At what point????

[FloridaLisa]

We've always done stockings in our home as well.  Love them! But we usually stuff with pretty practical, low cost items -- new, fun toothbrush, nail polish, low cost jewelry, socks, hair things, gum & chocolate oranges, bubble bath, Axe for my guys, those kinds of things. I used to fill dh's, he filled mine and now that oldest ds is married, he and his wife fill each other's stockings. It's a great tradition and we love it! 

 

Lisa

[mamamindy]

I haven't read all the replies...but I was thinking about this thread today when I was out shopping for stocking stuffers.  I spent almost $100!! :cursing:   Granted, I just don't have the luxury of time right now to "shop around" for deals, and since we had the flu for the first 2 weeks of December I am VERY behind (to say the least!)  That amount was for stockings for my 5 children and a friend that I swap with each year.  Is that high?  I don't feel like I even got much at all.  I mean, their stockings won't be stuffed.

 

I am a fan of stockings.  I looked forward to them every year.  My mom wrapped each item in paper or tissue and just really stuffed the stocking with thoughtful gifts.  I sure wish she lived near - I would've given her my list and she would've done wonderfully. :)  DH said his mom put a small toy and a bag of M&M's.  Every year.  Not near as stuffed as what I was used to, and not near as time-consuming, but just as looked forward to.  We splurged and got everyone new stockings with our names embroidered this year - we'd been using random hand-me-down stockings.  I hope my kids enjoy opening them up Christmas morning.

[AngelaNYC]

We sleep over my parents' house on Christmas Eve and we all still get a stocking - with our names in gold glitter script across the top of each one (omg, and new pajamas from her every Christmas Eve, lol).  My mother will never let that tradition go.  Kitchen items, face wash, makeup, headphones, extra batteries, little ornaments, etc,... and a big ol' orange in the toe.

[Kel & the Kids]

Wow, I can't believe so many people do stockings! My mom stopped when I wasn't home anymore.

 

My dh and I have talked about stockings but he's the kind of guy who likes a few quality items rather than a bunch of "stuff". Yes, he's hard to buy for! (just like my father in law)! He'd rather go buy his own toothbrush iykwim. It makes it equally hard for him to fill stockings, so I don't make him ;).

 

I guess we'll keep doing it for the kids as long as it is still enjoyable and affordable. So far so good!

[Laurel-in-CA]

Wow, I can't believe so many people do stockings! My mom stopped when I wasn't home anymore.

 

My dh and I have talked about stockings but he's the kind of guy who likes a few quality items rather than a bunch of "stuff". Yes, he's hard to buy for! (just like my father in law)! He'd rather go buy his own toothbrush iykwim. It makes it equally hard for him to fill stockings, so I don't make him ;).

 

I guess we'll keep doing it for the kids as long as it is still enjoyable and affordable. So far so good!

 

Thanks! At least somebody doesn't think I sound like the Grinch! I almost always end up spending more on stockings for 6 people than on any one gift under the tree. But the tradition stays for now, I guess.

[kiwik]

We never did them. I never even heard of such a thing until I was well into my thirties. Correction I had heard of them but not as something real people did. I have sort of done them the last few years as a sort of Santa thing but at 5 and 7 my kids have stopped pretending they believe in Santa. I just finished stuffing a pair of my socks with chocolate Santas and elves and candy canes with a pack of cards and some dice though just in case.

[ktgrok]

our kids get stockings. always will. My husband and I quit doing stockings because we kept forgetting to buy stocking stuffers for each other, and one year I got dental floss. I wasn't thrilled. I really was not thrilled. After that I "outgrew" the stocking. But my kids will get them as long as we have Christmas with them.

 

LOL, I put dental floss in the teen's stocking this year. But we almost always have tooth brushes, toothpaste, and such in there. Deoderant too. 

 

I will also admit we go way overboard on stockings. Your stocking is filled, and then other tissue wrapped gifts that didn't fit in it are on the chair next to it. It always overflows. But still small stuff, often a lot of it is stuff you would get anyway, like body wash, favorite shampoo, etc. Plus some fun stuff...a grip strengthen thing, sausages, superglue, whatever (for adults). Kids get some small toy items or stickers or what not, and everyone gets some candy. I really toned down the candy though. More trail mix, beef jerky, etc than candy. Oh, and everyone gets a protein bar so they get something in their stomach asap.

