My sister and I have our stockings that will be 71 and 68 years old this Christmas, hung with our newer ones that I made when we were in our late 30’s, hoping Santa will remember us from way back when he sees the old ones. Our old ones are red felt with our names written in glue and sprinkled with glitter, from Jordan March in Boston. They do look very much ‘worse for wear’ and are missing bells and have melted chocolate stains. We still love them.
Definitely families should do what they like and if a couple wants new matching stockings or for all their kids’ stockings to match, that’s great. I won’t be making those new stockings but they sure can do whatever they want. For my nieces and nephews, the oldest two (siblings) are similar, my sister’s two are similar, the twins are similar but not like their siblings. My two kids aren’t similar. Sometimes it just depends on the mood I’m in.
Another fun thing with gift cards are lottery tickets.
If you have a World Market near you they are great for little stocking stuffers. I got my D a set of chopsticks, some fun food items, a cute ornament, and cocktail napkins. I also got snacks for my H to keep in his office on the days he can’t get out for lunch.
I asked mine if they wanted their stocking, so it was up to them. Neither of their spouses had a stocking from their childhood, neither did DH so I made them all one as the family grew. Even the stupid dog has one now. I still have my childhood one, which is actually from when I was about 14. My mom had knitted ones for my siblings, and being the youngest mine was storebought to save her sanity but later on she knitted me one too.
Our big Christmas present to the kids this year was the 2-week stay in Provence in October.
We agreed to do stockings only, but sometimes stockings are the most difficult/time consuming thing to do.
H and I happen to have the same stockings (one green, one red) from the late, great F&N. Mine is well-loved (we were allowed to get up early and check out our stockings) and H’s is pristine. I made similar ones for the girls, later for SIL, and #2D made one for her BF last year. They stay at our house and they have others for their own homes.
I ought a few things in France for them and spent a few $$ at a local kitchen store for more. Silicone loaf pan lifters, a pourer-thing that goes in the edge of bowls and pans, kitchen shears, etc. I have Bombas socks put aside for the girls, and will buy Darn Tough socks for the boys.
I was going to do very little in the stockings this year but ended up buying bath bombs and a sport massage soap at Lush. I also bought copies of the 2026 Old Farmers Almanac . That one has become something of a tradition since I started putting one in H’s stocking several years ago.
I reported the other day that I was giving up stockings, but I think I’m going to do SMALL stockings for each couple. They will have cute animal kitchen towels, some Toblerone bars and maybe a little other chocolate, some lip balm (Burt’s Bees kind of thing) and maybe another thing or two. I am NOT doing the $100 stockings in addition to all the other presents. At one point this year I was thinking of doing just cash and a little present for each “kid,” but I got good lists for 3 of 4 I’m buying for, so went with presents.
Haha—I’ve never gotten lists or even any hints of what people might want, so I’m flying blind. Fortunately, I sometimes find great things (sometimes not). It’s OK, I only buy from places with great return policies.
We always do the Terry’s chocolate oranges. I included one in a gift exchange for work yesterday, and I was surprised that people didn’t know about them- they’re in our family stockings every year!
So funny. We have been married since 1981. My DH has always done the stockings. He even gets stocking stuffers for himself. He had a favorite nut shop he went to (I’m sure he closed the place every Christmas Eve) until it closed. He also has a couple of favorite candy stores. Everyone gets a book. Everyone gets chocolate coins, twizzlers. One year, he gave everyone new nail cutters. One year, Swiss Army knives. He has a lot of fun doing it.
For our son who lives far way, I send a stocking filled with goodies (noted in an above post). But if he was here for Christmas, he would get a dad filled stocking!
I would love your DH to do my stocking. Nuts, twizzlers, chocolate, nail cutters - all things I like and can use. What I do not need in my stocking? Yet another one of those bizarre wind up walking santa/reindeer/snowman things that my husband seems to think we all need every year…
Been married since 1995, 5 kids, my husband has never bought a Christmas gift, birthday gift, stocking stuffer, gifts for his parents. He’s the sweetest, kindest man I’ve ever met, when I ask can you do me a favor, he says anything, but shopping for gifts was never his thing. We were just at a party, a woman I’ve known for years just mentioned her daughter was at a Friendsgiving with my oldest son (went to HS together) and said her daughter said he was one of the nicest guy she’s ever met. He is his father’s son, when we met his girlfriend’s parents (going on 5 years) they thanked us for him. He’s not great at gifts either, but he tries.
I never asked my husband to do the stockings. He told me he was doing them, and I never objected!
But gifts is another story. He used todo ALL of his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve at a small mall near us. I’m quite sure he was the last shopper there (he got the stocking stuffer stuff first…). Every year, I got clothing that was the right size…and he would say “just exchange it after Christmas”. Well…if they didn’t have my size (probably the MOST common women’s size) before Christmas, they sure,y weren’t going to have it after!
He is better now because he shops local with me…or he lets me tell him what to get for the kids and me for gifts.
UPDATE! the 3 sets of Polygon measuring spoons I ordered from Kickstarter in 2016 arrived today! After going back and forth with them again over email they said they hadn’t sent them because they didn’t have the color I selected - I didn’t even remember what color I selected in 2016! - I was impressed I still had the account number and order info! I told them I didn’t care about the color and they arrive today in blue:-)
Still do stockings but as others have said find it hard to find small things of interest. Will probably do some gift cards this year. I always get my kids an ornament as a stocking stuffer although so far they are still here as they haven’t started the tree tradition on their own yet. One got a very small tree with his GF this year so hopefully closer to taking his ornaments!!
Gift cards are a great addition to any stocking! Last year, I bought gift cards from (fancy) restaurants folks liked on the premise that they wouldn’t spend their own money to treat themselves. (Although I have found that for DS, it’s better that they are on his phone than in his wallet!)
Little tins of spices and bottles of hot sauce have been popular. Chili-lime salt was a surprising hit!
My mom always put emery boards in our stocking. Loved these! Also, anything travel size, from fancy hand cream to a favorite scent to toothpaste!
A friend recently gifted a mutual friend a one year subscription to AllTrails. This struck me as a great gift for a hiker, and got me thinking about how a subscription to a cooking app (nyt) or an exercise app could also be a great and useful stocking stuffer. I usually make a note and put it in a little envelope in the stocking.
I used to sometimes just buy a single magazine and put it in a stocking. Like a home or food magazine that the recipient can sit down one evening and page through an enjoy.
Sometimes I could find a cheap subscription (like less than $10/year) to go along with the magazine.
A few years ago I gave my kids each an ornament storage cube and put all their ornaments, from preschool on up, in them. Many were gifts with their names on them. One daughter owns a house so she took hers, but I have no idea if she uses them to decorate a tree (she’s a minimalist, so often no tree). The other daughter just bought a house in Nov so I took her cube to her at Thanksgiving (yea! one more item out of my house). She told me last night she was looking through them and crying. She’s not a minimalist. She’ll keep them forever.
Nuts, twizzlers, chocolate, nail cutters - all things I like and can use. What I do not need in my stocking? Yet another one of those bizarre wind up walking santa/reindeer/snowman things that my husband seems to think we all need every year…