What's in a Christmas stocking anyway?

[Emily Myers]

My husband and I are in the process of developing our own traditions to share with our child(ren) as they grow up. In doing so, we've spent a lot of time recently, talking about what things we grew up with. We have a 2 yr old daughter and this will be the first Christmas she is really aware of what is going on. We agreed that we'll focus on her this year- show her a good old-fashioned Christmas. My only side-note to my husband was that we spend minimal on gifts for each other (less than $25) and in addition, to each have to fill each other's stocking.

In my house, growing up, the stockings were always the fun after-thought of "Oh wait, we're not done, we still have the stockings!". My husband emailed me today with this, "So what goes in a stocking anyway?"

It never occurred to me that any Christmas's we've spent with his family didn't include stockings- and apparently, they never did. Which got me thinking (and that can be scary). . .

(If, of course, you celebrate Christmas)
- Was it normal, tradition, for your family to have stockings?
- What kinds of things filled them when you were a kid, or teen?
- If you have kids now, do/did you carry on this tradition?
-and if so, what do you put in their stockings?

I realize this isn't business specific, so in the spirit of SI, feel free to blatently promote your best stocking stuffer ideas as they apply to your business.

[Stephen James]

Our stockings were the opposite of fun. The most fun was swapping the Zest for the Irish Springs. :-) They were items we needed anyway: soap, shampoo and such. There was usually candy that we looked forward to, also. My wife's family happened to do the same thing albeit with $5 bills rubber-banded to the shaving products, so we will probably continue the tradition.

[Laura Frank]

Our stockings were always filled with little inexpensive items that weren't quite "exciting" enough to wrap, but were still pretty cool, such as Slinky's, silly putty, coloring books, crayons, harmonicas, candy, those big punching balloons, etc. We "opened" them first, as a preview of what was to come. And as an adult, the stocking is still one of my favorite Christmas traditions.

[Heather Mourer]

Hi Emily - We've also had stockings as part of our Christmas in my family. My parents and I have always had a tradition of opening our presents from each other on Christmas Eve and we always do the stockings last...a nice treat after thinking you're finished opening all of the presents! When I was a child and up through my teenage years my stocking included things like candy, stickers, kiddie jewelry and makeup, CDs, etc... Now that I'm older they fill it with things like gift cards, MAC eyeshadow (for which I always have to send them a list of my favorite colors!), a few sweets, small books, DVDs, and so on.

I'm running into a similar dilemma this year as I want to continue this tradition with my boyfriend, but it seems so much easier to fill a stocking for a child than a significant other! I'll probably end up including things like cologne, a gift card, a small accessory like gloves or a tie, and maybe his favorite white chocolate/coconut candy bar. Good luck with yours and if you hear of any fabulous ideas, please share!