I don't know how it is in your family, but stockings are often cited as the best part of gifting in our house (and my husband's, growing up!). It also seems to be something that everyone does a little differently - price wise, and content wise. Sometimes it's hard for me to find enough stuff to fill a stocking, or other times I have plenty of stuff but I blow my entire gift budget filling it. I don't have a "right" way that I'm pushing, but I still wanted to share some of my ideas and hopefully glean some good ones from you guys.
The Stocking Itself
First of all, I believe that the stocking itself should be a meaningful. There are seriously oodles of cool ones. Personally, I'm not too into the matching ones, the monogrammed ones, or teeny ones. But that excludes most people's stockings, so don't listen to me....
My family (except for me, incidentally) has hand-knit ones which aren't exactly stunningly beautiful, but they are personal and special. My mother in law made my boys' stockings that have Chinese silk on one side - Ishmael's even has dragons for his Chinese zodiac sign! My brother in law (sister's husband) has an enormous one that is twice the size of anyone else's in our family and we ridicule him mercilessly.
I think these kantha stockings from Little Moon Clothing are beautiful, available here. I like the earlier version (I'd saved an image from their Instagram last year, inset) even better! World Market also has some that I love this year, like this embroidered floral one, and this llama one (eeee!).
A fellow artist/seller on Instagram @OurTribeMarket posted this photo of her family's stockings and shared their tradition of adding a new piece of trim each year. Isn't that neat?! I love the way they look.
Traditional Stocking Stuffers
I didn't look up any historical stocking stuffers or anything, but I did want to mention some items that are on heavy rotation in our family. Part of the trick of stuffing a stocking well is to balance truly exciting things with some more affordable "space takers". One other thing I want to mention that I read somewhere is the "rule" of buying every-day-ish things that someone else can't really justify buying for themselves very often, like beef jerky! I'm never not excited to be given beef jerky.
Fruit and nuts - Growing up, we always got a larger piece of fruit and pistachios as filler in between small toys or other items. The fruit was often special, like a mango (especially if mangoes were hard to come by) or a pomegranate. We never had pistachios as a snack during the rest of the year, so that was a treat too, even though I would now put it into the "filler" category.
Unique collections - For a few years in a row, I got Jonas a netsuke (a small Japanese carving) and he got me music boxes, but we haven't stuck to that religiously. This year I bought all my boys an owl-related ornament because of the two owls that live in our yard, but annual ornaments from multiples factions of our family can become a little overwhelming so I probably won't do that every year.
*To the right, here, is a picture of what I put in my little boys' stockings last year. The Spiderman thing is one of those washclothes that expand in water. Once I've picked out some nicer things (action figure, stuffed toy, etc.) I usually go to the Dollar store and top it off with whatever little things I can find. The struggle for me is not buying junk just so I can fill a stocking, because you know I'm the one that is then driven crazy by the amount of useless little bobbles in our house.*
Self-care - My mom often put mascara or razors in our stockings. Even if we didn't need them right away, it was always nice not to have to buy those things for yourself. Those things were often somewhat of a luxury on their own during our years in China, too. Last year, she bought my little boys some soap in special shapes to make bath time even *more* exciting. If you have kids, I'm sure you know how much they love special band aids. And while it's not exactly self-care, last year I put a pack of batteries in each boy's stocking for their new and old toys that need them.
The fun stuff - Everything else requires some creativity. Some of my favorites are an issue of a niche magazine, rollerball perfumes from Sephora (though those will still set you back like $25), smaller-amount gift cards, pins and patches for denim jackets or bags, a handwritten letter or small drawing, a special pocket square or tie, "special things" for your spouse (interpret as you will), and specialty candies like my personal favorite, double salt black licorice. (Probably don't put that in most people's stockings though, they'll think you hate them, lol). Grocery Outlet has a good selection of Lindor chocolates, and sometimes fancy gummy bears and Haribo products too. For your healthy family members (blehhhh), Trader Joe's has the best and most affordable selection of dried fruit and nuts (I love the dried orange slices and chili lime cashews). Other specialty food items (like pomegranate molasses, for my Ottolenghi fans) would be exciting for the chefs in your life.
*Here's what I put in my husband Jonas' stocking last year. The rolled up cloth is a button-down shirt, the little brown bottles were supposed to be for his taxidermy collections, but I was having a really hard time finding the kind of thing I was envisioning. He's been using these little ones to hold tiny feathers he finds. The box that says "Andar" is a slim wallet that he really needed, and the thingy next to it is a carved gourd that I found at a thrift store. He really likes to drink yerba mate, which is an Argentinian tea-like drink usually drunk from a gourd. The jar is home-made passion fruit jam that my friend Coreen made, and that cheese has caramelized onions which is so good, but I don't usually buy it because the taste and smell stays with you for everrrr.*
This list has lots of ideas, my favorite probably being diaper genie refill bags. I never had a diaper genie, but I heard that the bags were a bit expensive and that's such a nice thing to not have to spend your own money on. One thing that I didn't see on there that I just remembered was a roll up measuring tape. I'm sure you could find a much cheaper not-vintage one than this, but it is super handy to have in your bag (at least for me). I also liked the idea of spices and flower seeds, among others. I also got a kick out of these "lumps of coal" although you could probably upgrade to pumice or some other fancy self-care version?!
