Stocking fillers - what worked?

[frogbull]

Hi,

I'm just starting my planning for next Christmas - I try to do stockings throughout the year. I've got two kids ( 3 and 6) so looking for ideas for next Christmas. Anybody want to share stocking successes for various ages?

For all of mine, torches were the big hit. I got each of them a Natural History Museum one, so they can project images of animals and sea creatures onto the wall. They love them. The oldest got a small Lego set as well, which he loved. The youngest liked her hair clips.

Any other good buys? Obviously particularly looking for ideas for four year old girls and seven year old boys.....

Art supplies, cheap sketch pad, pencils etc, they gave had those since they were your DC's age, books are always a hit

My very classy and highbrow offspring loved their bendable poo from Poundland and plug with a floating poo on it from The Works. Oh, and the squishy animals that ‘poo’ when squished.

Stand out success this year for 8 and 5 year old was a balloon animal kit complete with pump.
It actually wasn't in their stocking - my dad bought it for them but they have played for hours with it and we have made every animal under the sun

[[https://starrymart.co.uk/gs-retail-youus-snow-soda-350ml.html Snow Soda]

snow soda

Mini boxes of cereal were an unexpectedly big hit this year.

Colour change markers were a hit with 6 year old ds plus smiggle keyrings. Smiggle also reduced their 12 days of advent tricks calendar to £5 the week before Christmas and he loved that

Top trumps cards. The one with the different animal poos was a popular choice!!!

Magic sipper straws (turn milk into milkshake)

Mine ( 12,10 & 6) always like a hard backed notebook for drawing/writing. Grown up wallets were also a hit for the older two.

Winners for my boys aged 8 and 5:
Top Trumps
Joke book (by age)
Slippers sticking out the top
Chocolate coins
Balsa wood plane kits

Not so good:
Astronaut freeze-dried ice cream, very crumbly and didn't taste of much.
Retro cup and ball game.

We deliberately avoided plastic joke tat this year and it worked quite well.

Biggest hits for us were these googly eye headbands I actually bought ours last year in the Hawkins bazaar sale rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F292196320892
They LOVED them and wore them all day. Made for some interesting photos!
I always do Christmassy socks, bath bombs or shower gel, chocolate coins. Plus a couple of weird or silly presents too.

Crack open geodes and fossil dog kits :). Oh and these weird little light up hover ball things I randomly bought on an amazon lightning deal

Front door key(s) and keyrings for my oldest two (coming up to 11 & 12) went down very well.

DS3 (7) is particularly taken with his niffler, his unicorn pens and his glow in the dark stars. Oh and HP Lego blind bags.

DD loves it all, but particularly the unicorn snow globe and the hair clips.

I got DD a ball of wool and a pompom maker from Poundland, she has had great fun perfecting the art of pom-pom.

18 year old DD-
bath bomb
box of lindor
mini bottle of gin in a jam jar
stainless steel straws
scratch card (she won £20)
Parker jotter in bright colour (I have one from the 90's she's always loved)
Personalised Nutella jar
14 year old DS-
Coke/Fanta/Dr Pepper/Sprite socks
wallet ninja
Parker jotter as above
plectrums
Pringles cracker
Personalised Nutella jar
DS aged 8-
mini aftershave
blind bag that contained a tiny etch-a-sketch
giant whoopee cushion
two tiny cans of coke
Disney bed time CD
DS aged 6-
beany boo penguin keyring
tiny magic 8 ball from blind bag
book of pencil and paper games
tiny cans of coke
sweet pizza

@LikeSilver may I please ask for more info about the pooing animals? I have a child who might like that

Highlight was a trio of books each, from charity shop, with a bookmark in each from Santa or an elf saying why they liked them (just a bit of paper, nothing fancy!)

Add some holiday cereal like coco pops and it was the quietest Christmas morning ever!

@ChristmasSeacow

If I can remember how to link! here they are I’ve seen them in Paperchase too but much cheaper in The Works.

Blind bags/ lol little sister balls were a hit but the biggest hit was a mix for a chocolate mug cake that I bought last minute. Another thing they loved was balls that flash when bounced.

A huge hit here was a Lego toilet. It was a joke DS(6) had during the year about not having a toilet for his minifigs when he built them an office. So I found one on online, it's a cute little thing with a tiny toilet roll and plunger and he thinks it's utterly hilarious that the elves made him the parts to build a toilet. I think it would be a big hit with most kids.

Tiddlywinks
Pretty hair stuff

My ds is a teen now and friends DCs as well.

Every year I do a small gift bag from the elves for them as we meet Xmas eve!
I use poundshop.

Hits over the year have been

Gel pens
Notebooks
Character/novelty socks
Shower gels (especially the matey characters)
Hats/gloves
Sweets/chocolates
Hair bobbles/hair brushes

Zhu zhu pet hamster (currently 3.25 at entertainer stores.) they loved them!

Hits were:

dd8
Tiny terrarium from science museum shop - literally a teeny tiny glass bowl you plant a seed in
JoJo Siwa tangle tease from B&M
A unicorn pen from pound land
A magnetic whiteboard eraser for whiteboard in pen

dd6
A mini Harry Kane figure
A hot wheels hovercraft
A notebook shaped like a London bus

dd3
Paw patrol bubble baths from B&M - set of five in a box. He has;t used in bath but is sleeping cuddling the box each night!