My mother had the foresight to think of a beautiful Christmas Tradition that would bring us Joy and Meaning throughout our childhood and that still makes me feel sentimental and happy in my 40’s. For every child she made a similar stocking for their first Christmas. Each year each child got the same patch/embellishment on their stocking. I was the first born so I have one more than my younger brother, three more than the next brother and 4 more than my last brother. The “Noel” for example was for 1976. The Big Santa Patch was for 1985. When I moved out I was given my stocking to take with me and I have brought it out every year to reminisce about all the wonderful Christmases I had with my family.
Isn’t this a great idea? I would suggest that you do this for the parents in the home too so that when the kids move out and take their stockings, he parents have their own similar memories.
How to do this?
Make sure that the stockings are big enough to accommodate at least 20 years of patches/emblems.
Make sure that you use durable stockings that an last a lifetime.
My mom did not add the dates to the patches because we always remembered, but my memory is not as clear anymore and I may forget after time. Therefore I would suggest that you could add the year as well.

I know that looking forward to using this memory stocking each year makes me happy and grateful. I think that it is a wonderful tradition for you to do with your family and to give to our own children.