SEVEN FOR YOU â—½ TIPS
Fill the Stockings
Our Panel of Women
I love filling the stockings, and our family has a special time to open them all…Christmas night. It’s fun to find things, and sometimes it’s hard, but stockings are a favorite part of the Christmas experience. We asked our panel of women to weigh in with their faves…for ideas for us all!
Christmas stockings when I was a kid in the UK held walnuts, an orange (that always fell to the bottom) chocolate coins, a toy soldier or a tiny plastic doll, and a sugar mouse. The items were few and simple and this is the way I wish stockings were filled today.
There is so much pressure to "gift" and to give more and more. The meaning of Christmas is lost in the big box store gifts, the high-dollar toys and boxes of candy. I miss the old days when He was first and the gifts were tokens of love.
Last year, my daughter, Alex, could not come for Christmas. She sent me the book in the image. It was the best gift I've ever had from her. We all want to be known when we leave this world. Known not just as a "Mom" or "Dad" but as a human being.
I've started writing in it...it asks to share our family history, our likes, our dislikes, our values and wisdom. Alex can have it forever and I get to leave part of me behind for her to keep.
Alex is in the UK now, and she'll get some chocolate coins and a sugar mouse from me. – Cathy
When my children were born, I made each of them a stocking to go with the two I had made for my husband and me. We still use those same stockings. After my kids got married and started to have children, I added a pin with the initial of each new addition. And I still “stuff” their stockings for them and include little surprises for their family members. Although, I put some of the stuffings in a bag along with what’s inside their stockings. With all the grandchildren there’s too much to put in just the stocking.
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Each year I have regular items I include like toothbrushes. I also include Bath and Body Works shower gels and lotions for each family. Then I make sure they each have a couple of personalized items or candy depending on what they like.
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For me, every year, my husband gets me a box of chocolate covered cherries. It’s just not Christmas without these! And I worked hard for him to get into this habit when we were first married. He also thinks of special little things for me. One of my favorites is my puzzle books. He has gotten them in different sizes at different years but always with religious themes. He says he goes shopping for this and it always amazes me what he comes up with. - Carole
There are a few things I fill in the adult stockings each year. One is handmade luxurious bars of soap from markets in Christmas/Winter scents for the guys. I enjoy placing a pretty pen in each stocking, as well as cozy socks. I love to shop the markets for unique artisan earrings or other items, too. For the kids, there are cute “tiny” toys that appear in the stores (like a tiny Uno game, or a tiny violin, etc.) and the kids love the freeze-dried candies that are also at the markets. So I guess I realized, while writing this, that I love visiting the fall/winter markets to find stocking fillers! I also love the little bins up at the front of Michaels – always cute stuff there. – like tiny office supplies and cute pens, and all sorts of small and unique items. – Marcy
We have store bought stockings that I had embroidered with our names on them.
Stocking stuffers:
1. Gift cards: QT, Amazon, Happy Panini
2. Candy, gum
3. Technology gadgets: chargers, usb connectors, thumb drives, magnetic chargers
4. Chapstick, Travel lotions, razor blades
5. Knick Knacks from Cracker Barrel
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Laura
A few years ago I decided to decorate burlap stockings and personalize them with the initial of each family member. I then arranged them on the wall beside my Christmas tree. On Christmas Eve I would fill them with inexpensive goodies and leave them on the hearth. This was fun for some but others of my family didn’t seem so impressed. Plus, the stuffing and handling of these stockings proved to be detrimental to some of the embellishments. These stockings were clearly best used for decorating only.
As time has passed my family has grown considerably. My wall decoration is a work in progress. So, this year I plan to buy small stockings and fill them with a few goodies like a tiny baby doll and a few bite sized candy pieces. I will pass them out and let my family take them home. My wall decorations and my budget will remain intact. – Gina
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​My mother is in her 90s. Christmas with my family in 2024 looks so different than it did in her 1930’s childhood and even in my childhood. Christmas for us is an ever evolving celebration. We first and foremost want to celebrate the birth of Christ and what his life means to us every day of the year. We want to celebrate each other and the joy of family. The adults in our family don’t do stockings. The six (soon to be seven children) do have stockings. The items in there are fun and small and often consumable. I do enjoy going to craft shows before Christmas to see what new & imaginative toys and things the creative people have come up with. And I do often pray that the Lord would help me find a meaningful gift for the grandkids. I’m not looking for the wow factor. Just a little something special. - Shelley
Growing up in the 1960s, the youngest of five kids, my mom (er, I mean, Santa Claus!) would hang Christmas stockings. They weren’t elaborate, but they were coveted; a box of 10 rolls of Lifesavers® (remember those?); peanuts, almonds and filberts; fresh orange; a box of Whitman Sampler Chocolates; and a few special individualized items. So I started at a young age loving the tradition of receiving a Christmas stocking.
Throughout my young adult life, I was the official stocking provider/filler when we all gathered at my parents’ house for Christmas in Northern California. I became very creative in my thinking as to what each family member would get in their stocking – and I had anywhere from 10-to-20 stockings to fill each year. And from babies to my 75-yr-old dad!
Fast forward a few decades, and now it’s just me and my husband. Our life is simple, we are winding down – and downsizing in retirement. We don’t need/buy big, expensive, elaborate gifts. Well, truth is; our budget won’t allow. Between yearly insurance due in December, and buying for kids & grandkids, our available funds for exchanging gifts is nil. But …that’s where the fun comes in! Our gift to one another is a Christmas stocking filled to the brim. And boy do I have fun shopping for and putting it together.
So what’s in the stocking? Both fun and functional items. I start buying items in early November. Things Dennis would like or need:
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· Package of pencils (once a teacher – always a teacher!)
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· Pens, crossword puzzle book, charger cord
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· Box of Band-Aids®, dental floss, socks
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· Favorite candy bars, beef jerky, cashews
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· Gift card to favorite fast food restaurant
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· . . . . and many more items that I find throughout the holiday season.
Note: I confess; Dennis isn’t as good as me at finding stocking stuffers. So I shop for my stocking as well (wink, wink). The secret is to buy your items in October and November, toss them in a bag – and don’t look at them again – so you’ll be pleasantly surprised when you open your stocking on Christmas morning! Hand the bag to your husband days before Christmas Eve and let him stuff your stocking. And chances are, he’s found a few things as well to put in your stocking. - Gloria