Needlepoint Christmas Stockings: A Buying & Stitching Guide

A stocking is a much bigger project than a first ornament or coaster. Here is what makes it different.

A stocking comes back out every December, often with a name on it, and it can last long enough to be handed down.

It is also a different project from a small first canvas, so know what you are taking on before you buy one.

Choosing a stocking canvas

Stocking canvases come painted or printed with the familiar boot shape, usually with a holiday scene, such as Santa, a tree, snowflakes, or a nutcracker, and often with room for a name. When we went through the stocking canvases sold online by fourteen of the shops we list, in September 2026, the most common size was about 11 by 19 inches, and most ran between 17 and 23 inches long.

Check which way the toe points. Some designs come with the toe facing either way, and some shops ask you to choose when you order. It matters if the stocking will hang beside ones your family already has.

A kit or a hand-painted canvas?

A boxed kit comes with the thread in the box. The Dimensions stocking kits sold online, for example, come with a canvas printed in color, sorted thread, felt for the back, a needle, an alphabet chart for the name, and instructions for sewing the stocking together yourself.

A hand-painted canvas from a needlepoint shop comes on its own. Third Coast Stitches in Chicago says its canvases come "neither stitched nor kitted", and Needlepoint Inc in San Francisco lists its stockings with "Threads not included". Many shops will choose and pull the threads for you, which is called kitting. The Red Thread Atelier on Long Island does it from a note at checkout, and Lycette Designs in Palm Beach lets you pick the thread line as you order.

Printed kits cost less, and a boxed kit comes with its thread. A hand-painted canvas costs more, and the shop can kit it in threads chosen for the painting.

Boxed stocking kits sold online

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Search results for stocking kits mix in cross stitch and felt kits. These are needlepoint, going by each listing. The Dimensions kits make a 16-inch stocking and include felt for the back. The Alice Peterson kits are larger, and you will need to arrange the finishing.

• Dimensions Polar Pals Stocking Needlepoint Kit (16", 14-count)A printed canvas with sorted thread, felt for the back, a needle, an alphabet for the name, and instructions for finishing it yourself.
• Dimensions Happy Snowman Stocking Needlepoint Kit (16", 14-count)The same format as Polar Pals, with a snowman in a holiday sweater, cap, and scarf.
• Dimensions Hugging Penguins Stocking Needlepoint Kit (16", 12-count)A coarser canvas, so fewer stitches, worked in wool yarn and cotton thread. Felt backing and finishing instructions included.
• Dimensions Snowman and Friends Stocking Needlepoint Kit (16", 12-count)Also 12-count, in wool and acrylic yarn, with a cardinal and a chickadee perched on the snowman's hat.
• Alice Peterson Nutcracker Soldier Stocking Kit (11" x 18.5", 14-mesh)Closer to a shop-size stocking, printed on cotton canvas and stitched in embroidery floss. The floss comes unsorted and there is no backing or cording, so plan the finishing separately. The listing says it is for experienced stitchers.
• Alice Peterson Gift Wrapped Reindeer Stocking Kit (11" x 18.5", 14-mesh)From the same series as the nutcracker, with a reindeer design, and it also needs finishing.

What mesh count to choose

Stockings are almost always 13 or 18-mesh. Among the nearly nine hundred full-size canvases we counted, 13-mesh made up about three in five of those that stated a mesh, 18-mesh nearly all the rest, and none was 10-mesh.

Thirteen-mesh is the one to choose for a first stocking. It has about half as many stitches as 18-mesh over the same area. Eighteen-mesh gives finer detail, and some designs come on either: Aristeia Needlepoint in Santa Monica offers many of its stockings on 13 or 18-mesh at the same price. The boxed kits we checked use 12 or 14-count canvas. See our mesh count guide for more on how mesh count affects stitching time and thread choice.

Adding a name: personalized stockings

Many stocking canvases leave room for a name, in a banner or across the cuff. You can stitch it yourself from an alphabet chart, and the Dimensions kits include one. Stitch the name in a thread that stands out against the banner, such as a metallic or a high-contrast color.

