The legend of the Christmas stocking
A long, long time ago, there was a kind-hearted nobleman whose wife died of illness, leaving him and his three daughters behind. The nobleman tried a lot of inventions, all of them failed, but they also ran out of money, so they had to live in a farmhouse, and his daughters had to cook, sew, and clean themselves.
A few years later, the daughters gradually reached the age of marriage, but the father became more depressed because he had no money to buy dowry for his daughters. One evening, the daughters hung their stockings in front of the fireplace to dry after washing their clothes. Saint Nicholas came to their door that night after learning of their father’s condition. He saw from the window that the family was asleep, and noticed the girls’ stockings. Immediately, he took three small packets of gold from his pocket and threw them down the chimney one by one, just in the girls’ stockings.
The daughters woke up the next morning to find their stockings full of gold, enough for their dowry. As a result, the nobleman was able to see his daughters get married and lived happily ever after.
Later, children all over the world carried on the tradition of hanging Christmas stockings. Children in some countries have other similar customs, such as in France, children put their shoes by the fireplace and so on.
