money
For the same reason others put stockings out.
Americans put a Christmas tree up and put stockings up and put gifts under the tree
so Santa can put presents under your tree and the stockings are for Santa to put candy and prizes in there and the real point is celebrating Jesus birth
there shoes
put up trees with tinsel boabels buy decorations hang them hang stockings put up Christmas cards... hope this helped?:)
So old St. Nick can put presents in it for the children.
its just a fun little place for santa to put your little goodies
Christmas Stockings began in from the people who worshiped Odin. Children were to place shoes near the fireplace filled with carrots. Odin's horses would eat the carrots as her flew overhead. He would then put presents in the shoes as a gift of thanks.
They put out their shoes. I think I remember reading that Dutch children put out wooden shoes with hay in them for the reindeer!
There is a story that St Nicholas put in gold coins in stockings that were hung in a house for drying, of a man that was poor. The stockings were for his three daughters, and they woke up with a gold coin in each stocking, and they happily married.
The idea of putting coal in a Christmas stocking is considered to have originated in Italy and though the tradition of hanging stockings is still carried on most people don't put coals in bad children's stockings anymore.