By Anne Ruisi
Preparing for the Christmas season is a year-round job retired teacher Susan White inherited from her late mother, Lois Lee.
That’s because White’s hand-knitted Christmas stockings, originated by Lee, are in demand at Homewood gift shop PrimeTime Treasures not only during the holidays but throughout the year.
“It’s one of our most popular items. It’s Christmas 365 days a year,” said June Pryor, a volunteer and past chairman at the shop, which is operated and staffed by the Assistance League of Birmingham.
While White’s Christmas stockings delight customers and earn her extra income, they are a legacy from her mother, who started making the stockings to sell at PrimeTime Treasures decades ago.
“That was my mama’s life. She was widowed for 47 years,” White said. “She made them all year long.”
For more than 30 years, until she became ill several years before her death in May at 98, Lee knitted the stockings and sewed angel tree toppers and ornaments to sell at PrimeTime Treasures. Her daughter doesn’t do sewing crafts, but she’s mastered how to make the Christmas stockings.
Mainly working with red, green and white acrylic yarn for the stocking itself, she incorporates a charming design, such as an angel, Santa and Mrs. Santa, a snowman, tin soldier and reindeer, to decorate each one.
While her mother made the Christmas items consistently all year and kept them in a box under a bed until it was time to add a name to the top of the stocking when it was ordered, White waits for an order to come through before she starts knitting.
“I work better under pressure,” she said.
White said her mother made 60 to 70 Christmas stockings a year. This year, White made 50.
Each sells for $92, Pryor said. Of that amount, White keeps $75 and the rest is used for the shop’s operating expenses.
Her Mother Tried…
Knitting is a hobby that came later in life, White said. She recalled her mother trying to teach her young daughter the craft, but White said she just wasn’t that interested in learning it. Knitting captured her attention in 1972 when she was a student teacher at a Bessemer kindergarten.
A teacher at the school taught her and she made a red, white and green Christmas stocking for her then-fiancé, and future husband, George.
“That stocking still hangs on my mantel every year,” she said, noting this Christmas marks the treasured stocking’s 50th anniversary. The couple will celebrate their Golden Wedding anniversary next year.
Additional Christmas stockings were made as the couple’s family expanded over the years, including for their two children and two grandchildren.
“The dogs even have them too,” White added
Her Christmas stockings hold up well for years because she uses the acrylic yarn, White said. “Moths get at wool and will ruin it. Mine is 50 years old and doesn’t have holes.”
After she learned to knit, White often would help her mother make Christmas stockings when she got a lot of orders and “if she was in a pickle.” One task she didn’t learn was how to make repairs to a stocking.
“Mama could repair. She could do almost anything,” White said.
While White has stopped taking orders for the season, she will start accepting them after New Year’s. Examples of her work are on display at PrimeTime Treasures, where customers can place an order.
Those at the shop fondly recall White’s mother and enjoy seeing White when she pops into the shop.
“Her mom was a precious lady, and Susan is very much like her,” Pryor said.
