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

Fancy, pretty tissues of course!

I remember at school ( child of the eighties) one year we got a stocking at the end of term. It had nuts in their shells , a satsuma, small bouncy ball and a new issue 20 p pence piece.
I thought it was good at the time tbh...
Christmas is out of hand now. Obviously people will fill stockings according to their budget and preference. I usually just stuff the smaller things in and some chocolate etc.
I think the point is that media advertising stocking gifts as around the £25-45 mark puts a lot of pressure on some people and families. The merciless march of consumerism and capitalism thinly disguised as something to do with the festive season...
Perhaps we should all revert to satsumas 😅

Did you miss the packet of crisps???

Oh my goodness what a blast from the past!!! Groovy Chick 😍

But if there’s absolutely no definition of a stocking filler then I could buy a car and a fucking massive stocking and call it a stocking filler.

The very word ‘filler’ alludes to it being frivolous and cheaper - which Lancome mascara and things aren’t. Sure, out what you want in the stocking but if it’s £25 it’s a present within a stocking NOT a ‘stocking filler.’ In fact, you’d need an awful lot to fill one.

Our stockings are out of control, but we don’t really do a big present. This year, it’s stocking only

@ThatRealLemonCat well yes obviously all children are different and they won't all like the same things.
It was just a response to the "ewwww tissues" comments 😂

Nope. To me stocking fillers should be less than £5 an item. I get that older kids/teens often want small expensive items like skincare, make up, aftershave, EarPods and the like, small things that would fit ‘in’ a stocking but to me they are not stocking fillers. If my dd was getting several of those types of things in a stocking those would be her main gifts and she wouldn’t be getting a lot of wrapped things ‘outside’ the stocking lol.

you know you can do both?

Treat a child with a present they really want, why does it make you so agitated?
What does it matter if it's a Lancome Mascara, a £100 necklace or bracelet, or whatever is small enough to fit in the stocking?

Do people touch a nerve that others are react so violently? It's very strange, but amusing 😂

A stocking filler to me is £1-6 ish

We aim somewhere in the very large gap between Packets of Crisps and Lancôme mascaras 🤪

Stocking recipient DD is 11 now and knows full well there's no santa coming to us anymore, but has virtually begged to continue the stocking tradition. (small sack in fact)

A 20 min wander round our ginormous B&M does it. Choc, hair bands, stationary, toiletries, lip gloss, fluffy socks, fluffy hot water bottle ect.

It's not quite tat - it will all get used.

Where is this definition you allude to Op? And who made up the definition?

and if your own children decided to put more expensive stocking fillers in their children’s stockings than within the “definition” - would you manage to hide your cats bum expression?

I feel the same way about lots of the 'filler' and 'token' presents I see advertised.

A new shower gel, a book, a pair of fluffy indoor socks, a face mask, a scrunchie/hair clasp, a lip balm etc etc are all just nice proper presents to me. Nothing token about it! Christmas is EVERY year and I don't personally even have a want or need for a big ticket item twice a year. Thinking stuff like a coffee machine or maybe a new handbag etc. Every few years maybe. Im not trying to be snarky or faux misunderstanding what people could POSSIBLY want other than these things. I'm just a bit stumped, if these aren't 'proper' presents....what are???

Absolutely - my teens told me they still believed 😉 otherwise, Father Christmas wouldn’t have continued to fill their stockings……!

I got two large bags of fancy flavour limited edition posh crisps last year.
I put them on my Christmas list specifically as they were from a shop my sister shops at but I would have to travel quite far to get to so I couldn't just buy them.
One of the flavours was disappointing though 🙁

I have fewer issues with people buying expensive gifts as "stocking fillers" than I do with people buying shite from Shein or Temu as "cute bits" or things for their children. At least the expensive gift will probably get used up and not looked at, used for 2 minutes, and straight to landfill.

Well good for you, but at £25+ it is hardly a stocking filler.

Out of interest op do you have children?

I know this made me laugh too 😂Looking down their nose and mocking people paying £15-£20 for a mascara as a Christmas present when they should be saving for their children to go to Uni / buy a house🙄

Would it make you feel more comfortable if I described it as a stocking…. Gift?

i have no “issue” with either.

Try it out sometime, it’s a nice way to live

I think it's the implication that if you buy someone a £25 mascara and see it marketed as a 'filler', then the message is it isn't 'good enough' to be a proper present - despite firmly sitting in the budget space for a single gift from one person to another.

I think there are different interpretations of the concept of ‘a stocking’ in different families! In my family growing up, we just had ‘a stocking’ that had all of our presents in it (providing they would fit), some of which might be considered a ‘stocking filler’ e.g., chocolates, socks, some bigger presents e.g. pyjamas, DVDs (showing my age there!) and then any ‘bigger’ presents e.g., jewellery, a new phone, clothes, tickets to a show, etc etc (wherever is considered the ‘main’ present of the year.) It was only when joining DH’s family that I became aware of the differing concept of ‘a stocking’ which would consist of very small gifts, and then anything more substantial would be given separately. Now we have a DC of our own I’m not sure how we will navigate this and which version of ‘a stocking’ we will go with!

Thank god someone else noticed that.

Those in uproar

would stocking “gift” help alleviate your crossness about this?