It’s one of our most treasured traditions, dating back from 1965, the blessing and distribution of our beautiful Christmas stockings to our December newborns. 

Thanks to a group of dedicated volunteers, every baby born in our Birth Suites in December goes home with a hand-stitched Christmas stocking. Quite possibly the first Christmas gift they will receive! For nearly sixty years, volunteers have hand stitched thousands of stockings over the years, becoming lifelong treasures for many families. 

“Our volunteers made a record 315 stockings this year. They truly are works of art, hand sewn by loving people,” says Dianne Guthrie, volunteer supervisor, Ascension St. Vincent’s Birmingham and Chilton hospitals. "Just like our precious babies, each stocking is unique.”

Our patients and their families love this tradition and so do we. Our volunteers describe the Stocking Ministry as a labor of love.

“I have had the great joy of handing these out to new moms and babies when I was a nurse,” says Martha Ward, a retired nurse who worked in our Birth Suites for more than 40 years and now volunteers to make the stockings. “We hope it provides many Christmas blessings and prayers for these new babies and their families for years to come.” 

“It was such a joy, pure joy, to deliver these stockings to families over the years,”  says Paula Lucas, who is also a retired nurse from the Birth Suites after more than 40 years and is now a volunteer. “We often found out the babies’ mothers and grandmothers had also received a stocking from St. Vincent’s. I will cherish the Stocking Ministry for the rest of my life.”

We are so grateful for our volunteers who return every year to help us keep up this time honored tradition. 

View photos from our 2023 stocking blessing.