What do you fill your stockings with?

flipper_72

Stocking for DS who is almost 4
Lightning McQueen bubble bath and sponge
hat scarf & gloves set
lego mini figure blind bag
hotwheels blind bag
Free Sun lego bags (already got some, others next week)
build your own dinosaur
dinosaur book
mini kite

DS is lactose intolerant do can't have most choc so may get some sweets and will also add a muesli type bar, carton of juice and fruit flakes so they eat soemthing fairly reasonable first thing.

DD 6 has similar although struggle with the lego bags for her as they are all boy oriented, she gets bobbles, clips, lip balm instead of cars and dinosaurs and have got a bauble with her name on - could find DS one

DigForVictory

Traditionally we have a satsuma in the toe, a small can of fizzy pop somewhere in the leg, chocolate coins, a packet of free-with-the-Sun Lego, a oats & raisins breakfast/Survival bar and tie it with a ballooon at the top.
Additional contents vary wildly - one son is into chilli sauces, all need new headphones (they kill them in new & ingenious ways), all Scouts got a spare Woggle (decorative, inexpensive & can be left until needed!), and all will be getting the little 4 pack of colour pencils Wetherspoons leave as freebies for child clients alongside the sauces.
(Me, tight? No, more like pushed for funds.)
A party pack of bubble mix bottles does 4 stockings easily & you have to be pretty sniffy not to enjoy bubble mix unless there are dermatological reasons. (Also it's a brilliant photo prop.) :j
It's worth seeing if there are buy several for a flat fee for party favour ideas, as they are intended to be split amongst several recipients.
Tiny notebooks & pens are always cute, but my lads aren't really into flower fairies etc.

donnalou

Can I ask - Do you wrap presents that you put in the stocking? We never had stockings as children just a sack downstairs! It's My LO's first Christmas and I'm doing her a stocking but just wondered if I should wrap the stocking presents or not.

Many thanks

chirpychick

donnalou wrote: »

Can I ask - Do you wrap presents that you put in the stocking? We never had stockings as children just a sack downstairs! It's My LO's first Christmas and I'm doing her a stocking but just wondered if I should wrap the stocking presents or not.

Many thanks

I havent wrapped for the baby but will do when he is older. They were always wrapped when i was little

quinechinoise

chirpychick wrote: »

They were always wrapped when i was little

Always wrapped even when I was older! I'm planning on wrapping all of my kids' stocking fillers - except for the chocolate coins.

On a separate note... I'd also be interested to know what sort of stocking people are using, whereby they can fit in clothing and books. Are present sacks/bags being used instead of stockings and just still referred to as the "stockings"? How essential is the traditional stocking shape?

jellyhead

quinechinoise wrote: »

Always wrapped even when I was older! I'm planning on wrapping all of my kids' stocking fillers - except for the chocolate coins.

On a separate note... I'd also be interested to know what sort of stocking people are using, whereby they can fit in clothing and books. Are present sacks/bags being used instead of stockings and just still referred to as the "stockings"? How essential is the traditional stocking shape?

We have traditional stockings that we hang on the mantelpiece on Christmas Eve but Santa transports them to the bed after he fills them. I wouldn't be able to fit an annual in them but smaller books fit in, like a paperback or some kids books. T-shirts from places like HMV come rolled up in a plastic thing, kind of cracker shaped but without the edges ... does that make sense? So they easily fit in.

kahunababy

When I was a child I always had a pillowcase at the end of my bed instead of a socking, we would open these presents first in our room before waking the whole house to go downstairs and see if Santa had left us any present by the tree.

With my own two I got 2 plain white pillow cases and some fabric pens, our christmas elf delivered them to the boys with instructions to decorate the pillowcases with their names and they had to write just one thing they had put on their letters to Santa that they really hoped he would bring and the year (i.e big boys bike-2011). They then left them at the end of their bed. Each year they 'update' the pillowcase with their most wanted. It serves as a great reminder of how they have grown over the years!

springdreams

kahunababy wrote: »

When I was a child I always had a pillowcase at the end of my bed instead of a socking, we would open these presents first in our room before waking the whole house to go downstairs and see if Santa had left us any present by the tree.

With my own two I got 2 plain white pillow cases and some fabric pens, our christmas elf delivered them to the boys with instructions to decorate the pillowcases with their names and they had to write just one thing they had put on their letters to Santa that they really hoped he would bring and the year (i.e big boys bike-2011). They then left them at the end of their bed. Each year they 'update' the pillowcase with their most wanted. It serves as a great reminder of how they have grown over the years!

I really like this idea. I would have pinched it, except my ds has only just got to the age where he has realised that there is no santa, and it is me who does all the presents. He still wants a stocking this year though

Spendless

Until last year mine had stockings that were in the shape of the wizards hat from Fantasia, bought in Disneyland when kids were small. They had the advantage of going to a point at the bottom, for the smaller items and widening at the top.

As a child I never had a stocking. We had stocking filler presents but all were wrapped up and under the tree. When I asked in recent years,my Mum why this was she said the stockings you buy nowadays weren't wildly commercially available in the 60s and 70s.

For the 1st few years I never bothered with a stocking for eldest, but when he got to 3 or 4, he started seeing them on Xmas films and asked for one. Because I have never had my own tradition of what you do with one, I feel I've had to 'make it up as I go along'. I never felt I came across the right place to position them, upstairs in bedrooms meant mine woke up in the middle of the night and wanted to go downstairs cos 'Santas been' leaving them downstairs meant they were overlooked in favour of the bigger presents. I never wrapped the stocking presents, to distinguish between them and the under the tree ones, but last year I made my student neice one as she claimed she didn't know what one was (sis-in-law had abondoned them as neice got older for the same issues I've had) and as I know she frequently opens her pressies at midnight with her mum I wasn't making it easy for her to just tip the lot out. Anything that doesn't fit in the stocking becomes an under the tree present.

Considering I have never felt I've got stockings right, surprisingly to me, it isn't my kids view though. Several times I've asked if they still wanted one to get 'yes, Father christmas puts really good items in' and last year son asked to have a different stocking a traditional shaped one. DD has mentioned she thinks the stocking pressies should be wrapped. I've never put clothing items beyond gloves, socks etc in there but older boys get more difficult to buy for and on a stocking thread it was suggested rolling up t-shirts to bulk out- which is something I will consider. Pretty miffed that I gave son the t-shirt I bought recently (from x chain store shop). It has skulls on, is ex -bhs and cost me all of £2.99. if I'd known he was going to adore it so much I'd have saved for Christmas.:rotfl:

jellyhead

I think my stocking in the early 70's was a kind of carrier bag?

We hang them on the fireplace at night and then Santa takes them upstairs.