Raising A Family

Article Contributed by: Mindy Burns

Very late on Christmas Eve a few years ago, my husband and I found ourselves in a panic! We had been working so hard at wrapping the presents we had for our two year old daughter , that we forgot about her stocking! When both of us were children, our stockings were the BEST part, so we felt so awful that we had completely forgotten about hers! We were spending the holidays at my parents’ house, so we quickly began searching through all of their cupboards and drawers for things to stuff her stocking with. We found some candy and knick-knacks, but nothing that we felt would mean as much to her as we had wished.

While searching for a late-night snack that night, my husband came upon some bottles of root beer in my parents’ fridge. He suggested that we put one in our daughter’s stocking, and I thought that was a great idea. Our daughter LOVED root beer, but had really only had it a handful of times. I thought it might be a really special “treat” for her, plus it would take up lots of room in her stocking and make it seem fuller than it was.

Well, her very favorite Christmas gift that year was the root beer ,of course. Her face lit up so bright when she pulled it out of her stocking, and she asked, “Is this for me? All for me?” She worked on that bottle of root beer all day, and yes, she was a little sugared up, but she probably would have been anyway with all of the other holiday treats around that day, and it was something rare and special.

We continued the tradition, and she can’t wait for her root beer each year- her very own! Now that we have three children, we have started filling their stockings with a large bottle of their favorite Diet soda (we did decide to buy Diet for them). It’s cheap, takes up lots of space, and for my children, it’s a special , out-of-the-ordinary treat for them! Feel free to borrow our stocking stuffer tradition this Christmas!