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