[MerryAtHope]

I love stockings too! Usually we put some things in there that would be needed anyway, so it isn't all an extra expense--this year everyone is getting flashlights (I found a pack of 4, all different colors, of mini-flashlights--handy for by the bed when you get up at night). One year it was spinbrushes. Usually some candy. Kids will get some Adventures in Odyssey CD's--something I'd get for them anyway. Often we put granola bars in for breakfast--this year I'm doing a breakfast casserole. Sometimes nail polish or other little things like that. Useful but with a fun twist? One year it was character bandaids--we had a child who used LOTS of bandaids, LOL!

 

 

[Lang Syne Boardie]

Our stocking tradition is to do the exact same thing my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents did:

 

Fruit (always apple and orange but sometimes something less everyday, like a pomegranate), nuts or peanuts, candy, and one small toy. Stockings are for children only, and the stockings are handmade by Mama. (My boys' are appliqued and embroidered felt. My mom crocheted ours.) Children may get down their stocking and open it while waiting for everyone else to assemble to open the gifts that are under the tree.

 

 

[Critterfixer]

I'd be in the Grinch category. The idea of having to do stockings forever brought on a few gray hairs. 

But thanks to this thread I actually picked up a few more things for the stockings for my boys (they were getting a piece of chocolate, a bag of chips and a soda of their choice :leaving: ) but I have since added a composition notebook for their stories that they like to write, new mechanical pencils, a large eraser (thus sparing me many a trip for individual erasers for the pencils) and Sharpies (a large black one and a fine tip). 

And I picked up some salted nuts, a special soda and some packs of gum and a caramel chocolate bar for the DH for his...stocking. Now I've just got to go find a stocking.

 

Maybe now I can crawl out from my Grinch lair on top of Mt. Crumpet.

[HeWillSoar]

We do stockings for all of us.  I don't think you ever outgrow it. Dh's will be full of all different types of licorice from different countries this year. 

[Caclcoca]

I always go overboard on the stocking thing too.  Last year I made some last minute impulse buys.  After I stuffed the stockings, I had to leave them laying on the ground.  They were too heavy to hang back up.  I am hoping that I did a better job this year.  As I mentioned earlier, I really like stockings.

[laughing lioness]

We do stockings every year. In fact, we bought and sent the 24 yo and her fiance stockings this year. She wanted the handmade stocking but my Mom made everyone hand crafted stockings before she died. I made the same type for our 2 youngest. The kids at home threw a fit at the thought of sending her the one that went with the rest of the families. 

We never have candy so ours have candy in them, nail clippers, hand soap, etc. 

[Laurel-in-CA]

When I was growing up, the stockings were to tide the kids over until the rest of the family arrived for group gift opening and family dinner. Now, my kids have never had family close enough to do that, but the stockings are what they look forward to on Christmas morning.

 

One year I put in everyone's favorite hot cereal. We had breakfasts for a couple of weeks.

 

DS almost always gets shoe deodorizers. We all appreciate that one, LOL.

[prairiegirl]

I didn't think stockings were a tradition that you outgrew.   I'm 52 and I still put out my stocking.  I have to admit that I do go a little overboard with the stockings with candy, bath stuff, hats, gloves, socks, etc.  I don't know if I will always put this much stuff in them but I will always put them out any time  they are here for Christmas.

[Luckymama]

I haven't gotten a stocking since Mom died :(

 

My childhood stocking, knitted by my grandmother, hangs from the mantel, next to dh's childhood stocking.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

I didn't think stockings were a tradition that you outgrew.   I'm 52 and I still put out my stocking.  I have to admit that I do go a little overboard with the stockings with candy, bath stuff, hats, gloves, socks, etc.  I don't know if I will always put this much stuff in them but I will always put them out any time  they are here for Christmas.

 

Of course, people of different Christmas-practicing cultures do have different customs. Not that any are "right" or "wrong," but for lots of people the stockings are traditionally from Santa Claus and just for children, while for lots of other people they're for adults, too.

 

My relatives in Belgium leave their shoes for St. Nicholas (on Dec 5) instead of stockings for Santa Claus, and that custom is only for children, too, in their city. Adults exchange gifts with each other but do not put out their shoes for St. Nicholas or fill their shoes for themselves.

