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

I think it was the year she was about 11 that I didn't put a Hot Wheels in.
We had to go to Poundland on Boxing Day to get one because she couldn't believe she hadn't got one 😂
Oh the trauma.

God, don’t turn this into yet another thread about class. So boring and predictable. “Only common teenagers like iPhones, middle class ones are just as happy with an orange and a wooden peg doll,” thought no actual parent of teens ever.

I would use the word stocking filler to mean a smaller present. Have never done stockings as such. All DS’s presents were put in a large sack. I really don’t remember stockings as part of my child hood and think I first became aware that there was a meaning beyond ‘an extra small present’ on MN a few years back.

Christ, I didn't get even a whiff of brands like Lancome until I was in my 20s and earning. My parents would never have been able to stretch to 'popping in' a £25 mascara.

In defence of the crisp people, my dh (who is very pro feedback on gifts) is still sad that he did not get pork scratchings for Xmas last year...

Everybody knows stocking fillers are chocolate coins, a chocolate orange, a bath bomb and £ shop tatt .. they are also my favourite part of Christmas.. love buying the little daft bits and pieces for stockings 🎅

Are stocking fillers not wrapped up then?

Nooooooooo, never!

Just celebrate the holiday in whatever way works for your family.

Fashion magazines exist to sell things. Anyone looking to them for a ruling on how many items should go in a stocking or raging that they're telling you what you should do and you dislike it is an idiot. Scan for ideas and give any that appeal as a wrapped gift, stocking stuffer, or random surprise as you see fit.

FWIW, we will have some $15-20 items in stockings, but overall stocking budgets are absolutely nowhere near $250 each. We also do far fewer wrapped presents than many families - wrapped presents are opened one at a time late-morning with lots of chat and thanks but we keep them paired back, while stockings are a free-for-all first thing in the morning. That's the balance that works for us so frankly I don't give a toss what you think is right.

That’s such a dull and unimaginative approach to the stocking tradition.

I disagree when it's for teens / adults as £15/25 isn't usually a full present. But if you're on a low budget i can see how it's annoying.

Pringles, or any "crisps", are not stocking fillers. A large tube of smarties, a large tube of fruit pastilles and a satsuma, plus some random thing like a lip balm. Surely those are the rules?

For me sticking fillers are just presents small enough to fit in the stocking. They are mostly filled with chocolates, sweets, a book, but also some more expensive small gifts, earbuds, makeup, perfume, etc. They only get one other present from me -their 'main present'. I probably spend about £150 per child including stocking and main present.

I think I might have put a tube of pringles in dc stocking one year 🤔 he loves them.

For me, it's about something small and relatively inexpensive but still something a bit fun?

Like an unusual flavour of crisps maybe but not a standard bag of walkers cheese and onion

Similarly a bath bomb, sure, but a bottle of the shower gel they usually use - really?

Fun novelty socks, sure, a five pack of black school socks nah

Stocking fillers in my house is
the obligatory Tangerine
sweets
a chocolate shaped santa
a rubix cube of some festive scene
a snow globe
whateber lip gloss, make up my teen wants

Hi @Rainyboo1
Sorry for your loss.
if you start your own thread then people will be able to advise you better.

I'm with you for the most part but a box of tissues?!

YABU for not posting this in the Christmas topic board.

Haven’t done stockings yet this year and I now have tweens who are fully into Laneige, Summer Fridays, Byoma, Nike etc 😩. When do the non conformist years kick in?

Thinking their stockings will contain a lot of larger but cheaper items eg chocolates, Pringles (thanks for that idea!), conditioner, socks, shower cap, superdrug face masks, cheap notebook… and then a few small expensive items as per the above. May put those right down the bottom so as to avoid building expectations!!

Aww I loved the groovy chick stuff. I remember my auntie buying me a box of tissues with the forever friends bear on them, as my mum had said no. She died really young, so I have such nice memories of her and her generosity.

When in doubt…socks! And pants! Both bulk up a stocking nicely.
I tend to shop for Christmas bits all year, so have been known to stock up on ‘Euros’ tissues (a big hit and bulky!) when on a weekend break in Spain…
also bits and bobs like face masks, sticky notes or anything consumable that sounds vaguely rude/funny from our trips abroad also go down well.

My kids stockings are for chocolates and sweets. I don’t buy ‘stocking fillers’ I just buy gifts they’d like and use the stocking for chocolates. I refuse to buy tat no one actually wants to fill a stocking.

A clementine and some chocolate money are stocking fillers 😂

Stocking fillers are whatever you want them to be according to your budget.