It’s not a fucking stocking filler!

[YesJs]

I’m getting sick of gift guides with ‘stocking fillers’ that are around £15-20.

‘Perfect stocking filler for a teen’ says Glamour of a £25 lip balm kit. GQ, recommends a Stockings contain at least 10 presents - more likely about 15-20. Therefore (unless you’re super rich) they need, by nature, to be much cheaper than this.

I earn good money, I wouldn’t spend upwards of £250 on a stocking BEFORE the main presents. AIBU

A pkt of tena lady fills most of the stocking!

Brilliant, I got so sick of the kids wanting to pop to the loo to get tissue that I started buying it myself! I’m forever being asked for it, I keep reminding kids to bring s9meone from home.

Bag of chocolate coins, cheap make up, pair of gloves, satsuma, a snack, brilliant ‘stocking fillers’.

What I intend to do is buy 2 of the stockings.. one for hanging which can then be swapped for the full one easily! That is my plan for this year anyway as the teens are awake later and later!

I refuse to buy tat that will end up in landfill and we don’t go mad with main presents so mine get ‘nice’ things in their stockings. When they were younger it followed a formula along the lines of something to read, something to wear, something to play with, something related to their main present, plus sweets, a tangerine etc. One year I chucked in sock multipacks I’d just bought - they're young adults now and still insist on new socks 😆

I don't care how pretty the tissues are, they are not a present 😂

Pringles ... maybe

Yes I missed a trick there: I should have bought more of the same - though I'm not even sure they are still available.

Anything can be a present. Tissues, make up remover pads, face wipes- all useful

I've given those Caspari pocket tissues before with little designs on them. They were well-received.

I have Christmas bags for small gifts for everyone, just so they don't go missing under the tree, they are not necessarily cheap just small! Big (in size) gifts can look after themselves.

They're aimed at a middle class who will buy their kids a "main present" of an iPhone or something, and then fill a stocking with "bits" totalling one to two hundred quid.

I agree it's alienating, but if you're reading the likes of Glamour and GQ, I don't know why you're surprised. Everything advertised in them costs an arm and a leg. It's all Prada shirts and Gucci trainers. They think it's "aspirational". I'm shocked their stocking fillers don't cost more, to be honest

Woop woop, that’s the sound of the stocking police…

I spend loads on stockings- probably as much as I spend on presents under the tree. I’d much rather do that and give my kids things they actually want and will use. Buying a load of cheap landfill tat just to fill the stocking up seems completely pointless.

We have a joke in our house that anything that stays still could get wrapped for Christmas! No matter how unlikely a present, 'never mind the quality feel the width', plenty to unwrap for everyone, some rather more exciting than others.

I put each person’s in a bag beforehand and then empty each bag into the corresponding stocking on Christmas Eve, it takes about 5 minutes.

Depends how you do your Christmas doesn’t it. I might have a couple of more expensive things in the stockings, because they are small enough to go in the stockings 🤷‍♀️ I have an overall budget for each child and if they have more spent on their stocking they will have less presents. Obviously people do things differently

@LilacReader my 27 year old son likes stuff in it like good quality deodorant and rituals car air freshener , plus weird shit like ibruprofen , toothpaste, berocca, Aussie shampoo, nice body wash - basically stuff he would have to buy anyway, but I’m saving him cash and a job- lol!!

I kind of need to arrange it all in somehow. Definitely needs at least a trial run for me! I used not to and always underestimated how much it would need to fill it.

funny enough, people who are most keen on iphones and designer labels are anything but middle class

I was thinking that too!

I'd fill the stocking for a teenager but wouldn't be adding much towards a big present. It's hard to buy a bulky present for a teenager, all the little bits of overpriced crap add up.
DD wants a new phone so her stocking will be filled with cheap chocolate and lip balm.

@BauhausOfEliott yes my 17 year old likes little packs of tissues and crisps. (although thinking about it she probably would give the satsuma to me).
She also likes (expects and is sad if she doesn't get) a blind bag Sylvanian Family figure, packet of Pokémon cards and a Hot Wheels car.
She might be 17 but she loves traditions and that's ours 🙂
(I love your username btw)

Maybe the older generation don't like labels. Middle class teenagers like labels too, they haven't escaped the Instagram era, don't be so dismissive.
A few teenagers in DD's school have genuine LV handbags, with a €50 lip gloss pot.

Now, the Sylvanian Family and Hot Wheels thing, I could absolutely get on board with 😁

My Nan used to do my stocking fillers in a little box- all those kind of little bits and pieces that were probably only £1-2 each. But gosh it was so special and exciting to open my little gift box (she also gave me cash as my main present) and I think that was my favourite part of Christmas!

but, to go back to the post I was actually replying to, it's not a "middle class" thing.

Older or not 😂, the ones most attracted by labels - even fake - are not middle class. What's dismissive about that.

It's not new that the very first sign of a chav is the labels they're wearing 😁