Everyone knows the stocking hanging drill, placing festive socks out each Christmas Eve for Santa Claus to fill. Christmas cards echo Clement Moore's classic poem, A Visit from St. Nicholas, which says, "The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there."
How can you hang up Christmas stockings, if your home has no mantle? Here are 10 spots you can put stockings, where Kris Kringle is sure to spot them.
1. Bedposts
Hang Christmas stockings in children's bedrooms, sticking loops over bedposts or fastening them with string to side rails of bunks.
2. Bookshelves
Weighted Christmas stocking hooks are ideal for displaying the sturdiest holiday socks on shelves. Who says these handy hooks are only for fireplace mantels?
3. Chair rails
A wooden chair rail, running around the dining room, makes a super spot for Christmas stockings. Install flat-backed hooks gently to avoid scratching the walls or molding.
4. Coat racks
Standing coat racks are not just for play clothes and party guests' wraps. They stand sentry, showing off Christmas stockings.
5. Dining chair backs
Learn from holiday hostesses; hang stockings with yarns on each family member's chair at the table.
6. Door frames
Christmas stockings look festive when they are tacked up with push pins in an interior door or archway.
7. Entertainment center
Do you have a multi-shelved unit for your television? Set stockings there. On Christmas Eve, set the TV to a fireplace scene and pretend.
8. Ladder
Set a ladder near the Christmas tree, and hang stockings there. Decorate it with ribbons and pine boughs, or leave it plain. Santa won't mind.
9. Mitten rack
An Amish iron mitten rack that holds several Christmas stockings neatly near our Christmas tree.
10. Stair railings
Plenty of people hang holiday stockings from banisters, staggering holiday socks up the stairway.
Additional super stocking hanging spots include bulletin boards, curtain rods, doorknobs, drawer pulls, holiday garlands, piano benches, refrigerator doors, sofa backs, standing lamps, wall hooks, window cranks or sills, over-the-door wreath hangers, or even on the Christmas tree. Some folks simply stick their holiday stockings next to Santa's cookies on the kitchen counter or table.
Have fun, as you find spots to stick your holiday stockings.
One key question remains. How does St. Nick enter a chimney-less house? Does the jolly elf have a magic key? Do parents open doors at Santa's knock? Or does Father Christmas morph atomically to fit tiny spaces, so he can enter a house and drop off the holiday bounty?
However Santa arrives, you'll want to have the Christmas stockings prominently displayed for him to fill, whether you have a fireplace or not.
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