Stocking fillers - please help!

[tripletsohgod]

I am really, really bad at them. I don't know why but I get it wrong every year and my kids are (politely, quietly) disappointed! Age 5 DD and 10 DS, budget of around £75 each. I'd be so grateful for suggestions please!

DD is very 'girly' mermaids, unicorns, make up etc.

DS into gaming, football. TIA 🙏🏻

£75 is a lot for a stocking IMO, but everyone has a different budget and that is fine. We try very hard not to get outright tat, and if I can find things secondhand that are in good condition I will use those. We include a mix of sweets, useful things (e.g. shower gel, key ring, gloves, pens) and fun things (e.g. games, cards, marbles, seeds, puzzles).

What are you putting in that they are disappointed about? My kids maybe have low stadnards but never looked disappointed with something or other wrapped in nice paper on Christmas morning!

£75 is a lot for a stocking. I would spend more on a main gift and keep stocking gifts to under £20. My dd1 is now 17 and says the stockings her best bit 🤣, I spend around £20, when they were small I would put in things like…

Bubbles
Whoopie cushion
Playdough
Novelty toothbrush and tooth paste
Pop tarts
Pringles
Gold coins
Novelty stationary
Mini puzzle
Fidget toys
Hair bobbles
Bath bombs
Trump cards or small card game
Christmas socks
TY toy or small teddy

They would then get their main present and a couple other gifts (surprises).

Some excellent ideas on here thank you all, my DC will love the mouse in a matchbox!
@Wonderfulstuff I found Mateys in the pharmacy recently (Rowlands) and often in home bargains etc.

@tripletsohgod

I am really, really bad at them. I don't know why but I get it wrong every year and my kids are (politely, quietly) disappointed! Age 5 DD and 10 DS, budget of around £75 each. I'd be so grateful for suggestions please!

DD is very 'girly' mermaids, unicorns, make up etc.

DS into gaming, football. TIA 🙏🏻

£75 on just the stocking... wow, it's crazy to see how different different people do things.

My kids Xmas day stocking cost £5.50 (filled with sweets including the traditional chocolate coins + a few things like bath bombs, keyrings, stickers)

and

Their Epiphany stocking cost £4 (this one is all 'toys' no sweets and includes a pen, sensory ball, troll doll, bubbles, snap bracelet, fidget toy etc... usually buy packs of 3 from Poundland and split them)

I tend to buy most stuff in multipacks and split it between everyone (no fighting over who got what lol) but they get a couple of unique things in the Xmas stocking (for example my teen is getting a fortnite keyring, my toddler a bubble sword and my baby a rattle).

My toddler loves Xmas stockings the most and it's mainly for the sweets, he will happily munch his way through his sweets (and any leftovers from the other stockings) for about 6 months.

The problem is stockings are supposed to be small things. £75 is almost my entire Christmas budget. I spend around £15 on stocking fillers. Pens, hair accessories, bath bombs, chocolate coins, satsuma little things.

OP, you've got some great suggestions on here, I just dropped by to say I don't think £75 is a crazy budget for a stocking. Not everybody will be able to afford it obviously, but there are plenty of families that can. A good stocking is a hugely important part of our personal family christmas tradition, and might even make up a slightly higher proportion of our overall spend than for other families.

Im not in the Uk so we have slightly different family traditions.
We have a santa sack instead of a stocking. In our home one main present from the big guy and the santa sack is gifts from mum and dad. so the sack has mid to small gifts in it some wrapped some not.
previous years successes include...

Its our summer so beach/pool toys (diving rings etc)
snorkel, flippers and mask sets
themed T-shirt (pokemon/Minecraft,)
wallet/purse with $5 dollars in it
kid sunglasses
astronaut icecream
icecream shop gift card
fishing lures (obvs depends on hobbies/interests)
compass
magic crystal grow kits
nanobugs
whittling knife
sheets of temp tattoos
calculator rulers

I'm astounded that a 5-year-old would show disappointment over a stocking to be quite honest!

We normally just do consumables and basic stuff - stationery, sweets, smellies, socks, always a teddy sticking in the top.

DS has a sock stocking, biggish and made of felt. It fits a mini Pringles tube, magazine, sweets/choc, small puzzle (eg travel Hungry Hippos), monster handwarmer (one of those microwave things, pop it in your pocket), animal cable bite. Stuff that's small but useful.

He has had a whoopee cushion, fingerlights, torch, socks, cuddly snowman, Uno that sort of thing.

He gets things that will entertain him until we open the tree gifts around 11am.

FC is a glorified Hermes delivery service, gifts are from us.

The problem is stockings are supposed to be small things.

You know, you can actually do these things however you want. No one's going to call the stocking police

OP, moon balls were always a hit with everyone here. Small lego sets (there are some nice Christmassy ones), handwarmers, Body Shop minis. My DD loved the Maileg mice that come in a matchbox eg www.scandiborn.co.uk/products/copy-of-maileg-little-sister-mouse-in-matchbox, washi tape, bracelet from eg Estella Bartlett.

I bought mine lovely personalised stockings but they’re massive so it takes a decent amount to fill them (didn’t consider this before buying!)! They get things like chocolate coins, a chocolate Santa, underwear, stationery and bath bombs but I don’t buy (much) tat to bulk it out; instead I put small toys in there like little lego sets that I know they’ll love. I don’t spend a lot as I start early and buy things when I see them at a good price.