Do you have fun stocking memories or traditions or ideas? Do tell!
The Stocking Itself
First of all, I believe that the stocking itself should be a meaningful. There are seriously oodles of cool ones. Personally, I'm not too into the matching ones, the monogrammed ones, or teeny ones. But that excludes most people's stockings, so don't listen to me....My family (except for me, incidentally) has hand-knit ones which aren't exactly stunningly beautiful, but they are personal and special. My mother in law made my boys' stockings that have Chinese silk on one side - Ishmael's even has dragons for his Chinese zodiac sign! My brother in law (sister's husband) has an enormous one that is twice the size of anyone else's in our family and we ridicule him mercilessly.
I think these kantha stockings from Little Moon Clothing are beautiful, available here. I like the earlier version (I'd saved an image from their Instagram last year, inset) even better! World Market also has some that I love this year, like this embroidered floral one, and this llama one (eeee!).
Traditional Stocking Stuffers
I didn't look up any historical stocking stuffers or anything, but I did want to mention some items that are on heavy rotation in our family. Part of the trick of stuffing a stocking well is to balance truly exciting things with some more affordable "space takers". One other thing I want to mention that I read somewhere is the "rule" of buying every-day-ish things that someone else can't really justify buying for themselves very often, like beef jerky! I'm never not excited to be given beef jerky.
Fruit and nuts - Growing up, we always got a larger piece of fruit and pistachios as filler in between small toys or other items. The fruit was often special, like a mango (especially if mangoes were hard to come by) or a pomegranate. We never had pistachios as a snack during the rest of the year, so that was a treat too, even though I would now put it into the "filler" category.Unique collections - For a few years in a row, I got Jonas a netsuke (a small Japanese carving) and he got me music boxes, but we haven't stuck to that religiously. This year I bought all my boys an owl-related ornament because of the two owls that live in our yard, but annual ornaments from multiples factions of our family can become a little overwhelming so I probably won't do that every year.
*To the right, here, is a picture of what I put in my little boys' stockings last year. The Spiderman thing is one of those washclothes that expand in water. Once I've picked out some nicer things (action figure, stuffed toy, etc.) I usually go to the Dollar store and top it off with whatever little things I can find. The struggle for me is not buying junk just so I can fill a stocking, because you know I'm the one that is then driven crazy by the amount of useless little bobbles in our house.*
Self-care - My mom often put mascara or razors in our stockings. Even if we didn't need them right away, it was always nice not to have to buy those things for yourself. Those things were often somewhat of a luxury on their own during our years in China, too. Last year, she bought my little boys some soap in special shapes to make bath time even *more* exciting. If you have kids, I'm sure you know how much they love special band aids. And while it's not exactly self-care, last year I put a pack of batteries in each boy's stocking for their new and old toys that need them.
The fun stuff - Everything else requires some creativity. Some of my favorites are an issue of a niche magazine, rollerball perfumes from Sephora (though those will still set you back like $25), smaller-amount gift cards, pins and patches for denim jackets or bags, a handwritten letter or small drawing, a special pocket square or tie, "special things" for your spouse (interpret as you will), and specialty candies like my personal favorite, double salt black licorice. (Probably don't put that in most people's stockings though, they'll think you hate them, lol). Grocery Outlet has a good selection of Lindor chocolates, and sometimes fancy gummy bears and Haribo products too. For your healthy family members (blehhhh), Trader Joe's has the best and most affordable selection of dried fruit and nuts (I love the dried orange slices and chili lime cashews). Other specialty food items (like pomegranate molasses, for my Ottolenghi fans) would be exciting for the chefs in your life.
*Here's what I put in my husband Jonas' stocking last year. The rolled up cloth is a button-down shirt, the little brown bottles were supposed to be for his taxidermy collections, but I was having a really hard time finding the kind of thing I was envisioning. He's been using these little ones to hold tiny feathers he finds. The box that says "Andar" is a slim wallet that he really needed, and the thingy next to it is a carved gourd that I found at a thrift store. He really likes to drink yerba mate, which is an Argentinian tea-like drink usually drunk from a gourd. The jar is home-made passion fruit jam that my friend Coreen made, and that cheese has caramelized onions which is so good, but I don't usually buy it because the taste and smell stays with you for everrrr.*
This list has lots of ideas, my favorite probably being diaper genie refill bags. I never had a diaper genie, but I heard that the bags were a bit expensive and that's such a nice thing to not have to spend your own money on. One thing that I didn't see on there that I just remembered was a roll up measuring tape. I'm sure you could find a much cheaper not-vintage one than this, but it is super handy to have in your bag (at least for me). I also liked the idea of spices and flower seeds, among others. I also got a kick out of these "lumps of coal" although you could probably upgrade to pumice or some other fancy self-care version?!
Do you have fun stocking memories or traditions or ideas? Do tell!
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