Christmas traditions are near and dear to many hearts around the world.
Families will wait eagerly for November or December 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, there is a Methodist Children’s Hospital in San Antonio, Texas that has a decades-old Christmas tradition of its own.
Every single year, for over 50 years, the Methodist Children’s Hospital has sent newborn babies home in a Christmas stocking (with a matching hat)! (1)
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:
Related: 10 Holiday Shopping Safety Tips Every Shopper Should Know
What parents love most – in addition to witnessing the cutest thing in the world – is that the stocking or matching hat become 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! (2)
“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.�
And let’s be honest…
What greater stocking stuffer could a parent really ask for!?
Read More: Top 10 Best Holiday Pajamas on Amazon You Could Ever Ask For
The post Hospital Continues Tradition of Sending Babies Home in Christmas Stockings appeared first on The Hearty Soul.