Christmas Stocking Display Ideas
Christmas stockings are a common sight during the holiday season. In some homes, family members hang heirloom stockings on the mantle above the fireplace. In other households, store-bought stockings and Christmas decorations may dangle from doorknobs.
If you’re ready to give your Christmas stockings a makeover and find the perfect place and other creative ways to display the stocking stuffers, we have you covered! Like a non-traditional color scheme or unexpected materials for your design. Take a look!
Traditional Mantle Ideas
There are so many diverse mantles in homes. From marble to reclaimed wood, the options are endless. We love the look of a mantle full of Christmas stockings. Our mom has a large reclaimed barn beam as her mantle and it is so easy to hang the stockings with nails. But me on the other hand has an antique mantle that I cannot put nails in. So what to do? Stocking hooks. Take a look at some of our favorites.
How do you hang stockings on a mantle without damaging it?
Stocking holders works so well. This is a decorative weighted hook that you can hang the stockings from. Here are a few favorites:
- Low profile stocking hanger (so garland can easily go on top)
- Weighted hooks on amazon
- Decorative stocking holders
Paw Stockings As A Personal Touch
Don’t forget Fido this Christmas. If your dog is one of the family, make him his own paw stocking using an existing stocking as a pattern for a dog christmas stocking. Sew the stocking using light tan faux fur, then hot glue a piece of dark brown faux fur around the top of the stocking as a cuff. Cut out “paw pads” from dark brown felt and hot glue them near the bottom of the stocking to look like the bottom of the dog’s paws. Fill the stocking with dog treats and you’re guaranteed to have one happy pooch on Christmas morning.
Thrifty Stockings For The Festive Season
You can update your Christmas stockings even if you don’t have a big budget or any sewing skills. Start with inexpensive, plain red stockings from any discount store. Cut out Christmas shapes or modern designs from felt and hot glue them to the stocking. Use non-traditional colors to add unexpected pizzazz. You can use this idea to add a monogram to each family member’s stocking, or add holiday sentiments such as “Joy” or “Noel.” With this thrifty decorating idea, you can afford to give your stockings a new look every year.
Custom Cuffs With Different Designs
Personalize plain store-bought stockings by adding a “custom cuff” for each member of your family. Grandma’s stocking can have a cuff made from a vintage handkerchief with a holiday design, while grandpa’s can have a cuff made from an old plaid scarf. Use one of your child’s favorite blankets or outfits, a ripped holiday tablecloth or even a tulle curtain found at a yard sale to add instant charm to a personalized Christmas stocking. To make your own custom cuff, cut the fabric and wrap it around the top of the stocking, then tuck in the edges and secure with hot glue.
Double Duty Stockings Is A Creative Idea
Once you’ve started decorating new Christmas stockings, you might also want to think about new ways to use the stockings during the holiday season. If you will be entertaining a large group of people, consider using smaller Christmas stockings as place card holders. Write your guests’ names on cardstock and tie the cards to the stockings with colorful ribbon that matches your table setting. You can even add the silverware inside the stocking.
If you are having a buffet, guests can pick up a silverware-filled stocking to make things easier as they move through the buffet line. When dinner is over, fill the stockings with Christmas goodies and let the guests take them home as favors.
It’s wonderful if, like the poem, we can “hang the stockings by the chimney with care”, but where do you put the stockings if you have no “chimney,” no fireplace and no mantle?
More Christmas Stocking Display Ideas
A Doorknob Is The Perfect Spot
You have many choices on where to put the Christmas stockings. One choice would be to place the stockings on the doorknob of each child’s room. It would be just like Santa to surprise children by filling a stocking and hanging it on the doorknob so that children wake up to a present even before they leave their room.
Some parents, even those with fireplaces, hang stockings on doorknobs to buy themselves a little extra sleep time on Christmas morning. Many allow the opening of the stocking to be done in the child’s bed, with the caveat that the child stay in bed, playing with the new toys, till the parents wake up.
Stockings can be hung on any knobs, kitchen cabinet knobs and dresser drawer knobs are also spots where Santa might very well leave a stocking filled with surprises.
Bedposts For Your Family’s Stockings
Bedposts are another great spot to hang a stocking. How much fun to wake up and see your stocking miraculously filled sometime during the night.
Not everyone has a bed post but most people have kitchen chairs and most chairs have a spot that will hold a stocking hanger loop. How exciting to be called to the breakfast table to find a stocking brimming with toys, hanging on the back of your chair. A filled stocking can also lean on the back of the chair waiting to be grabbed and explored by eager little hands.
Staircases Are A Practical Idea And The Easiest Way
Staircases can hold a stocking or many stockings if you insert nails or screw hooks to hold up the stockings. If you don’t want to nail into the wood, it’s fine to place the stockings on the staircase railing or the stairs, leaning into the balustrades so they won’t fall.
A rectangular piece of wood, with a little creativity, painted the color of your walls and installed with command hooks is another great spot for hanging stockings on Christmas eve. You can use the rack for coats and hats right up to Christmas time, when you will need the rack emptied so children can hang their stockings and holiday decorations in anticipation of Santa’s visit.
Dining Room Chairs Are A Great Idea
Another great alternative to hanging your Christmas stocking is on the backs of your dining room chairs. If you have wood or metal chairs with the high back you can just loop them over the right or left knob on the back of the chair. You could also hang your Christmas stocking in the middle of the back of the chair. Use those great removable hooks that don’t damage your wall or furniture.
Coat Wall Hooks For The Easy Way
I have some great coat hooks hanging right inside of my front door. If I had not decided to use the armoire to hang the Christmas stockings, I was going to hang them in row on the coat hooks in my front hall. You could also hang some temporary hooks in another part of your home if you rarely use your front hall. Those great little removable hooks mentioned before are perfect for this. They make them in a great looking silver and brass look now. If you go for the less expensive white hooks, then try tying a bow on the hook after you hang the Christmas stockings.
Doors For Christmas Stocking Display
Doors are a great alternative to the fireplace mantel for hanging your Christmas stockings. Use some of those convenient hooks that slip over the door or even a wreath hook. You could hang everyone’s stocking on his or her bedroom door. This is a great way to dress up the hallway in your home for the Christmas season.
Faux Mantle And Stocking Hangers
Small, realistic, electric, simple design, fireplace-style heaters cost less than one hundred dollars, look cozy, emit heat and can create the feel of a real fireplace. Place a shelf above the fireplace or create a faux mantle piece of furniture with molding and trim wood, and you have a place to hang Christmas stockings that’s nothing less than perfect.
There’s always a place to hang a Christmas stocking, and even if you absolutely can’t find one in your home, line them up against the wall near the Christmas tree and they will please little hearts just as much as if they were hanging by the chimney with care.