Ideas for Christmas Stocking Stuffers

When we were kids, the stocking gifts were small gifts along with filled raspberries, candy canes, nuts and a tangerine in one of our own socks. When we married and had our son and our own household, I found that some things that I grew up with were just not as acceptable as they were when I was a kid. We did the small gifts while our son was small and that worked. Although we used Christmas stockings instead of our own socks. But as he got older his tastes got too expensive for small gifts in the stockings. He also didn't like the tangerine, nuts or candy canes. So we switched to other candies, left out the nuts and tangerines and went to food gifts that we don't usually have during the year because they would either be too expensive to buy or be too unhealthy to consume on a regular basis, but were OK for a one-time gift in a stocking.

Now-a-days, we often try to find new and different stockings each year, or make them and use them as part of the wrapping for the smaller gifts that we give to the kids. We often use the stockings as the wrapping for the gifts for our soldiers, also. We're also switching, again, what items are being put into the stockings because all of our diets need to be healthier. We're still keeping some of the absolute favorites and exchanging out some of the other items for either healthier selections or for non-food selections.

There are several ways you can go with stocking gifts. Here are a few suggestions you can choose from:

Single Theme:

The same way some people choose themes in their trees and house decorations, you can choose a theme such as our daughter-in-law collects Tinker-bell, Garfield, anything sunflower and just loves purple and Hershey's kisses. One year I was able to find all kinds of items that were sunflower themed; note pads, magnets, small boxes, calendar etc. One of my cousins thinks every shade of blue is just beautiful and she
collects angels and eagles. One year I got a whole variety of items in different blues, angels, a box, a Christmas towel. Another year I found a lot of different treatments on angels, a box, pack of note cards, some figurines, a pin and an ornament. I've done the same when my son was into fishing. I got all kinds of small items that he would normally use for fishing and other fishing themed items, like small figurines and a magnet.

Age Related:

When I was young I was delighted with pencil erasers, hair accessories, small items for my dolls, small pieces of inexpensive jewelry and pencils. We have given small cars, miniature stuffed toys, miniature figurines, stickers, tiny dolls, small collectibles, lip balm, small kits/collections and small accessories.

For the older ones I've put in small joke gifts that I've picked up on my trips, finger flashlights, small tools, miniature calendars, magnets, fun keychaines and decorative word ornaments that can be used during the year.

Food:

The attraction of these kinds of stocking gifts is that the items belong to the recipient to eat whenever they choose, however they choose. Unless you have a household where your family can eat anything they want anytime they want, this type of gift gives your family a small gift of freedom. Sometimes we've gotten mainly individual sized candy bars in everyone's favorite varieties, one or two bigger sized bar of their absolutely most favorite and a favorite individually bottled fruit juice. In other years, this has been one of our favorite varieties of stockings: Small canned meats/fish, small hot-sauce/chocolate sauce/honey, beef jerky, slim jims, small packaged cookies/crackers, small jars of olives, cans of pasta meals, chips and an individual bottle of fruit juice.

Special Message:

This is a variation on a theme with a twist. It's for a specific time and a specific situation, such as, one year our family went through a particularly difficult time, so I made individualized coupon booklets for my husband and for our son, where I gave them whatever special service or special treat that they might want to choose. They just had to give me 24 hours notice to redeem the coupon. A few years later, my husband had lost his job due to a shift in his company and it took him two years to find a full-time job. I stuffed his stocking full of different kinds of cows to remind him that we were being taken care of. Another year, the Christmas before our son got married I put family, relationship and wedding themed items in their stockings to encourage them, since things had gotten a bit difficult in the wedding arrangements.

Mixed Theme:

This is one of my favorites since I can combine both favorite foods and special little gifts. Every year I try to find special little things that say that I'm thinking of that person as I'm running other errands or standing in the check-out line. I've gotten Tinker-bell pencils, magnets with special sayings or pictures, tiny calendars, like a golf calendar for my foster father, a tiny angel for my cousin or a miniature nativity for my foster mother. Which I will combine with favorite little snacks such as Cracker Jacks and Kettle Corn for the son of a friend, a chocolate orange for our son or a Snicker's bar for my husband.

Stocking Collection:

When our son still lived with us, we each had our stocking which we used every year. After a few years we would replace them with new stockings and use the older stockings as Christmas decorations in the house. Then when our son got married that changed. One year we were in NY after Thanksgiving and we saw these "Christmas in NY" stockings. We got two, one for the kids and one for us. From that point, a new tradition was born. When I'm out and about around Christmas, either on a trip or locally, I'll be on the lookout for a new and different stocking to add to their collection. Which sometimes becomes the theme. The NY stocking also had NY themed gifts in it, for both of them.

Needless to say, we've wandered a long way from the traditions of my childhood. We get filled strawberries instead of the filled raspberries, often leave out the candy canes, leave the tangerine in the fridge, no longer get the nuts and don't bother to get a sock out of the drawer. But we still use the stockings as an encouragement to others and we still open one gift every night for seven days before Christmas. But that's what it's about, keeping the traditions that we grew up with, that serve our families well, and replacing the others with new ones that better fit our family's needs.