Slightly Odd Stocking Stuffing

How to keep stockings simple but still GOOD

My alter-ego, thinking about stocking stuffers. (“Christmas Santa Reading Mail,” Norman Rockwell, 1935.)

Hi everyone!

Advent is upon us, which means that pretty soon I will be stuffing six stockings with things both delightful and, hopefully, inexpensive. I long ago let go of weird cultural stocking stuffer pressures and now have only three criteria for stocking stuffers:

1. It has to be something the receiver likes.

2. It has to be inexpensive (ideally less than $5, unless it’s a book).

3. I would rather it not be junk.

I would love to be the St. Nick equivalent of the house that hands out the full-sized candy bars at Halloween, but alas, I do not have C-notes or airpods or spa gift certificates to toss into stockings this year or any year. And anyhow, less expensive things are more fun in stockings, in my opinion, at least for the most part. I myself like stockings that are about surprise, variety, and volume rather than Gifts with a capital “G.” Gifts with a capital “G” go under the tree. (No shade to you if you like fancier stockings, though, of course!)

My three criteria have led to some odd choices of stocking stuffers over the years, but they have always led to smiling faces on Christmas morning. Here are ten of the somewhat odd, perhaps, but still very much enjoyed stocking stuffers that I have used in the past:

1. Chick-Fil-A sauce. It’s sold in my grocery store and one, and only one, of my kids loves it. She goes through it fast. Hence, she gets her own bottle in her stocking.

2. Stuff I buy from kid makers I know. When we’re at our church’s Advent craft fair, I buy 50-cent friendship bracelets, $3 sets of earrings, and tiny jars of hot fudge sauce from the kids who are selling things there. They’re usually quite nice for the price, and I really like to encourage kids who are taking this kind of initiative.

3. Holiday cards. Yep, you read that right. Everybody gets a set of 10-12 brand new Christmas cards in their stockings, which they then use to write thank-you notes for the Christmas gifts they receive from friends and family. It’s a good hack to buy regular holiday cards for this purpose instead of holiday-themed thank-you cards, which usually cost more.

4. Chapstick. Maybe this is not that unusual, but it’s a big one in our house. We have a wood-burning fireplace which we use every night in the winter, and it gets dry around here! People are always looking for chapstick. They’re grateful to find some in their stockings.

5. Keychains, pencils, and other tchotkes from our local National Park. The National Park giftshop is a treasure-trove, and I love supporting them by purchasing stocking stuffers there. Museum gift shops can be another good resource—look for the small, inexpensive stuff!

6. Pretty (or handsome) cloth handkerchiefs. Otherwise the kids are always stealing my husband’s. They’re good for his stocking, too (so that the kids can later steal them from him).

7. Always a book. This can be more than $5, and I realize also that it’s not weird. But like chapstick, it’s an important staple of a good stocking.

8. A book (or stories) on CD. We don’t have “smart” technology in our home, so our kids have CD players in their rooms to use for music and audiobooks. This means CDs. We’ve built up quite a collection of audiobooks over the years, and the children absolutely love getting new ones. We also use DVDs instead of streaming services or regular TV, for the most part, so sometimes a DVD will make its way into a stocking, too.

9. A cooking or craft tool. Once I put a pie-top-stamp in my son’s stocking and it was a big hit. That was more like $8, but oh, well. I have also received handy and fun cooking things in my own stockings, like a dough whisk or mini cookie cutters. Finally, if a kid is really into a specific craft or some kind of art, a special tool for that activity is always a hit (a small cross-stich kit, for example, or a set of gel pens, or some origami paper).

10. Thrift store ornaments. 50 cents each, baby! And always a little different or unusual as compared to ornaments from Target.

Bonus: Speaking of unusual, I try to put only unusual candy and food in our stockings. I focus on foods that are not available at other times of year. This means no M&M’s that just happen to be red and green or other everyday candies that are wearing Christmas packaging; instead, it means special peppermint candies, cherry chocolate kisses, and the like. Sometimes I’ll also put in small bags of foods that I rarely buy otherwise (Cheetos, for example, or the granola bars that are completely dipped in chocolate, or the really good fruit leather). We also make lots of special homemade cookies and candies at Christmas, but it’s always fun for everyone to have their own little stash of storebought treats, too!

---

So, tell us…

What do you like to put into stockings? This is a stocking-judgment-free zone! If you like to put M&M’s and airpods in stockings, I think that’s great, too!

Happy December!

Dixie