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

Yes, I really hate those magazine articles where they suggest all the ways to spend your money that you haven't got. Much better to go imaginative and cheap on stocking fillers. It can include small things they actually need too. One included a guitar capo, for instance. In my experience the DCs are delighted with whatever Santa brings them.

Temu provided stocking fillers for my kids last year. Some stuff hit and miss but some things were great quality and still going strong. They both like horror, think Five Nights at Freddie’s and Wednesday. Socks, card games, figures, wooden games, joke books, posters, stationery and calendars. Loads of stuff for £30 and it did both of them. Our stockings are usually full of basics, jokey things and tatt. We have a laugh over what will be found. The types of stocking fillers you mention would be in a main present category for me!

Coal is probably quite a valuable commodity now. In one of the Thomas the Tank Engine stories (Mrs Kyndley's Christmas), Thomas's Christmas present to the elderly Mrs Kyndley is coal.

Ah we love stockings here and I always put in a couple of higher priced lovely things. Probably £50- £70 per stocking. Half full of niche Japanese snacks and then a couple of mascaras or nice gloves or earbuds around the 15-25 mark.
My main activity from September onwards is finding perfect stocking fillers!

Ooohhh bubbles, my daughter loved them.

When mine were little I used to get the pre-filled stockings from Hawkins Bazaar (think it’s closed down now?) they were about £25 and you got the option of age range and boy/girl. I found these a god send as they had all the silly little bits that made the early morning stocking opening fun and kept them amused long enough for 6am to roll around for parents to get a cuppa before seeing what else might have arrived.

These days with adult and teens they say a stocking is the best part still so they tend to get little main presents in their stocking not the silly bits you get for younger ones. I also vary the size of the stocking to suit my budget that particular year!

This year I’ve found some in Asda where the topper is a dinosaur ! I’m sure DS will think they are excellent! Always a good buy in the end of summer sales.

This is exactly what I see stocking fillers as. For DD it’s mainly chocolate a few little things - scented candle, hair clips, cute socks and stuff like that.

So, do you think you can only have ‘exceptional taste’ if you’re spending a huge amount? I think that’s pretty sad.

but also irrelevant to my original point

Woah. You think if someone can’t spend £30 on a stocking filler they’re pretty sad?

them, or their situation? Please expand because at first glance that just sounds horrifically nasty

My daughter is 20 and I still do a stocking, but it's just fun things that probably won't last till boxing day, but must have a satsuma and 50p and some silly string, that's all she really wants! Just to have a bit of a laugh while we sort lunch!

Ps she earns more than me! It's just tradition!

That sounds like a massively disappointing Christmas. Presents of things you should be supplying with anyway.

Boots £10 Tuesdays & Superdrug £5 Fridays ... mic drop and you're welcome

Stocking fillers are whatever you decide.
in my house my kids get a small pile of gifts plus a stocking, I put what I like in it, concert tickets, perfumes, fluffy socks, phone vouchers, really it’s our Christmas and I’ll keep doing it how I do it ☺️

I dont have to buy wrapping,I bought reusable gift bags a few years back and reuse those each year, saves so much time and money

Feet?

Stockings for my teens are usually around £25/£30 in total…. They love their stockings, in fact my daughter said when’s she’s an adult please can I continue to do them as it’s the best bit! £30 for one item is def not a stocking filler

Loved this post.

I think Santa's Elves perfectly good products can be found at ALDI Middle Aisle, Sainsburys etc

And the Elves even do a a great budget range for the financially strapped at Pound World. That is, If you can find a branch near you that is still open

Or put £15 in an envelope in the stocking. With a note saying. Here is your Stocking Filler Present.

Now clear off and spend it on what you will.

Completely agree OP - some people are either incredibly stuck up or simply being obtuse.

I feel like arguing "if you can afford it" is pedantic. The point of a stocking isn't to be the exciting bit - it's the silly, fun and a tiny bit practice bit.

I have my DC, 4 and 15 and quite frankly find it madness what's advertised as "stocking fillers" for them - when I was a kid nothing in our stock cost more than £1-2. Now my 15yo is sending me links to "stocking fillers" that are £25! (Grateful they were not suggesting it for their stocking but as a gift - they are happy with how their stocking looks! Lol.)
Even more surprising that I've not seen a single stocking filler less than £10 that's suitable for a 4yo!

We're not a poor family or anything but we also cannot afford to live outside our means. Not with the cost of living rising daily. From chats with colleagues and friends, I don't think we're alone in being in that position either.

The "point of a stocking" probably varies between families.

I agree the prices on the Times list are way out there, but as a list of ideas it has some good ones e.g. I'd be thrilled by a stocking containing a nice belt, perfume, cosy socks, my favourite face cream etc. Just not those particular ones!

Whilst I agree that what’s a fortune is relative, I don’t think it matters what your income is to be able to recognise what is or isn’t a more expensive / luxury item - mascara at my local supermarket starts at £5. I would expect a standard price for mascara is about £10-15 give or take a few quid. Lancôme mascara which has been mentioned previously in this thread is about £30. Even if £30 was a drop in the ocean to me, I could recognise that is the higher end of mascara brands. Similarly with lipbalm at £25 - it’s usually under a fiver so that price really is excessive!

The original post wasn’t about what individual people choose to do or what different people consider expensive - but about advertising and media trying to push the notion of more expensive items being stocking fillers rather than presents, putting more and more pressure on people.

I too would be thrilled by those … but if all that’s in your stocking, it doesn’t leave any room for actual presents, so only works for those who have the stocking contents as the main event.

Yes I agree. The stocking does tend to be where dh puts my main presents - the only thing/s under the tree would be physically too big for the stocking but may actually cost less.