Christmas special: Postcard Stockings galore! - Picture Postcard ...

Father Christmas
must have been pleased to
encounter such an accessible
fireplace. Tuck’s ‘Christmas’
Postcard Series 1757.
Undivided back and postal-
ly used 1903.
the famous legend which
gave rise to the custom in
the first place when, wishing
to save three impoverished
sisters from prostitution,
the fourth century
Bishop Nicholas is said to
have thrown bags of gold
through a window which
landed in stockings or
shoes put before the fire to
warm. But this new emerging
character had far more
universal appeal than the
pious and constrained bishop
could have hoped to
aspire to.
Dickens’
Whilst Tiny
Tim had no Christmas
stocking he and his family
had great hopes - expectations
even - of their pudding.
The Victorians were
beginning to recognise that
manipulative use of the
resurgent Christmas season
would help heal social divisions
as well as being good
for business and Dickens
gave them word pictures
that suited them well. A
Tuck ‘Oilette’ No. 9852 in
their ‘Character Sketches
from Charles Dickens’.
St Nicholas, with whom it
all began. Dutch settlers
took his legends with them
when they sailed to New
York in the 17th century, it
then being called New Amsterdam.
He’s being so generous
here his gifts wouldn’t
fit into a mere stocking.
An embossed postcard produced
by Paul Finkenrath
for Woolstone Bros. who
distributed it in their Milton
Series.
apparent silence on the subject
of Christmas stockings
is significant, though he did
write evocatively of Christmas
trees, calling one ‘that
pretty German toy’. He was
born in 1812 and while this
childhood wasn’t all unmitigated
misery there were
bleak times. At the age of 12
An embossed Birn Bros.
postcard showing very necessary
stealth.
he had to work for a time in
a shoe blacking factory and
his father spent time in
prison for debt. But it was
the era he was born into
which was more likely to
have denied him a stocking
rather than family circumstances.
In his childhood
the English Father Christmas
was still a grown up
concept. With the emphasis
on food, drink and merri-
ment the old man probably
wouldn’t have paid stockings
any attention unless
they encased a shapely pair
of ankles! His merger with
this new Santa was still for
the future.
As far as I’m aware
Christmas stockings didn’t
feature in any of Dickens’
numerous articles and he
didn’t mention them in his
Christmas books. ‘A Christmas
Carol’ was published in
1843 and became hugely
influential on both sides of
the Atlantic. Festive food is
an important aspect and
with the parallel themes of
social altruism and Christmas
feasting it followed
Books such as ‘A Christmas
Carol’ and ‘Carl
Krinken’ struck a chord
and encouraged charitable
giving. Scrooge’s
nephew said of Christmas
it was the only time
he knew of when men
and women seemed ‘to
think of people below
them as if they really were
fellow-passengers to the
grave, and not another
race of creatures bound on
other journeys’. Here a
thoughful boy leaves gifts
for a small girl less fortunate
than himself. Birn
Bros. embossed postcard.
Postmark unclear.
(below) A ‘Christmas Time’
unsigned Susan Pearse design published by Henry Frowde
and Hodder & Stoughton.
that the desire of the
reformed Scrooge to
improve Christmas for the
Cratchits focused on food
and the purchase of a giant
turkey. There were no
quickly bought toys, no
hastily assembled stockings
left on the doorstop for Tiny
Tim and his siblings. There
are hardly any toys in the
book and where they are
mentioned the children concerned
received them
directly from their father.
Crucially, this was before
Getting stockings ready on a spacious four poster bed.
Publisher unknown and postally used 1908.
going to bed on Christmas
Eve - they didn’t hang up
any stockings. It was a rumbustious
occasion and great
(continued)
Picture Postcard Monthly December 2009 31