I also have to say I'm surprised they are 'disappointed'.

Stockings weren't a big thing for either me or DH growing up (fruit, nuts, and a selection box mainly) but we never felt disappointed as we had no idea until I joined these forums that it was such a big thing for others.

To be disappointed you need the expectation of something 'better' which we never had, maybe we 'looked' disappointed as we weren't super enthusiastic about it but we weren't disappointed it just wasn't an exciting part of the day for us.

I have to admit if I had had stocking talked up and expectations built and then got pants and a toothbrush I would be disappointed (tbf I would be confused by the pomp and circumstance of being gifted pants at any point in time lol) but as we had no expectation of anything we weren't.

What do you put in that you think disappoints them?
Is it things like pants and toothbrushes (I can't imagine £75 spent on that though) or is it things that maybe aren't age-appropriate or to their personal tastes?

My mother has bought me some weird stuff like a walking stick and mustache bleach before (neither of which I need and certainly didn't as a teen when she bought them) so it was kind of hard to act excited over it at the time.

My mum once gave me a rolled up copy of a magazine that I had a subscription to- she nabbed it out of the post

I do a Boots 3 for 2 each. They have some unicorn, lip balm, bath bombs make up stuff and my older DD likes their Harry Potter and Disney villain toiletry stuff. I save up points for this over the year.

Then fluffy socks, hair bands and jewellery from primark. They did really good stationery last year. Maybe some craft stuff, I think the works do craft stuff 2 for £10 or something like that.

Chocolate, sweets and the obligatory orange.

My children get a chocolate orange, chocolate coins, a tube of some kind of sweet, usually some sort of wind up toy so they can race them, a brain teaser/puzzle of some kind and some fun, cheap little things. Last year it was a slinky and some of those things that you turn inside out and then they pop back and jump up.

In our house, it's literally just a little parcel of tokens for before they open their gifts under the tree

Mine are similar ages. In our house father Christmas brings a sack with about 10 presents totalling about £50 so nothing extravagant but not necessarily just tiny bits either.

This year they are each getting:
Small lego set
Book
DVD
Fudge
Chocolate coins
Smiggle pencil case
Socks
Underwear

Then a football and keyring for DS; backpack and hair bow for DD

Always a football as it fills the sack up well! This year they are also getting:

Kite
Frisbee
Book
Fizzy drink flavour lip balm
Football socks
Shin pads
New T-shirt/jumper
Socks
Chocolate

And now a invisible ink spy pen, thanks to the poster up thread!

I also like to give a stocking full of decent presents. Not £75, but I could see how you could!

I aim to do a stocking that everyone would be happy with, even if it was their only gift.

For DS(7) I am getting:

• a small electronic puzzle game
• card game (minecraft top trumps)
• crystals for his collection
• the next book in a series he loves (he thinks it isn't out until next year, as I told him the paperback release date)
• lego blindbags for a series he collects
• a bakugan
• a fidget popper
• chocolate etc

For DS(4) I am getting mainly blind bags/mystery eggs as he loves that stuff, and is hardly ever allowed it. But also a few decent bits of lego, and and gloves for dressing up.

Growing up, I never had stockings and then separate santa presents. We had one big sack. So stockings are a novelty for me, they look great at my fireplace, and I enjoy making the most of them.

@MagicalFish

Mine are similar ages. In our house father Christmas brings a sack with about 10 presents totalling about £50 so nothing extravagant but not necessarily just tiny bits either.

This year they are each getting:
Small lego set
Book
DVD
Fudge
Chocolate coins
Smiggle pencil case
Socks
Underwear

Then a football and keyring for DS; backpack and hair bow for DD

I do a Santa sack separately as stockings, it a new tradition I started as we didn't have them as kids and to us stockings are just tradition not 'from santa'. Our Santa sack is made up of classic old-school 'tat' mostly.

This year includes things like a Slinky, A felt poster, A groan tube, A water hoops game (like we had in the 80s/90s), Water tube toy, a little bongo type drum etc...

Almost everything cost £1 (occasionally something might be say 75p and something else £1.20) and there's 12 things (one for every month) but it balances out and it all comes to £12... because in my mind Santa wouldn't send expensive modern gadgets.

Santa sack toys are usually the things that get played with the longest lol.

Fidget popper, playdough, chocolate everything, colouring pens, hair lips, lip balm, bath bomb, slime, Uno, Top Trumps,socks, gloves

Magic flannels always went down well with mine, and Totes Toasties.

I only spend £25 on stocking to be honest. So my ideas are probably not that inspired. DS(7) is getting:

Build a plane kit from The Works
Slime
Jelli-baff
Card games
Mini Seed growing kit
Inflatable microphone (my kid loves inflatables)
Highlighter pens
Can of pop,
Iced gems
Haribo Goldbears
Percy Pigs
Socks

Rex London have some good bits. I got some unicorn nail stickers and some funky hair clips for DD.

My DD is 9 - I have got her:

A Boba cuddly
Hair clips and hair bands
Fancy shower gel
Barbie clothes
Modelling clay
Christmas knickers and socks
Chocolate coins
Jelly tots tube
Big lollipop
Satsuma

My eldest DS is 8 and his stocking will contain; DVDs, a book, rubix cube, rubix fidget thingy, whoopee cushion, moon ball, hand warmers for football, football top trumps and the more unusual sweets. Everything including little packets of sweets is wrapped and cost is around £35 however some of the presents appeared on his list.