# Christmas sweets and stocking fillers

**Canonical URL:** https://sweeties.net/wiki/christmas-sweets-and-stocking-fillers/
**Source:** sweeties.net, online pick and mix sweet shop

## Summary

Christmas stocking fillers: the St Nicholas legend behind stockings, oranges and gold coins, sweet ideas from sugar mice to candy canes, and safety tips.

## Description

The Christmas stocking is a sock, or a sock shaped bag, hung up on Saint Nicholas Day or Christmas Eve so that Saint Nicholas, or Father Christmas, can fill it with small toys, sweets, fruit, coins or other small gifts.
The legend of the gold
Nobody has a written record of how the custom began, but there is a popular legend. Saint Nicholas, the story goes, heard of a poor father who could not provide for his three daughters. Knowing the father would refuse charity, Nicholas came by night and threw three bags of gold through an open window, and one landed in a stocking. In other versions he threw the gold straight into stockings hung by the fire to dry.
Some tellings make the gold into gold balls, which is why three gold balls, sometimes shown as oranges, became a symbol of Saint Nicholas.
The same tradition has a darker side: a child who behaved badly was threatened with nothing but a lump of coal.
Sweet stocking fillers
Chocolate coins. In the UK they are traditionally bought at Christmas to hang on the tree and fill stockings: see chocolate coinsSugar mice. A traditional Christmas sweet: see sugar miceCandy canes. Striped peppermint hooks for the tree or the stocking: see how are candy canes made?Pick and mix. A small bag built by the 100 g, so each stocking can be different.
For how these sweets became part of Christmas, see the history of Christmas sweets and Tom Smith and the Christmas cracker
Keeping it safe
Allergies. If a stocking is for someone with an allergy, check every sweet's ingredients: see pick and mix and allergiesSmall children. Hard sweets can be a choking risk for younger children, and coins and wrappers are small too: see hard sweets and younger childrenWarmth. Chocolate softens when warm, so avoid hanging stockings of chocolate right by the fire or a radiator overnight: see how should you store pick and mix?
In our pick and mix
We sell sweets by the 100 g, so a stocking bag can be as small as you like. Each sweet's card opens up to show its full ingredients and allergens.

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