[Amira]

I haven't had a stocking filled for me since I was in college, except for three years ago when we were in Bishkek. Christmas was on a Sunday and we were finally able to get permission to go there for church (there aren't a lot of Mormons in Kyrgyzstan so we'd been having church at home with just our family for two years). We went to the LDS church service, joined the chaplain as he lit the hanukkiah for the night, then ate Christmas dinner with everyone going in and out of Afghanistan. The servicewomen and men gave each of us a big stocking stuffed with American candy that we hadn't seen in forever. It was amazing and such a simple gesture that meant a lot to us after being so isolated for so long.

[MeAndTheBoys]

I had no idea stockings could have expensive thing in them, lol.

 

We hang them up because they are cute.  The boys always get chocolate coins and some other candies-this year, it was little chocolate Santas, snowmen and bears from Aldi, giant candy canes, and cookies-and-cream hershey bars.  They each got a 4-color click pen, and some money.  That's a pretty typical stocking here.

 

DH has some chocolate covered cherries in his stocking that I just realized he didn't get out. I don't get things in my stocking.

 

I thought people just put candy and trinkets in there :)

 

B

[G5052]

Each of my teens got a magazine, candy, and a small gift card.  One got a Russian medal I found at a thrift store, and one got hair ties.  No more than $20 total each, and I thought that I was being very generous there!

 

I figure that we'll keep it up as long as they are home.

 

DH used to do one for me, and I'd do one for him, but we dropped that some years ago so we could focus on the kids.

[Laurel-in-CA]

Well, the big hit here was seaweed snacks in various flavors. Luckily no soy, so dd could have them. Socks were the high cost item, and Burt's Bees lip gloss/Blistex for the boys.  DH got a package of flavored coffee, and he put some moi in everyone's stocking but mine...his favorite chinese treat.

[marbel]

Another stocking family checking in.  Everyone gets a stocking, and everyone can put something in someone else's stocking.  We're all sneaking in and out of the kitchen late Christmas Eve night to slip something in.  When we used to visit my in-laws at Christmas, there was a stocking for each of us there. 

 

It is never expensive stuff. It's mostly food.  This year everyone got some form of chocolate - bars, hot cocoa mix, etc.  A $10 gift card to Wawa (convenience store chain).  Usually there is lip balm and maybe small tubes of hand cream. This year I put a jar of fancy olives in my husband's stocking.  If it weren't for the gift card I'd spend less than $20 on each.  

 

I think it's fine to mess with traditions if everyone agrees they are tired of them, but beloved traditions should stay.  They can change, though - you can start lowering the value of the gifts if it's getting to be too much. 

[Ellie]

do kids outgrow christmas stockings? There was a mass protest at our house at the merest thought of setting aside this tradition. My college/teens/tween all STILL want to sleep in our room on Christmas Eve and open their stockings when they wake up. The tradition started when we needed to get them all out of the way in our tiny house so that we could do the christmas stockings. But for older kids, stockings get EXPENSIVE!! So, what do you think? Keep it up until they leave home for good? Until they reach a certain age (????)? What?

 

Keep the stockings but put less-expensive things in them. Or put the expensive things in the stockings and not under the tree.

[KarenNC]

We do stockings for all, and did for each other before our daughter was born. This year:

 

14 yo daughter: an orange, a skeleton Hello Kitty candy tin (Halloween clearance), a bag of cookies and creme Hershey kisses (bought on sale), a baggie of sesame sticks, 2 packs of special socks from Hot Topic (bought on good sale--Supernatural and Marvel), a small itunes gift card, a pair of lightup LED gloves (about $1 from after Halloween clearance at craft store--the fingertips glow and change color).

 

husband: orange, baggie of sesame sticks, beef jerky, 2 big hazelnut chocolate bars (bought b1g1 and with coupon earlier), quarter pound of 6 year aged cheddar

 

me: orange, baggie of sesame sticks, 2 big hazelnut chocolate bars (same deal as above), roasted pecans, chocolate covered almonds, quarter pound of aged gouda

 

The sesame sticks came from a bag I got at Trader Joe's for $2.99 (and I had more left over), and they have really good prices on good cheese as well. I look for candy at the after Halloween clearance sales. Some of the candy look like regular packaging, but my daughter has a fairly dark sense of humor (as does my husband), so she enjoys getting the Halloween-themed stuff at Christmas. :) If you watch the sales before Christmas, you can sometimes get a percent off on itunes or similar cards. I usually put a small itunes gift card in my husband's stocking, but it was part of his regular Solstice present this year (along with a tshirt) so that he would have something to open (he got his big gift earlier this year). For many years, I included a little lego or playmobil figure in my husband's stocking (started this at our first Christmas). It's never been anything really expensive.

