Stocking is very popular with children who love to find presents and gifts in these stockings in the morning. There are many legends how it became a part of Christmas symbols. It gives a great comfort to the heart when we see kids smiling innocently after they find gifts and toys in their stockings, purportedly from Santa.

There is not a shadow of doubt that stockings have now become intimate part of Christmas symbols. The tradition of hanging stockings is said to have originated in Holland where kids used to leave their clogs by the fireplace filled with straw for the reindeers or donkeys of the Saint and a treat for Santa himself in the house. In return, the Santa Claus used to leave gifts for the kids.
Another legend that is also very popular behind the emergence of stockings is associated with Saint Nicholas. In a twist of fate a kind nobleman lost his fortune and his wife and was left alone to fend off his old days with three daughters all of them of marriage-able age. Once, when kind St. Nicholas was wandering, he heard the sound of crying from the four members of the family of Nobleman. They had little to eat and make merry. The father was not in a position to arrange dowries for his daughters.
Saint Nicholas knew that these people wont take charity, as they were respectable. So he thought of another way to help them out. He saw that the three daughters had washed their stockings and hung them over their fireplace to dry. So, in the night, he quietly he put three gold purses in each of the girl's stockings.