The year my husband and I were married, his stepmom, Diane, whom I had never met and Jim hadn’t seen in years, sent us a lovely joint Christmas stocking she had made for us. She also sent an adorable handmade one for baby Brianna, who was born soon after we married.

Diane sent another precious stocking the following year, when Megan was born. And another sweet-as-can-be one two years after that for our baby Andie.

When Megan and Preston married in 2006 and moved 800 miles away, I gave Megan her stocking from “Gramma Carpenter” to keep at her home.

I still have—and hang and use—the stockings Gramma Carpenter made for the rest of us.

(Brianna and Andrea still celebrate some portion of Christmas at my house, hence my not giving them theirs to store at their houses.)

One day early last week. Megan sent me the following text message:

Three days later, I got the following Instagram message from Brianna:

It made me chuckle that these two daughters, who are so very different from one another in many ways, sent me the same sentiment (and follow some of the same folks on social media).

More so, it provided solid, unsolicited proof that Christmas crafts from grandmas do indeed matter. Even decades after they’ve been given.