infant wearing christmas themed socks
Sarah Biren
Sarah Biren
December 12, 2023 ·  2 min read

Hospital Has Been Sending Newborns Home In Christmas Stockings During The Holidays For Over 50 Years

Christmas traditions are so important, whether they are with your family, friends, or community.

Families will wait eagerly for December (maybe even November if you’re that excited) to start putting up Christmas decorations and playing Christmas music.

Some family Christmas traditions include cutting down and decorating trees, hanging advent wreaths or Christmas stockings, setting out cookies and milk for Santa Claus, setting up the Nativity scene figurines, and singing Christmas carols about Baby Jesus, St. Nicholas, Santa Clause, or Father Christmas.

Of course, there are more – traditions like these are endless!

However, in 2016, Methodist Children’s Hospital in San Antonio, Texas went viral. Why? It has a decades-old Christmas tradition of its own, one that is so cute, your heart will melt.

According to KSAT News, every year, for over 50 years, the Methodist Children’s Hospital has sent newborn babies home in a Christmas stocking (with a matching hat)!

The adorable newborn Christmas stockings are handmade by the Bluebirds of Methodist Hospital, a volunteer group that does many of these incredible things for staff and patients throughout the year.

Other hospitals have even started their own newborn Christmas stocking tradition. Check out the video below:

What parents love most – in addition to witnessing the cutest thing in the world – is that the stocking or matching hat becomes keepsakes.

It’s the sort of thing that can become a tradition.

According to readers on Bored Panda, they still remember their newborn Christmas stocking experiences!

babies born in December wrapped in stockings
abc News Go

When my youngest daughter was born New Years day she was wrapped in a white stocking with a red band while the other holiday babies were in red ones,” one reader recalled.

Another remembered that “when [her] son was born, he was too big to fit in the stocking, so they put a Santa hat on him.”

One mom said, “This is how my son came to me in the hospital.”

What greater stocking stuffer could a parent really ask for!?

Update: The Gift That Keeps Giving?

You’ll be happy to know that it seems the Methodists Children’s Hospital is keeping the tradition alive. In 2020 they posted this to Facebook. Enjoy!


Keep Reading: Identical Twin Sisters Give Birth To Sons On Same Day At The Same Hospital

This article originally appeared on The Hearty Soul and has been published here with permission. Some minor updates have been made.