I lived in a big family, and there was not always enough money, but because of my parent's thriftiness and my grandparent's resourcefulness, there was always enough to go around. When I was a little kid, my personalized Christmas stocking had a little train at the top made out of bright red, green, and yellow yarn. Unfortunately, knit Christmas stockings do not last forever and neither did my grandmother. None of us know how to knit, so I thought that I would never be able to provide my own kids with the personalized Christmas stockings that I had enjoyed as a youngster.
Fortunately, I discovered that you can order a customized Christmas stocking online. I knew that you could buy online Christmas gifts, but I was surprised by the variety of affordable customized products available on the Internet today. Once I started looking, I found no fewer than a dozen different stores where I could buy a personalized Christmas stocking set up just the way I wanted it. I was able to order them for every member of my family and still have money left over for Christmas presents and decorations.
Of course, there are also a wide variety of personalized Christmas gifts that you can buy as well. For my kids, it did not matter. My son wanted video games, and my daughter wanted music cds, so I didn't have to worry about getting them customized presents. For the rest of my relatives, however, it was a great help. I got one of my cousins an engraved Christmas ornament, and bought a personalized decorative plaque for my mother. I actually found a website where you could select a background and then have it decorated with any words that you wanted. It was a great service for someone like me who likes a decorative, personal touch, but does not know much about making crafts.
The personalized Christmas stocking, however, was the highlight of the season. The year before, we had been forced to use soccer socks with names written in sharpie, so you can imagine what a big step up this was. Everyone had a personalized Christmas stocking that reflected his or her interests. My son had one with a robot shooting a laser gun, my daughter had one with a princess, and my wife who collects porcelain elephants had a pachyderm on hers.
