Stocking up

Hanging our stockings on the mantelpiece is a treasured part of today's Christmas celebrations, though the origins of this tradition are steeped in history and legend

- Celia Rufey

The kindness of a saint has given us a Christmas tradition we've cherished for centuries. History loves a good story, and the genesis for this one comes from the extraordinary life of 4th-century Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra (in today’s Turkey). It generated numerous legends, from his calming of a storm at sea to, most famously, his generosity to a widowed man with no money for his daughters’ dowries. A number of versions of the action he took have survived. Nicholas knew the girls’ father wouldn't accept money from him as a gift but, according to one version, he'd noticed how each evening the daughters hung their washed stockings to dry by the chimney, so he climbed down the chimney and put bags of silver coins inside them. Another account relates how he threw three bags of gold in through the window and they landed in the stockings. A further alternative tells of Nicholas opening a window and tossing a gold coin into the stocking of the eldest girl, providing her dowry. After her marriage, a coin arrived in the second daughter's stocking, and later, the third daughter’s. Whether silver or gold, these small fortunes gave each girl a future.