Or have the name painted on. Aristeia Needlepoint charges $40 to add a name to a stocking and warns that it can delay shipping by up to six weeks. The Red Thread Atelier lists custom painting at $35. Lycette Designs asks for the name and font when you order and confirms the price afterward, and Rittenhouse Needlepoint in Philadelphia offers names of up to ten characters on some of its canvases, allowing two to three weeks. A finisher can monogram the fabric instead: Lycette offers that with its stocking finishing.

How long does a stocking take to stitch?

It takes months. Needlepoint.Com, which has shops in Charleston and Raleigh and lists hundreds of stocking canvases, says the stitching of a full stocking "takes months and months".

Our arithmetic explains why. A stocking 11 by 19 inches holds something like twenty-three to twenty-six thousand stitches on 13-mesh, nearly ten times a 4-inch ornament, and close to twice that on 18-mesh. Decorative stitches take longer again than tent stitch.

So plan a stocking in months, not weeks. If this would be your very first needlepoint project, stitch something small first. Our how to start needlepoint guide is the place to begin.

What a stocking costs

A hand-painted stocking has three costs, and the canvas is only the first.

• The canvas. In the shop catalogs we read for our cost guide in September 2026, a full-size hand-painted stocking canvas had a median price of $361, and half cost between $284 and $475. Rittenhouse Needlepoint lists more than a quarter of them, at a median of $515; without it, the median is $320.
• The thread. At Lycette Designs, kitting one 13-mesh stocking canvas added about $120 to $145 to its price, depending on the thread line.
• Finishing. A full-size knife-edge stocking costs $100 or $110 to finish at Rittenhouse, by length, and Lycette Designs' stocking finishing starts at $225, by the prices we read in September 2026. Cording and a gusset cost more. Our finishing guide has other finishers' prices.

Added together, a hand-painted stocking about 19 inches long, kitted and professionally finished, comes to roughly $550 to $730 before any name painting. That is a $320 to $361 canvas (the median without and with Rittenhouse), $120 to $145 of thread, and $110 to $225 of finishing, by our arithmetic, not a quote. A boxed kit that you sew up yourself saves the kitting and the finishing. Our guide to why needlepoint is so expensive adds up the same three costs for an ornament and a pillow.

Finishing a needlepoint stocking

Finishing a stocking is a different job from framing wall art. Once stitched and blocked, the canvas has to be sewn into the actual stocking shape, lined with a coordinating fabric, and usually finished with a decorative cuff, cording, or a hanging loop. Lycette Designs, for example, offers a flat, knife-edge stocking or a boxed one with a gusset, in more than three hundred backing and lining fabrics.

The Dimensions kits are designed to be sewn up at home, with the felt backing they include. A hand-painted canvas usually goes to a professional finisher, because the work is fussy and the canvas holds months of stitching. Ask a local shop which finisher it uses, or whether it finishes in house.

Finishers set their deadlines early. For Christmas 2026, Lycette Designs quoted about six months to finish a stocking and set its stocking deadline at May 10, and Needlepoint.Com set its stocking deadline at September 1. A stocking topper, a shorter canvas that the finisher sews onto a velvet stocking, is far less stitching, but at Needlepoint.Com its deadline is the same as a full stocking's. Our finishing guide sets out what finishing costs, how long it takes, and when the cutoffs fall.

Vintage and heirloom stockings

A shop that does restoration may be able to clean, repair, or finish an old stocking again. Rittenhouse Needlepoint lists cleaning and restoration of vintage pieces among its finishing services, along with remaking finished pieces with updates, and Village Needlepoint of Irvington, on Virginia's Northern Neck, cleans and refreshes family heirlooms.

Rittenhouse sets out on its restoration form how the work goes. It looks at the piece in person first, to decide what can be fixed and whether restoring it is worth the risks. It then tests whether the dyes are colorfast, which decides how the piece can be cleaned, and plans the work: repairing holes or tears, cleaning wet or dry, removing stains, treating mold or mildew, and re-stitching. The form also names the risks. Dry rot in the canvas under the stitches can be hard to detect, can tear the seams when an old piece is taken apart, and can let the canvas tear under its own weight in the wash. Washing always risks the dyes running or fading, even when they test colorfast. The customer signs that a piece may be damaged in ways that cannot be undone. The same form names sun, nicotine, sprayed cleaning products, and the oils from hands among the causes of damage over time.

