The inspiration for the New Ancestral Christmas Stocking came into Ann’s life many years ago as a tattered photocopy of a mimeograph of a cuneiform stone-incised recipe for an oversized stocking, complete with intarsia image of a lumpy Santa.

Ann filled in all the blurry parts, deciphered many handwritten notes from unknown relatives, and redesigned her family’s treasured stocking for Christmas in the Modern Era.

What we love about this stocking:

Capacity. You can cram a lot of Toblerones and horehound candy in this baby. The leg is long and the toe is virtually bottomless. This hardworking sock is not just for decoration; it’s for cargo.

Tradition. Lumpy Santa is gone, but there’s no mistaking the Christsmassyness. Snowflakes! Elf stripes! Argyles (for your preppy elves)!

Modernity. The lines are clean and the font for the duplicate-stitched name is simple and unadorned. We like our Christmas real classy like that.

Here are the shades of Atlas we used for the samples:

Ruby: 1 skein each
Barn Red
Cork
Peat
Natural

Spot: 1 skein each
Lapis
Navy
Pebble
Skyline

Rose: 1 skein each
Citron
Skyline
Whisper
Clementine