HANG UP THE BABY’S STOCKING -- DAY 8

“I missed Silas’ first Christmas,” I lamented to his mother last year.

Hallie & Silas, 2021

“That’s all right. So did he,” she replied. At two months, he chose Christmas Day for a long winter’s nap.

This year we look forward to a Christmas holiday with Silas, now 14 months old. It’s been years since we shared Christmas with a little one. In fact, we have never spent Christmas with a grandchild. 

I can hardly wait to watch Silas discover what it means to unwrap packages and reach into his stocking for a treat. His stocking is finished and ready for Santa to stuff with "sugar plums." 

Ina’s daughter Ethel (five years older than my dad) told me that it was a Dobson Christmas tradition to sing “Hang up the Baby’s Stocking” to the new baby. “It was sung to me,” she said, “and also to your dad.” This tradition was not continued in my parents’ home, and I had never heard of the poem or the song.

“Hang up the Baby’s Stocking” was written by Emily Huntington Miller (1833-1913) and set to music by Hiram Murray Higgins (1820s-1879). I see lots of links to info about this poem online. Here’s a YouTube link to the song, though I’m not sure this is the tune written by Higgins.

And no, I will not be singing it to Silas.

I find no pictures of my first Christmas – or even my second Christmas. But I think this picture was probably taken when I was two (maybe three) by my mother’s brother, my Uncle Porkie. KW