Whats with Christmas stockings?
According to a very old tradition, the original Saint Nicholas left his very first gifts of gold coins in the stockings of three poor girls who needed the money for their wedding dowries (money and/or property given by the family of a bride or groom to the family of the other when they marry). The girls had hung their stockings by the fire to dry. Up until lately, it was traditional to receive small items like fruit, nuts and candy in your stocking, but these have been replaced in the last half-century by more expensive gifts in many homes. The tradition of a lump of coal in the stockings of naughty children comes from Italy.
