving only 3 gifts to each other for Christmas. The Christ child received 3 gifts from the Wise Men, so we thought it would be another good way to remember that "Jesus is the Reason for the Season."

I love hearing all of the different ideas of how to keep the focus of Christmas on Christ and I'm really excited to start some of those traditions in our little family. There was a CHRISTmas series on one of my favorite blogs to read and I loved the different ideas that were spotlighted.

I'd love to hear your favorite ways to remember Christ during the hustle and bustle of the holidays.