Why hang Christmas socks at Christmas?

It is an indispensable custom to hang Christmas stockings at Christmas. On Christmas Eve, children will put a pair of Christmas stockings on the bed and receive Christmas gifts when they wake up the next day. At the earliest time, it was a pair of big red socks. Most of them were OK, because Christmas socks were used to hold gifts. How did the custom of hanging Christmas stockings come about? It turns out that there is a moving story behind this.

Once upon a time, there was a kind-hearted nobleman. His wife died of illness, leaving him and his three daughters behind. The nobleman tried many inventions and failed, but he also ran out of money, so they had to move to a farmhouse to live, and his daughters had to cook, sew and clean themselves.

A few years later, when the daughters reached the age of marriage, the father became more depressed because he had no money to buy dowry for his daughters.

One night, after washing, the girls hung their stockings in front of the fireplace to dry. The saint Nicholas came to their house that night after he learned about their father's situation.

From the window, he saw that the whole family was asleep, and he also noticed the girls' stockings. Then, he took out three small bags of gold from his pocket and dropped them one by one from the chimney, just falling into the girls' stockings. The next morning, the girls woke up to find that their stockings were full of gold, enough for them to buy dowry.

The nobleman was able to see his daughters get married and live a happy life.

Later, children all over the world inherited the tradition of hanging Christmas stockings. In some countries, children have other similar customs. For example, in France, children put their shoes beside the fireplace.