Too early for Christmas decorations? Or even to start prepping for decorating? If your in my boat, the answer is always, “no!”
I wanted a damage-free solution to hang Christmas stockings on my faux fireplace heater, so I designed one in AI based off of one that I found on Thingiverse for a 3D printer. The material I used for the Glowforge was clear thick (¼") acrylic. I wasn’t too sure it would work, but it did, and perfectly, at that! It is flexible, but the thick acrylic makes it strong. I imagine it will not work well with 1/8" thick acrylic.
Here is the svg file if folks would like to make a few to hang their own holiday deco. Right click on the design and click on “save as” to download.
I did not stress test it…I don’t want to break it as I only have limited materials and it takes very long to get materials shipped to where I live. My sole intent of making this was to hold the stocking, which isn’t much weight at all. It is flexible, though. So it probably will not hold too much weight. Sorry
My family really loads up the stockings, making carrying capacity a thing, so I made hangers last year out of two layers of 1/4 cherry ply glued together. I used a contour gauge to replicate the exact profile of our mantle.
We do too. They’re not simply decorative. And my wife has cross-stiched a custom stocking for each kid so they’re pretty big (the sons’ girlfriends get one once they’ve been a couple long enough that it seems they’ll stick - only had one get a premature stocking ).
It goes back to when they were little. They were up at dawn so they could take their stockings down and unwrap things in them while we staggered around looking for coffee or cocoa to wake up (Santa usually stayed up 'til 1am so they were seriously asleep before loading up the tree…early morning wake ups were killer).
My mom handmade stockings for my brother, myself and all my cousins, as well. We are all adults now, so that means less presents and thus, less stocking stuffers. However, I’m sure if you glued two together, it would be much stronger.
I’m sorry if this design is not practical for everyone. Maybe it may just be a starting point to customize your own since the svg file is still editable.
It’s interesting how different families have different traditions for holidays. Now that the kids are grown and out of the house we’re trying to be more minimalist - we love the look but Christmas likely won’t change for us even when the day comes and the kids don’t/can’t visit. It’s going to be a weird holiday season this year.
Love it. But in acrylic, it wouldn’t last 2 minutes in my house. Because children. Though it inspires me to maybe make some out of 1/4" ply, and perhaps add some shape to the top part.
So update…I did stress test it by placing a JBL Charge 3 speaker in the stocking. According to my kitchen scale, the speaker weighs approximately 2 pounds. The stocking holder performed great and held the weight well. Hope that helps! Not sure what will sorts of stocking stuffers you are planning to put in there – we usually got things like headphones, candy, socks, jewelry…so if it’s those sorts of things, it should perform great.
I really love this design. With a much stronger material this could be used to hold purses at a restaurant table.
I have another idea—- again made from a very strong material–clip it to the back of your head rest in your car. You can hang an umbrella purse, a bag from the grocery store, etc.
Kind of you to share. We no longer hang stockings, but, I’m thinking of a clip to hold on the clear table cover on the deck. Might have to design, but, going to give yours a whirl.
Ha! We ended up with no stockings for the humans last year - couldn’t find them- but our cats’ and dogs’ stocking were right where they should have been!
Welcome @carolinagirlcrafters! Be sure to show us what projects you do. This is a wonderful forum, full of lots of useful ideas, tips, and things to make. You’re gonna love it.
