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

Trying to picture my (adult) kids faces if they unwrapped a box of tissues 😂

Your kids, that's one thing, but imagine a DIL! (or MIIL) You start a family war with that, imagine the threads on here on Boxing Day 😂

^MY MIL bought me TISSUES for Christmas!"

Stockings for me were an old football sock filled with chocolates, nuts and satsumas, which my brother and I bashed each other around the head with in the early hours, then gorged ourselves on the contents.

Bloodyhell - £460 for a pair of socks !

Yeah the socks had my jaw drop. Not even pure cashmere.

Can't it be a mix? Who says it needs to be so much.

A nice mascara, socks and some sweets job done.

Obviously for kids it's nice to have to have a small toy or something but we tend to avoid tat too.

DD4 will be getting:
Character socks
Flump
Pez refills
Playdough pot
Unicorn soap
Character plasters
Moana tatoos
Toothbrush/toothpaste

A mix of wanted things and useful things, this hangs downstairs.

We do a pillowcase on the end of the bed with things like a sticker book, magazine, colouring book, chocolate for the initial wake up, Again doesn't have to be full!

I'm hoping for some chocolate covered cherries, a lip balm, deodorant refill & a new Tangle Teezer in mine.

I like to find little things over the year so it’s not this huge hit to the purse at the end. Sometimes in sales there are little, non-expensive but practical things that fit beautifully in a stocking so I buy and put those aside and then at the end of the year have my stocking fillers.

Yet, this is what a major newspaper is pushing as a stocking filler. Makes you think eh? Consumerism chips away at society. You may now think that’s ridiculous, but maybe you’re more open to the £25 lip glosses as they don’t seem so bad….what happened to novelty and fun in stockings? They’re meant to be a laugh - not a haul.

The gifts in the link are Big Ticket Items that kind of need to have a bit of individual focus in them, regardless of household incone (eg diamond bracelet!). It's just a badly titled bit of fluff article - I doubt anyone sees socks costing $450 or designer watches as "fillers".

For us, stockings are mostly sweeties, chocolates, other edible treats, toothbrush & toothbrush (a joke really), and things like new fluffy socks, pants, sudoku book, etc. So simple things that they love but aren't those special gifts that deserve a bit if a fanfare.

Hang on a minute. Many on here are arguing that ANYTHING that physically fits in a stocking (which can be a sack) is a stocking filler. And it’s ludicrous to suggest otherwise. So why would £450 socks not count in that?

You think chavs are the target audience of Glamour and GQ?

Thanks for the laugh, I needed that 😂

I usually put Christmas themed chocolates and/or hot chocolate stirrer set.

We never had stockings. It all got shoved in a pillow case. Best year ever was the year there was a dog in my pillow case. From age 7 to age 21, my best friend. I miss you girl.

My thoughts exactly.

It must be lovely to have that sort of money and I'm sure people worked hard to get it but for most of us that sort of spending is just a dream. I couldn't afford to spend £400 on a big gift let alone on socks.

I do feel for those struggling financially this year.

Cadbury advent calendar was £3 in Iceland yesterday, hopefully it will be on a deal somewhere. I used to buy my daughter a Lindt one but dread to think how much they are now.

No, people are arguing that they’re free to give gifts in any way they like (in a stocking or not). Whether a particular gift is a good buy is a completely different question.

You seem hung up on a particular definition of “stocking filler” and as a result you’re missing the point. People who put AirPods etc in stockings aren’t suggesting that they see AirPods as a low value gift.

One year, my Mom was being coy about what she wanted for Christmas. She said, she'd love anything. I said, "So, you want toilet paper?" She replied she'd be happy with it.

Christmas Day rolled around and she got toilet paper from each person, including my kids and her SIL/BIL, DH, DD, SIL, Dog......

Luckily, she had been a good girl that year, so she did get many, many gifts that were not TP.

Everyone learned to be careful what they wished for.

Another Christmas, my Dad told us he had been bragging at work that his wife and DD bought his clothes, which is why he looked so nice. Oh, so not the thing to say to me....
That Christmas he got a striped tie that was bright blue, yellow, orange, green and hot pink striped tie. Hideous was too kind a word for this tie.
I got paid back though when he wore it to work, told everyone I had bought him the tie and had someone take a picture of him wearing the tie as proof.

I would give anything I owned to have one more Christmas with my parents and sister.

Chocolate covered cherries are always on my list. I like the fancy ones so they aren't for a stocking, but I look forward to them all year.

I love the idea of having something in their room and then a stocking hanging downstairs. I never thought of doing that. Ours just always hung together by the tree, so nothing by their beds.

My stocking fillers are off Santa, so they are usually small toys (toot toot cars one memorable year when they kept going off as we swapped the stockings!)
This year my 11 year old is getting a “pocket sized survival kit” for scouting, some pens he uses for school and socks.
My 8 year old will be getting an Enid blyton book of Christmas stories, a Christmas bauble he’s had his eye on and a mini plushie that he’s been after for a while.
Then the usual chocolate coins, an orange, an apple and a banana.
The things people call “stocking fillers” I wouldn’t deem them stocking fillers. To me stocking fillers should be a grand total of £15 per stocking max!
We give “Santas gifts” from the dinner table and our gifts are under the tree.

couldn’t agree more

i don’t buy my family expensive gifts because I’ve been sucked into some sort of marketing ploy, I give expensive gifts because I enjoy doing so, can afford it and frankly find it weird and depressing to dress up standard toiletries (£2 lip balm, body wash, shampoo and tissues?! - WTAF) that go in the supermarket shop as gifts.

Oh, they continue until they grow with SO, their children, their children's children.... My Mom got her last stocking from me at 81 and my MIL is still getting one at 95.

My sister used to make me one since I didn't get one and found really cute and funny things. I never thought I'd miss it but I miss her and her "Holiday times".

I do find it surprising that people are gifting very everyday items. Surely you buy your teenagers tampons, tissues, shower gel etc regularly? What is the equivalent for my toddler? A few packs of baby wipes?

I think the best gifts are a little extravagant, so the recipient wouldn't buy them day to day. I'd love some l'occitane shower oil, it feels indulgent and its a treat. The 99p one from Tesco not so much.

From my own childhood, the magic of a Christmas stocking was (a) that Santa had delivered it overnight (although I had my doubts); (b) that it was a quiet moment in bed to open a few small things before the excitement of the day; and (c) that it was a way of appreciating small things. It's a bit different from appreciating a Cartier ring because it's small enough to fit in a sock.

@Beachtastic I do remember 1 year when my son was about 5, he got more enjoyment on the day from the £30 worth of bits in a stocking ( dot to dot book, slime, a bit of fuzzy felt,various small things than he did his £80 playmobil main present

I also love doing a stocking! My DC is more excited by it than the bigger presents. I don't buy tat though. I hate a cluttered house and I don't want to send novelty plastic to landfill a few months later.

This year, my 6-yo will definitely get
A book
A small kids crossword puzzle book
Highlighter set (much desired)
Lush bath bomb (ditto)
Small squismallow
Chocolate
A candy kebab (basically colourful marshmallows on a stick)
Dipping Chocolate and biscuits

DH will mainly get edible gifts like fancy wasabi peas, Chocolate almonds, a moth cocktail etc, but also some nicer skincare stuff and maybe headphones. I wouldn't bung in a standard shower gel. It wouldn't feel like a gift.

So….the AirPods are or are not a stocking filler in your point?