Adult stocking filler ideas - all year round!

[OMGitsnotgood]

If you're anti Christmas until December or don't agree with stockings for adults, please scroll past.

Our adult children absolutely refuse not to have Christmas stockings, it wouldn't be Christmas without them apparently. Their main present is either something they've asked for or cash. I try to get a couple of other small gifts I know they'd like as a surprise but stockings are here to stay.
I know people have different approaches to stocking fillers, here are the criteria for ours:

Small enough to fit in a stocking (shop bought type not a sock).
Anywhere from 0 - £5 per gift (£0 could be a perfume/aftershave sample)
Must be practical, fun or consumable to avoid wastage.
Can be pre-owned (eg like-new books from a charity shop).
Usual ideas are foodstuffs, snacks, toiletries, DIY bits n bobs, stationery items. All get used but a bit dull, another reason for not leaving it too late to think of things.

I keep a 'Christmas note' on my phone and note ideas all year round. Generally I won't buy until later in the year, it's the ideas that are difficult. I sometimes pick up on things in conversation and add to the note to buy later (eg DS1's girlfriend mentioned how much she loved a certain chocolate bar - now in the list).
Obviously if I spot something that I probably wouldn't be able to get again - something unique or a real bargain, I will buy when I see them but don't go actively looking. Sometimes they are things I stumble across (I recently bought a trolley coin in aid of a charity one of my DCs supports when there was a stall in a service station).

Just been ordering a couple of slimline European usb adapters to take on holiday (see pic) and have ordered a few extra as stocking fillers. Which is what prompted me to start this thread. By starting early, collecting ideas even if not buying, I think you do so with a clearer mind and end up with better stocking fillers than leaving the thinking til December when there is so much else going on.
Not sure if anyone else will be interested in this thread but just in case, would be good to share ideas or things that you've seen that are not the usual everyday items.
I'd appreciate it we could keep this thread for adults stockings only please

Super thread - I've made loads of notes. More expensive but Mini leatherman or engraved Swiss Army knife are lovely gifts. Also the Angus & Oink meat rubs are great & my teen son loves the fries with that which you sprinkle on your chips!

I don't think anyone has said the white company fragrance oils - they are gorgeous & so many varieties now 💚

I have been looking at white company fragrance oils - I love their reed diffusers and candles. I have never used the oils - how do people use them? Do you have to buy one of the Neom/ White company diffuser things or can you use them in another way? White Company suggests pot pouri ( which I haven’t had since the 90s!)

Really the pinecones are the alternative to pot pouri. I sometimes put some of them on a terracotta pot or a cotton wool ball in the radiator. You can add them to oil burners or water diffusers but never tried them in an oil atomiser

Be careful putting fragrance oils on cotton wool behind radiators - they might scent your room more strongly than you would expect. I once taught a group of Y6 children with behavioural difficulties. I was desperate for anything to help them calm down so I tried just a few drops of lavender oil on cotton wool behind the radiator. I swear it was just a few drops, but when I came into school the next morning you could smell it from the far end of the corridor! 🤣

@Sallylovesdaisy absolutely no need to apologise. The thread has become so wonderfully long now (when I didn't think anyone would take an interest, particularly so early on when I started it!)/
No issue at all with people posting something that has already been suggested as others might have missed it or not had time to RTFT.
Also I think on threads like this, multiple mentions can indicate a popular choice.

I bought a silicon bottle brush when I saw one in TK Maxx a couple of weeks ago, mainly for cleaning a couple of narrow vases. Just thinking they would be useful stocking fillers, can be used for narrow flasks, decanters etc. I did have some little beads years ago for cleaning things like that but no idea what I did with them, also useful stocking fillers although they were more expensive than they look for a gift.

I changed stockings to Xmas hats one year and it actually stuck. I decorated them (badly) with their names on the front and they have to wear them for Xmas dinner - sometimes recycled or sometimes replaced depending how many I get back. The hats are smaller than stockings and so I can do one for everyone that way - kids/partners/grandkids.
Despite years of this now I overbuy for hat size and spare stuff goes in the sack!

That is a fabulous idea @MsJinks .

I've only just found this thread this morning and I'm in awe of all you organised people! I've bought precisely THREE Christmas presents so far and I thought I was doing so well as it's only October! 🤣 Clearly not!

You can use dry rice with water added to clean narrow vessels. Just give them a good shake.

@rainbowstardrops 3 in October is good going! I collect ideas early then start buying form about nowish unless I happen across something that I might not be able to get later

Well I didn't know that @sueelleker will give it a go, thank you.

My Mum would put the craziest of things in our stockings. If she'd read your post, she'd have put some rice in a little box with a note to use it for cleaning vases!

I feel a bit better now then! I have a daughter who refuses to acknowledge Christmas until December but I have plenty of ideas for her anyway and a son who announced yesterday that his PlayStation is on its last legs ...... he has a birthday quite early on in the year, so that might be him sorted! They're both 18+ and it's so much harder compared to when they were little!

Oh and I have no idea re husband. I've spent hours searching before and then he doesn't use what I've bought. So annoying!

You have my sympathy @rainbowstardrops , I have a difficult to buy for husband too .There are a couple of threads in the Christmas topic which suggest we are not alone. They're worth a look if you haven't seen them already. I've rarely found any inspiration from them but you might.
A few years we've agreed to buy something for the house eg a new TV or a weekend away as a joint present then a stocking. I also find with my DH that replacing something that is looking a bit worn out works quite well - a particular colour jumper or jacket for example.
I found young adult children hard too, especially the male variety, until they had their own homes. Often it's money and their much loved stockings but still more difficult for DSs than DDs in my experience.

Dh's glasses are always filthy for some reason so he likes the wee wet wipe cleaners. I usually put a scratchcard in the stocking. Also there are a lot of good card games, (I'm in a board games club). That's not a hat is good, as is skull king

And a shout out to the lands end needlepoint stockings - I bought these 11 years ago & they can embroider names on them - love ours & lots of designs-probably a discount code online somewhere

https://www.landsend.co.uk/PersonalisedNeedlepointChristmasStocking/pp/P9658.html?srsltid=AfmBOopOTcNOQWOs4EjD-rZKPl6rfLALzCrIwWtCCQ5OMDDO-NB2917

https://www.landsend.co.uk/PersonalisedNeedlepointChristmas_Stocking/pp/4764594.html?dtp=Needlepoint%2520stocking

Bit late to this but I now have a very long list on my phone. Thank you all.

RE the bottle brushes, you can buy a set of half a dozen (ish) small bottle brushes of various sizes very inexpensively. They are so useful for all sorts of odd cleaning jobs, definite contenders for adult stocking fillers!

https://www.marksandspencer.com/glass-national-gallery-floral-bauble/p/hbp60692011#intid=pid_pg1pip26g4r2c2

these are really pretty

Thisis a useful thread for anyone still looking for adult stocking fillers

Please xan anybody remember from earlier in this thread (or anybody who is better at the search function than me) - what was the cookware shop(s) mentioned? It had a sale on but having checked back several times over months I concluded it always had a sale on, and it had some animal print tea towels and insulated water bottles in the sale. I'd love to find the website again!

Was it lakeland?

No, but thank you for your effort!

I found it - it was - Eat, Cook, Enjoy.