I love this fun gift idea! I was inspired by a dear friend Rebecca, which Rebecca got the idea from a dear friend Sabra- Better Homes and Garden! Last year around Thanksgiving, Rebecca pulled out 12 pairs of black dress socks from a box that she was getting ready to send off to her brother-in-law who was serving a mission. She lined all 24 socks up on a rope, hung with clothes pins and put small gifts in each sock with a note inside! They were all numbered from one to 24 with the last sock of the 25th being a special sock or something that can easily be hung! These black socks were serving more then just socks to wear, they were 25 stockings hung with gifts of LOVE!
I started thinking about all the people that could benefit from this kind of gift.
one, our kids-- Two, grandparents, Three, teachers ( a note from each student in the class) How fun to find a note each day with a treat! My dear friend Brie made one for her kids and they had to do all their chores for the day, before they could get a treat out of the sock!
I decided to do this for my Dad, as he is alone. I thought it would be great for him to have a note each day that he could read from our family.(I actually did this as a Family Home Evening Project). I had everyone in our family write three notes, that covered 24 days! We put a note in each stocking with a special note for December 25! These 25 notes told their Grandpa what they loved about him or a favorite memory! When my Dad received his package, he called me up and was wondering why I sent him so many Christmas socks! I told him to look inside the sock titled Dec.1st and each day for the next 24 days, he would find a note inside a sock to him! He wanted to hang up immediately and read all his notes! I reminded him he had to read one a day! He looked forward to these notes each day! He saved all of the notes and was very grateful!
I think my children realized how important it is to give from the heart when we were visiting my Dad after Christmas! They all saw their notes saved on the counter! My Dad expressed his joy to my kids and how he looked forward to opening a note each day!
We also did this for our sweet Grandparents! My kids wrote notes and we put them in handmade stockings, which Grandma saved the stockings and made a darling scrapbook with the notes along with the stockings ( one on each page) with a picture of the kids.
A Stocking Tree would be very cute! Instead of hanging your hand made stockings on rope, place them in a box under the Christmas Tree and add to the Christmas Tree each day.
You could also do this as "The Twelve Days Of Christmas" for a neighbor or friend!
There are a lot of fun ideas with this project! This is how I got started:
1. I was able to find great socks at Target and Kohls! (They often go on sale at 50% off). You can even get them for a dollar at Target and also the Dollar Store! The really cute ones are at Target by the shoe department! Remember you only need 12 pair! For December 25th I hung a special stocking with a gift inside! ( I gave my Dad a gift card to Walmart on the 25th day) He loves Walmart:)
2. I got some cute Christmas braid from JoAnns or just use rope! I got clothes pins and put the socks along the rope how I wanted them to appear.
3. I purchased small treats and other small items for the socks. I prepared the tags, which it is best to laminate them if you want to use them year after year!
You can also use numeral stickers for the tags! (I used a black permanent marker)
4. For FHE, we tied the tags to the clothes pins and attached the socks to the rope!
5. Remember to send them early, so they will receive them by December 1st!
Buy treats that are not heavy, because when you fill all 25 socks, it becomes pretty heavy!
Happy Holidays! You can "Sock" me later!