Rittenhouse's 2026 price list charges $75 an hour for cleaning and restoration, quoted for each piece, and prices remaking an old piece at its usual finishing price for that kind of item, plus $45 an hour to take the old finishing apart. It also asks that you not wash a piece before sending it for finishing, since washing takes the starch out of the canvas and makes a blocking hard to hold.

An unstitched stocking canvas you will not stitch is a different matter: our guide to selling a needlepoint stash covers consignment, trade-ins, and donating.

Starting in the fall?

Then a professionally finished stocking for this Christmas is probably out of reach. The stocking deadlines we have found fall between May and September, and every finisher sets its own, so ask your shop for its dates.

There are two ways forward. Buy the canvas now and stitch through the winter, so it is ready well before next year's deadlines. Or choose a boxed kit with felt backing and finishing instructions, which has no finisher's deadline to meet. It is still a lot of stitching, so start soon.

FAQ

Do I need a kit to make a stocking?

No. At the shops we checked, stockings are sold as canvases on their own, and many shops will kit the threads for you. A boxed kit is the all-in-one alternative, with the thread and instructions in the box.

What mesh count should a first stocking be?

Choose 13-mesh. It is what most stocking canvases are painted on, and it has about half the stitches of 18-mesh. A boxed kit on 12 or 14-count canvas also works for a first stocking.

How much does a needlepoint stocking cost?

In the shop catalogs we read in September 2026, a full-size hand-painted stocking canvas had a median price of $361, or $320 leaving out Rittenhouse Needlepoint, which lists more than a quarter of them. Kitting the threads added about $120 to $145 at Lycette Designs. Finishing a full-size knife-edge stocking costs $100 or $110 at Rittenhouse, by length, and Lycette's stocking finishing starts at $225. Together, a kitted and finished stocking about 19 inches long comes to roughly $550 to $730, by our arithmetic. A boxed kit you finish yourself saves the kitting and the finishing.

Can a shop paint a name on my stocking?

Several will, for a fee and a wait. Aristeia Needlepoint charges $40 and warns of up to six weeks' delay, and Rittenhouse Needlepoint allows two to three weeks on the canvases where it offers names.

What is a stocking topper?

It is a shorter canvas, stitched as the top of the stocking, which the finisher sews onto velvet to make the rest. It is far less stitching, but at Needlepoint.Com the finishing deadline is the same as for a full stocking.

Can an old needlepoint stocking be restored?

A shop that does restoration may be able to. Rittenhouse Needlepoint sees each piece in person first, to decide what can be fixed and what cannot, and its work includes cleaning, repairs, and re-stitching; Village Needlepoint of Irvington cleans and refreshes heirlooms. Rittenhouse warns that cleaning an old piece carries risks: dyes can run, and a canvas weakened by dry rot, which can be hard to detect, can tear in the wash. It asks customers to accept those risks first.

How far ahead should I start a Christmas stocking?

Start it in the winter or spring before, not in the fall. The stitching takes months, and finishers want the stocking months before Christmas: for 2026, Lycette Designs quoted about six months and set its stocking deadline at May 10. Our finishing guide has the published cutoff dates.

Sizes and mesh counts, from fourteen listed shops' stocking listings, and the kitting and name-painting prices were read on September 16, 2026, and canvas prices from the shop catalogs behind our cost guide on September 28, 2026. Finishing prices and deadlines come from Rittenhouse Needlepoint's 2026 finishing price list, Lycette Designs' stocking finishing page, and Needlepoint.Com's deadlines for 2026. They change from year to year and from shop to shop, so confirm with the shop before you buy. Rittenhouse Needlepoint's restoration form and Village Needlepoint of Irvington's About page were read on September 28, 2026.