[Ellie]

We never did them. I never even heard of such a thing until I was well into my thirties. Correction I had heard of them but not as something real people did. I have sort of done them the last few years as a sort of Santa thing but at 5 and 7 my kids have stopped pretending they believe in Santa. I just finished stuffing a pair of my socks with chocolate Santas and elves and candy canes with a pack of cards and some dice though just in case.

 

Interesting. :-)

 

We never did Santa, and would not have thought about equating stockings with Santa.

[EmilyGF]

My cousins do stockings, but each "kid" (the youngest is 13) draws a name and does the stocking of a different sibling. My mom still makes me a stocking. :-) We never did Santa Claus.

[Elisabet1]

You don't need to make the stockings expensive. All my children get the same candy in their stockings. This year, oldest child (20 yrs old) got nice socks and a few other things. I even stuck in a little Lego toy.

[Critterfixer]

Even the DH liked his stocking this year-he got a candy bar, a bottle of a hard-to-find soda that he likes and some salted pistachio nuts. The boys loved their various writing utensils, and their little candy, chips and soda for snacking yesterday and today. 

But I was kind of sad. All these stockings and none for Mom. :mellow: Next year I special order some of those salted caramel truffles I like and the DH can put them in for me. And a big stack of legal pads. And a 0.9 lead mechanical pencil. Yup, that would set me up and make me smile.

[marbel]

<snip>

 

But I was kind of sad. All these stockings and none for Mom. :mellow: Next year I special order some of those salted caramel truffles I like and the DH can put them in for me. And a big stack of legal pads. And a 0.9 lead mechanical pencil. Yup, that would set me up and make me smile.

I used to buy things for myself and put them in my stocking. My husband just never thought to do it, even though he had grown up with stockings. I just figure it's characteristic of the engineer brain. I don't remember when he clued in. But now my daughter reminds him anyway. She figured out

pretty early that dad needed a little help in that area and is sure to take care of me.

[Angie in VA]

our kids get stockings. always will. My husband and I quit doing stockings because we kept forgetting to buy stocking stuffers for each other, and one year I got dental floss. I wasn't thrilled. I really was not thrilled. After that I "outgrew" the stocking. But my kids will get them as long as we have Christmas with them.

Kelly, how was your Christmas? The "year of firsts" after the death of a loved one is a rough one.

[Elisabet1]

If I want something in my stocking, I tell my husband. We have taken to deciding this each year. We decided against it this year. 

[myfunnybunch]

I cross-stitched stockings for each family member.

My dd is getting married in March and moving to Seattle in June. For a wedding present, I am stitching a stocking for her fiancé, and I will give them the stockings along the tree ornaments she's collected over the years. They can use them next Christmas in their new home.

 

ETA: Got distracted and didn't finish. Everyone in our home on Christmas morning gets a stocking, and sometime I fill them for the young adults who can't be here too.

Cat

[Chris in VA]

I sent one to my son's girlfriend--I had sent him a box with his, pre-stuffed, and didn't want her to feel left out. My mom knit these huge ones that stretch like the dickens!

We fill my  mom and dad's when they come every other year for Christmas--they left theirs at home this year, so I used a Christmas-y gift bag.

 

I love stockings and will always continue the tradition. We put in food/candy, a couple of useful things, and some things that have become traditional--my boys and hubby always get a beefstick, for example, and everyone gets a large Cadbury bar (although this year, I used Aldi's chocolate as it's good and about a dollar cheaper per bar). Dh always puts Oil of Olay in mine.

 

[Kiara.I]

But I was kind of sad. All these stockings and none for Mom. :mellow: Next year I special order some of those salted caramel truffles I like and the DH can put them in for me. And a big stack of legal pads. And a 0.9 lead mechanical pencil. Yup, that would set me up and make me smile.

 

That's one option, definitely.

Another I've read about is to find a local friend in the same situation, and fill each others' stockings. so you actually get a surprise!

[Critterfixer]

DH said he really liked his stocking this year and wants to get one for me next year. :001_wub: So I think next year will be better.

[4ofus]

We hang stockings for all of us, but only the kids stockings get stuffed.