Stockings completed - here's what I have got

[Streatfeild]

Just did a stocktake of the cupboard where I have hidden everything. I start buying in Jan as we also have lots of winter bdays and family gifts to buy etc. Some caveats - I get silly and cheap things for stockings, three kids (dd14, ds 13 and 8), I like some but not all of the stocking gifts to be the same across their stockings, this is the level of present buying that works for my family. Not bought any sweets/chocolate yet.

Hope this helps with some ideas.

Things the same across all the stockings:

Fortune telling stress ball (like a cross between a squidge ball and a lucky 8 ball)
Cracker with a nice christmassy jigsaw inside (Wentworth)
Cracker with socks inside
A mini foldable crate thing from Flying Tiger
Cool pack of playing cards
A wax seal set with their initial

Then for dd14:
A 'spa' headband from boots
Some heartshaped tealights (sainsburys in sale last Jan)
A mini tin shaped like a suitcase with pictures of Paris (where we went in the summer) and some chocolates inside
One of those things that you use to squeeze last bit of make up from tube
Some cool paperclips
Mini tray for jewellery (Tiger)
Some japanese 'panda picks' that you put into sushi or on top of sandwiches

For both ds:
An 'infinity fidget flexagon'
Mini ping ping (B&M)
Cool pencils with maths things on like all the digits of pi

For ds 13:
cool frisbee boomerang thing (B&M)
Magnets shaped like ninjas
A mini king kong figure (B&M)

For ds8:
A cool sponge thing for the bath (he likes baths)
A bear keyring you paint yourself with marble paint (B&M)
Highlighters

So far I’ve just bought for dd13 stocking
just dance 26
Wednesday top trumps
wednesday funko pop
ty beanies Christmas

she is going shopping with her birthday money this Saturday so once she’s bought stuff she had on her birthday list that wasn’t gifted, I’ll cover the rest for her stocking. It is mostly skincare stuff soo

for DS 17 stocking
I have a mini Mario toad plate (Special edition off the Nintendo website)
2 x amiboos he asked for
Mario galaxy switch game

he’s really hard to buy for in terms of stockings, especially now he’s not playing Roblox anymore so I can’t even bung him some gift cards.
he’s actually asked for stuff this year which is making it slightly easier.
he loves franks hot sauce so gonna put one of those in aswell.

Primark mens section has a nice Frank's hot sauce tshirt at the moment

That’s a lot for a stocking! My lot get:
underwear
socks
deoderant
toothbrush
toothpaste
a silly t-shirt
razor blades (for the older boys)
a bar of chocolate

When mine were younger I used to scatter a few Quality Street sweets in each stocking randomly. So a mark of Christmas morning was waking up to hear 'if I give you the orange one, can I have your toffee finger?' Kept them busy for ages.

brilliant idea

Love this list, thanks for sharing.

Please could you let me know where you got
the wax stamp from, such a cute idea.

Actually the Tower of London gift shop, but they sell them everywhere including Amazon. Just google wax stamp initial. (They don't all come with wax so do check)

I love a stocking thread! Also love doing stockings - my favourite part of Christmas. I also buy throughout the year. DD will be 13 so the list is changing from the cute pre-teen bits and mini toys to more teenage (and expensive, sob!) stuff.

Stocking rules in our house: you always get a satsuma, chocolate coins in some form, something that lights up, something for your hair, something for the bath, some kind of silly puzzle or game, and a soft toy of some kind, plus some chocolates or sweets.

This year I have:
A mini reindeer soft toy
A mini glitter Wet Brush hair brush
Rose gold fairy lights for the lighting up thing
Cat hair clips from Oliver Bonas (sale!) for hair
Chonk cats nesting dolls for the silly puzzle
Lip and cheek stain in a mini cat bottle
Some Sephora mini bath fizzers
An Estella Bartlett bracelet (sale find!)
Some Sol de Janeiro miniature body cream and shower gel plus a mini perfume spray in the light pink fragrance, I forget the number (DD loves that stuff but it does all smell identically like popcorn to me…)

I need to start picking up the chocolate items - used to love getting some weird fun sweets for the stocking, but as she’s got older DD has become very fussy about chocolate, so I’ll likely just get her a Lindt nocciolatte bar, some Tony’s Chocolonely and a Lindt mini Santa. And the chocolate coins.

Plus every year she gets a Nutella & Go pot because one year when she was about 5 I put one in just as an easy treat breakfast item for Christmas morning, and it was such a success (at the time she was rarely allowed chocolate!) that I now do it every year 🤣

I miss the days of getting her some kind of little science toy item in there, so I am thinking of adding one of those expensive STEM cube prisms, but I’m not sure yet. And maybe a book.

Thankfully I got lots of the stocking items cheap during the year - eg. the Sol de Janeiro body items were a John Lewis freebie, the SdJ perfume was on a seriously good offer in Boots, the bracelet was about £5 in a sale, the reindeer toy ditto in a Lisa Angel sale, as were the cat clips in Oliver Bonas and the fairy lights. The lip stain was £3 from TK Maxx. But I feel I’ve already spent loads on the stocking compared to the days when everything in it was £1 from Tiger! 😩

For adult.children I buy spice blends that are a bit more unusual and expensive (kids both enjoy cooking), and I always add toothbrushes, toothpaste, socks....when they were little mum only ever bought plain toothbrushes or socks etc., but Father Christmas bought branded with their favourite characters! DC appreciate a stock up of normal toiletries and underwear these days - not so much as when they were skint students, but still appreciative.

My top tip is if you are buying for adult children you ask them to source one or two bits for each stocking other than their own - charity shop finds or paperbacks they have enjoyed and think parent or sibling will appreciate as a regift very much encouraged.

Thank you for the ideas! I want to be ahead of the game this year and not have a last minute rush 👍

My kids love getting plasters and mini packs of tissues in theirs. You can get some more exciting plasters- last year they got Barbie and hot wheels ones and Christmassy tissues