<p>I love doing stockings and do one for all the kids (all over 20) and my husband and even the dog. For the men, I look for small tools- got some interesting things off of Woot., small flavored coffees, gloves, mind teaser games. For the girls- winter hats, gloves, kitchen gadgets, chapstick, socks, tank tops (Old Navy has cheap ones). Everyone gets a lottery ticket and usually a chocolate tailored to the individual. I keep my eye open for cheap but useful things. Oh, and we do stockings for nieces and nephews instead of gift. All the sister in laws buy something for each kids stocking. It makes for quite a variety of items.</p>
<p>I LOVE STOCKINGS!!! They are my favorite part of Christmas. It is a mission each season to find the best stuff! No limit on kids’ ages…My mother still makes a stocking for my sister and I…our original stocking from childhood. All the kids still have their original stocks also.</p>
<p>I love stores like Whole Earth Provisions, Restoration Hardware and Sam Moon for special stocking goodies and I always keep my eyes open all year round for unusual things. One of my favorite things so far this year are bacon strip band-aids just because they are weird. I always put a movie pass in each stocking as a hint that they can all go to the movies so I can chill for an hour or two after a few long days preparing for the holidays. </p>
<p>Now…how Southern is this? My husband’s family fills stocking with fireworks. Yes ladies and gentleman nothing like blowing up your house on Christmas day…haha.</p>
<p>Lots of candy, including a chocolate orange and gold coins. Kid gets a grapefruit in the toe of his stocking because he doesn’t like oranges, does like grapefruit. He also always gets a toothbrush, toothpaste, and floss. </p>
<p>Other items may include:
Small holiday-themed Lego set/other small toys
Body wash
Keyring
Small book
Blistex or Chapstick
Interesting paperclips, pens, other office supplies
Silly Putty
Drawing pad
iTunes card
Many of the things mentioned by others</p>
<p>I usually find one cool or fun small thing and buy a lot of that item not only for stocking stuffers, but to give friend who come to Christmas brunch (which is usually a day or two after Christmas). Last year, the item was [instant</a> snow](<a href=“Insta-Snow® Powder: Fake Snow | Steve Spangler Science”>Insta-Snow® Powder: Fake Snow | Steve Spangler Science), another year it was [flashing</a> pins](<a href=“Light Up LED Novelty Superstore FlashingBlinkyLights.com”>Light Up LED Novelty Superstore FlashingBlinkyLights.com), yet another year it was holiday/winter-themed [Gemini</a> Specs<a href=“which%20were%20a%20HUGE%20hit”>/url</a>, and sometimes, it’s [url="<a href="http://www.oldenglishcrackers.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=54"]Christmas">http://www.oldenglishcrackers.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=54"]Christmas</a> crackers](<a href=“http://www.toysmith.com/GeminiKaleidoscopes/specs.html"]Gemini”>http://www.toysmith.com/GeminiKaleidoscopes/specs.html). (I’ve done those with little ornaments or wine charms in them, and one year, ones with little tuned “horns” in them. That was the year I discovered my friends all had adult-onset attention deficit disorder, as we never did get a decent song out of the group!)</p>
<p>“Silly Putty” GOOD ONE!</p>
<p>My mom is a Brit and we have always done Christmas crackers at dinner. Nothing like a bunch of drunk family members with silly paper hats and toys.</p>
<p>Collegeshopping- I love the firecrackers. That would never go over with my safety conscious mother in law 
I just got in the mail one of my stuffers for the nephews- luggage scales. Got them off of e-bay. I also picked up stainless steel water bottles on black Friday for five dollars each.</p>
<p>Always lego, gumdrops, candy cane. We don’t have a fireplace so we hang them on the stair bannister. The boys have always used their dad’s old ski socks for stockings, long red wool ones from Austria. Last year my sister made darling stockings for us all, gingerbread men snowboarding on candy canes, sparkling snowflakes, little twinkling lights. The boys are refusing to use them, they insist it would not be Christmas without the disgusting red ski socks.</p>
<p>When I was in highschool we kids started living notes for Santa that said things like “We have all been perfect little angels this year except for Daddy who won’t let me have the car, ate all the cookies, and yells at the TV” Santa would then leave us notes that said
“My notes indicate that you have been a big bunch of bads. You left your father’s hammer at school, someone never fills the car with gas. However, your father is a living saint and deserves to have breakfast in bed. He really likes hot cocoa and english muffins and raspberry jam.”</p>
<p>You guys are awesome. I have such a hard time with this and wouldn’t you know it, when my kids were little we got them gigantic stockings. When I’m desperate I put a big bag of chips in there to fill up the space. It’s kind of pathetic tho - not so Christmassy to get chips. ;)</p>
<p>musicamusica, perhaps even better (or worse…) is perfectly sober people in a restaurant with silly paper crowns on their heads and toys, offering the spare crackers to strangers at other tables and letting them try out the Gemini specs that someone brought to dinner. :D</p>
<p>And then this group, musical and without the attention problems that my Christmas brunch friends show, play the little tuned horns, practicing until whatever we’re trying to play sounds sort of like what it is supposed to be. Yes, in the restaurant. Good thing we don’t drink before singing (our after-dinner activity that particular day of the holiday), or we might embarrass ourselves.</p>
