Back in the day, children in the United States and England, would hang stockings near a fireplace or on their bedpost on Christmas Eve, hoping that it will be filled with toys when they wake up. In Scandinavia, children leave their shoes on the hearth instead of hanging stockings on Christmas Eve. These traditions can be traced back to one story about St. Nicholas, who in order to save three poor sisters from being sold into slaver by their father, paid their dowry. St. Nick left each of the sisters cold coins. The legend goes, that one coin went down the chimney and landed in a pair of shoes left on the hearth. One went through a window into a pair of stockings left hanging to dry by the fire.
