What is the origin of hanging stockings on the fireplace?

Question

What is the origin of hanging stockings on the fireplace?

Answer 1

Hanging Stockings:



The idea of hanging stockings over the fireplace on Christmas Eve comes from the legend of the kind St.Nicholas leaving gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor maidens, who badly needed the money for their wedding dowries. They hung their stockings to dry over the fireplace, and to their great surprise, they found bags of gold in them the next morning. Following this, children kept hanging Christmas stockings over the fireplace on Christmas Eve in the hope that Santa would drop gifts and toys in them!