<p>^ sober with silly hats. MUCH worse. :D</p>
<p>At least we have an “excuse”.</p>
<p>The Christmas cracker are my favorite tradition. Love the silly jokes. And really (half my family is sober) by the time the hats go on, you would never know who was drinking and who was not…</p>
<p>*******We sing after dinner as well!! And we are PROUD to embarrass ourselves.</p>
<p>lololu- love your story about your dad. </p>
<p>Archie McPhee is a great site to get stocking stuffers. Last year, I got everyone mints- Last Supper After Dinner Mints, Nihilist mints (taste like nothing), Commie mints and Brain flavored zombie mints. Something for everyone!</p>
<p>Great ideas!</p>
<p>I have made the mistake some years of actually putting something of substance in the stocking - a piece of jewelry, etc. Now I KNOW my girls are always hoping there will be just one more expensive thing to find - I learned my lesson.</p>
<p>Oh, also in the stocking, [candy</a> cane cocoa](<a href=“McStevens - Shop at Home”>McStevens - Shop at Home). This is a tradition, so I learned the year after I first put this in the stocking, this education taking place two days before Christmas and provided by my then-small son, who mentioned how much he was looking forward to getting the “traditional” candy cane cocoa from Santa, and that’s why I was at the mall on Christmas Eve that year…</p>
<p>musicamusica, we get our fun where we find it!</p>
<p>Another great place for stocking stuffers is leevalley.com They are a Canadian hardware company, but their gift catalog has a lot of neat stuff. It is really good if you have a gardener in the house. And if you have a woodworker then you probably already know Lee Valley/Veritas. If you don’t your woodworker would love a catalog.</p>
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<p>Mine hasn’t yet, and I’m, uh, older than any of our kids. :)</p>
<p>“musicamusica, we get our fun where we find it!”</p>
<p>I like this thread. I like stockings and Christmas crackers. I like glitter. I like old felt ornaments made by 2nd graders. I like tinsel.I like that my tree looks like the gypsies attacked it. I like that now I can put in Silly Putty with the Slinky in the stockings. I like all the cheap thrills of the Holidays.</p>
<p>ps: my Christmas after dinner performance will involve the Batusi. (But that belongs on another thread)</p>
<p>Just got my New Yorker and there’s an article in it about stocking stuffers! The full article is online for subscribers only, but here’s a link to a detailed abstract: [Christmas</a> stocking stuffer ideas : The New Yorker](<a href=“http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/12/14/091214fa_fact_marx]Christmas”>Put It in a Sock | The New Yorker) Of course most of what’s mentioned in the article is either out of my price range or not available in my neighborhood. But some interesting ideas included exotic foodstuffs (bottle of saffron for $15; pomegranate molasses, which I’d never heard of; dissolvable sugar spoons for tea for $20), theater tickets, dollhouse furniture, etc. Also includes ideas on how to stuff a pet’s stocking, which we’ve done, but never very creatively.</p>
<p>I have a good friend who has six grown children, several are married, one has two children. They have large felt stockings from their childhood, which are hung from little hooks on the bannister going upstairs. The grown kids get ALL their presents in the stockings, including for the spouses and children. My friend and her H give tickets, subscriptions to magazines, and small gifts for each person, all tucked in the stockings. Each couple or family gets tickets to a play or musical as their major gift.</p>
<p>I think it’s a nice way to keep Christmas under control and give experiences rather than material things.</p>
<p>Fun thread! I love hearing about different traditions. I too, love my tree, love all my ornaments that I’ve collected for decades. Love remembering all the years when I hang the “kid” ornaments. I’m just such a sap for the holidays. I put toiletries in the stockings for my boys each year (the boys and my hub). I get either cologne or body wash or deodorant in their cologne smell. Generally get them each lip balm. One year I got each of them a bottle of Dr. Bronners. This year I got them each a bottle of the Philosophy all-in-one (shampoo/body wash etc.) in fun holiday smells. I put a chocolate Santa and a candy cane or some little sweet treat…I’m no very different from all of you. Different every year. I did get #3 a Rubik’s cube this year that will go in the top of the stocking…he’s going to LOVE that. #1 son who looses flash drives constantly is getting one that he can attach to his lanyard and I haven’t decided on the small “unique” thing for #2, but it will come to me. Hubby is getting a “leash” for his readers 'cause he needs a leash for those darn things. Me, I don’t have a stocking cause I’m Santa.</p>
<p>I picked up travel size toilet articles from the drugstore, an I tunes GC, and a chocolate orange from Trader Joes. I think I’ll pick up some nail items for her too. Nothing impractical, because I can’t get her to declutter.</p>
<p>^^^^ MoT…“I am Santa” Amen! My mom was not here last year and my stocking was plain empty. My then 6 year old looked at me Christmas morning and said “what did YOU do wrong?” My husband got all sheepish…it simply never even crossed his mind.</p>