How to Make Coordinating Christmas Stockings for Your Family

When my three siblings and I were much younger, my mom decided to make the whole family coordinating stockings. She bought several yards of red quilted fabric, adorned with teddy bears and wreaths; several yards of a fairly plain lace; and a book of cross-stitch patterns featuring the 12 bears of Christmas. For a family of six, this book allowed for everyone to have a unique bear, and left some room for later expansion. Somewhere along the line, probably around the time I got married, the remainder of the fabric and lace was passed on to me, and I took over the duties of stocking making.

Now, after three of us have gotten married (though there have also been two divorces), and my mom's youngest brother has become a part of our unofficial immediate family, we are nearly at the limit of the 12 bears of Christmas. The fabric and lace that my mom bought all those years ago is also almost exhausted.

And then I became an aunt. They sprung it on me, I swear they did. My niece was born a year ago in April, and my nephew was born this past March. Last Christmas, there was a brief discussion of future stockings, and I told the family that I was running out of options, and needed new ideas. A few months ago, my middle sister (the mother to my nephew) e-mailed me to ask for a family stocking for her son this year. I reiterated what I had told her previously - we needed a new idea. So the two of us brainstormed a bit, and then set out to try to continue this family tradition.

Finding more of the old fabric was completely out of the question. I can't recall exactly what year it was that my mom made us our stockings, but I suspect that it was in the late 1980s. As tastes and styles change, so, too, does the availability of fabric. As my sister and I discovered when we both went looking for a new fabric, even quilted fabric would not be easy to come by. Employees at the stores in her area told her that they doubted they would get much in, even as Christmas approached. I managed to find some locally, but balked a bit at the price, especially when we were talking about buying four to five yards, to make sure there would be enough for this newest generation. I also didn't much care for the fabric in question.

We brainstormed a little bit more, and ultimately decided that we would select a different fabric for each of my mom's four children, to be used for the stockings of their children. My sister chose a blue fabric with a snowflake pattern on it for her son and her future children, and suggested that I use a red fabric for our niece and any future siblings she might have. This made the choice for my youngest sister and I quite simple - if and when we have children, hers will have their stockings made in green fabric and mine will be purple (our favorite colors). This also meant that I could get away with simply buying a couple of yards of each of two selected fabrics, and waiting until my youngest sister or myself are actually expecting to buy our fabric.

Then, of course, we ran into the issue of what sort of cross-stitch design to use. I had scoured my mom's old cross-stitch books, but couldn't find any good themes that extended far enough to ensure their use for several children in the same family. Luckily, I have a tendency to complete a cross-stitch pattern and then just toss it into a box, not actually framing it or turning it into anything. This turned out to work wonderfully here - I had a teddy bear angel in a blue gown and a teddy bear ballerina already done. So we decided to go with a teddy bear theme, even if they aren't particularly Christmas-y. This sounded perfect to my sister, and we called the matter closed.

Of course, I still have to make the stockings...

In order to make your own family coordinated stockings, you will need:

Fabric - You can probably get two or three stockings out of a yard of fabric, depending on the size you make them. So take into consideration the size of your family, the eventual size it could reach, and any nearby family members (grandparents, aunts and uncles, etc.) who might eventually become a part of your immediate family. I suspect that my mom initially bought 4 yards of fabric for our six member family. She and I have made nine stockings thus far, and I think I can make three more with the remaining fabric. You may want to overestimate and buy an extra yard, just in case.

Trim - In our case, we used lace, but ribbon is definitely a viable option as well. I couldn't find any non-feminine lace when I went looking recently, so I opted for 1/2 inch wide ribbon instead. The amount of lace or ribbon you will need varies widely, depending on how much trim you plan to use, and whether or not you will need to gather ribbon to make your stockings look the way you want them to. My suggestion - estimate how much you think you'll need, and add another yard or two, just to be on the safe side. Trim, much like fabric, will go out of style, and you may not be able to find your trim after a few years.

Embellishment - Cross-stitch makes a nice embellishment to the front of the stocking; it has the added benefit of being useful for adding names to the top of the stocking. My mom and I have always stitched our patterns on fabric and then attached the finished piece to the stocking, but you could cross-stitch or embroider directly onto the stocking as well. At any rate, you should choose a theme for the embellishment, and make sure that you will have enough patterns to continue this theme to the ultimate projected family size. Some popular and easy themes could be snowmen, ornaments, or teddy bears, among other options.

My big hope for this Christmas, since we seem to have arranged to have all four children, along with their spouses and children, at my mom and uncle's house for a Christmas celebration, is to get a picture of all of our stockings together. Knowing my family, however, I'd better start coordinating that now. We've been coordinating Christmas since August.