A Lazy Way to Stuff a Stocking That Doesn’t Look Lazy
There are two types of families watching Christmas: stockings serious and hobbyists. As with most things, my sisters and I see stocking stuffing as a competition, but we will never beat our mother, who had three decades to perfect her stocking stuffing techniques (with children as test subjects).
Over the past 30+ years, some of her strategies have been more successful than others. The Halloween candy makeover didn’t go so well – there were bats on the wrappers! – but breaking up large sets of items that were wrapped as one gift and then distributing among her three children was very effective. It’s a bit lazy actually, but doesn’t seem like I respect.
Using gift sets as stocking fillers
A gift set is a tricky thing. A pre-selected collection of items from one company or brand can seem impersonal if you’re not careful, although this is rarely an issue with more expensive sets. Instead of giving the entire set to one person, you can break them and then split the contents between the stockings on the mantle. This is especially handy if you have multiple children, as items from the same gift set tend to be comparable in value, but different enough that you can’t be accused of “giving everyone the same thing.”
My mom did it with great success with Sephora cosmetic gift sets, but food gift sets (think tiny jars of jam and mustard, fancy salt and small bags of signature coffee) are also good candidates, as are anything related to booze (for recipients who are not children).
Using Advent Calendars as Stocking Filler
I love the advent calendar and these days there are a lot to choose from. We’ve evolved from a simple piece of soft chocolate: there are trendy jam calendars, nail polish calendars, genie calendars – you get the idea. Some cover the full 24 days, while others cut them down to the classic 12 days of Christmas, but almost all of them are full of potential stocking fillers, some of which are special edition items. (The exception, of course, are Advent calendars filled with elements that only make sense as a complete set, such as Advent calendars for Christmas.)
If you’re looking for deals, I can vouch for both the Bonne Maman calendar (which has plugs and spreads that you can’t get the rest of the year) and Trader Joe’s 12 Days of Beauty calendar (which includes a nice peel) … mask and aromatic cleansing oil). The calendars are priced at $ 34.99 and $ 19.99 respectively, which is less than $ 2 per unit, which is quite reasonable for stockings. If none of them suit your loved ones, quickly find what they are passionate about, and then enter the words “advent calendar”. (This is how I found this beard oil calendar .)