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

Everyone knows a stocking filler is an apple, an orange, and one of those polystyrene planes you put together fly it down the stairs once and then stand on it and break it.

I think as a teen my stocking was a book, notebook and chocolate usually. It still is only DH does it now 😁

I can honestly say it would have never ever occur to me to gift any of those - aside from the satsuma - for Christmas or any occasion

A box of tissue and a bag of crips?

You were just glad of the day off from sweeping chimneys

I started off doing rubbish and then realised I was adding more clutter to the house that I would regret. My mum used to give us very high quality stockings and I remember the wonderful feeling. Not a huge spender of my children generally but on this, yes

It’s just keyword marketing. “stocking filler” and “Christmas gift guide” - all marketers will have been making content around these keywords and publishing them between now and December.

All gift guides are full of affiliate links. You click em, and end up buying anything of the website in the next 30 days, the article publisher gets money.

This is all legit but the content will often be put together around affiliates they want to use rather than then what will actually help the reader.

Chocolate yes, but Crisps is a new one for me

I suppose you might put one gift of that price In a stocking, and then the rest would be cheaper bits.

But yes, gift guides in general seem to have a warped idea of how much people are likely to spend.

When I was a teenager (admittedly we’re talking 1990s) my stocking usually contained things like knickers, a pair of socks, a couple of cute pens or other small fun stationery items, a Body Shop lip balm and a scrunchie or hair clips, plus the obligatory bag of chocolate coins, a satsuma and some random nuts. Maybe something like a little soap or a mini shower gel or a daft card game? I was quite goth/rock chick, so I also remember getting things like a studded leather wristband or skull / dagger earrings in my stocking. Maybe one item that would have cost about a tenner in today’s money and everything else would have been cheaper.

So much that could be said about this post

but what’s the point?!

I am just going to assume / hope they don’t have children

YABU to take it so literally. It just means 'small gift' IMO.

Yes, it's been like this for years, with ridiculously overpriced items marketed almost as 'extras' that you just toss in without a second thought. There's nothing wrong with putting a small but more expensive gift in the stockings, but it's definitely not how we did things. We had some sweets in the stockings, most years, and other gifts wrapped separately.

Ah god bless the passive aggressive ‘you do you’.

DD (11) gets the following in her stocking:

Chocolate coins
Chocolate Santa
New shower gel
New pair of socks
Little lip balms
A few hair bits from Claire's
New body spray
Small stationery bits (Legami is this year's obsession, thankfully fits in a stocking 🤣)

I don't think there is a hard and fast rule of must be expensive / must be plastic tat etc. I love shopping for little stocking treats, just the cute little bits that will be used but are things you might not treat yourself to normally.

This is absolutely what is wrong with the world. We buy choc orange, toothbrush, glider plane, gold coins, stuff like that for our kids’ stockings. I simply refuse to be drawn into the ridiculous world of crazy spending. I’d rather put money in their investment account (which we do anyway). Absolute madness.

it’s like the kids parties at around 750 a pop even before presents - hiring of expensive venue, personalised water bottles, personalised everything really all for show - kid is bloody 7 for FFS, surely all they are arsed about at that age is sweets and charging around with their mates (or maybe not in the family I’m thinking of - all very entitled).

Gosh can’t you tell I’m sick of this entitled world we live in?

I'd be very happy with crisps in my stocking.
I love crisps.

Oh for the days of chocolate coins, a variety pack and a tangerine.

We always used to get a tube of pringles in a stocking. A whole tube to yourself was amazing for me as a child! We very rarely had them any other time of year.

What 15 year old still believes in Santa!? I knew Santa wasn't real when I was 4 or 5. It's still fun to have a stocking/selection of small gifts. And (and this may blow OP's mind) not everyone is on a super tight budget. Some people like to splurge. It's not that deep.

I'm sure they appreciate everything they get. That's the trouble with teens, the size of the gifts goes down but the price goes up.

I agree Christmas is another retail feast, unless you ditch the stocking and only have 3 presents: something they want, something they need and an item of clothing that they also need! So teenagers could end up with 3 items of expensive branded clothing!
Better than buying small junk or sweets that get forgotten within 5 minutes.

Stockings are fun things, silly things and things to keep children entertained until adults are ready to get up. I would not be spending silly money on them.

Makeup, a chocolate orange and a box of liqueurs sounds like my very definition of a good Christmas morning tbh

Am I missing something? Why shouldn't the poster you quoted have children?

A box of tissues as a Christmas present?

I agree. Also, start 'em young. A quart of vodka in their orange juice is the way to ensure your four year old has a very merry Christmas.

allow me to roll my eyes at the OP being so upset about what complete strangers put in their stocking fillers that doesn't affect her/him in any way.

It’s not a fucking stocking filler!
well for me, it is.

So there we are.