‘Twas the day after Thanksgiving and all through the house,

not a Chester was stirring, and Bob was a grouch.

Sorry, I thought I would try to get into the holiday spirit. It didn’t work.

The day after Thanksgiving I spent most of the day getting the Christmas stuff out and trying to get it all put up. I had to leave for North Carolina for a work trip two days later, so I wanted to get it all done before I left. I ran into a problem, though.

I tried to hang up our stockings, but they wouldn’t stay put.

Between the little hook on the holder and the garland pushing at the stocking, it wasn’t going to stay. If the stockings were just decorative then I wouldn’t worry about it. However, I usually put a few things in Jay’s stocking and I didn’t want it to be always falling.

I didn’t blame Santa. I blamed his designer.

I ran into this issue last year and decided that I needed heavier hangers. If they were heavier then they could hold the stocking a little better. I looked ALL OVER, but everything felt really light. When I weighed St. Nick I found out that he weighs 1.2 lbs. Seriously, Santa? I would expect a man of your dimensions to be a bit heftier.

So, I took my problem to the best designer I know.

He was kind of disappointed when I told him that all I wanted were some heavy boxes with hooks. I didn’t want anything fancy because they are going on the mantle surrounded by lights and other fancy things.

These are the boxes:

They look like square cat butts, don’t they?

I wanted a simple finish, and since they are oak I went with Danish Oil to just highlight the color and grain.

Isn’t the change amazing? I really love how the finishing oils work on woods to bring out their natural beauty.

I had to let them dry, but then they were finished.

How pretty is that?!

You’re probably wondering how Jay weighted them. Let me show you.

The box is hollow and two of Jay’s workshop weights fit in each one.

I weighed this and it is 2.4 lbs. At least, according to my electronic scale. I was too lazy to carry them downstairs and use Jay’s scale.

Let’s see how they look on the mantle.

Oooo… pretty!

The real test was to add the stocking.

That holds better than Santa, but I might ask for some design changes for next year.

In the meantime, I wish you and yours a very blessed and Merry Christmas.