If you are familiar with my posts, you will know that I absolutely cannot stand clutter and excess and useless articles around the house. With a large family, it is a constant battle to purge paperwork, junk mail, trinkets and knick-knacks, and item that are not of any value, sentimentally or practically, and yet you can’t seem to bring yourself to throw it away. Christmas can be a wonderful time and season to give meaningful gifts that loved ones will appreciate and use, but sometimes the trends and social pressure can push you into buying less-than-ideal gifts just for the sake of having something to give. Christmas stockings and stocking stuffers are one tradition that makes it easy to fall into this trap. I have tried to consider what useful, intelligent, practical, tiny gifts would be good for going into stockings. Here are some ideas that I’ve had and some of the things I’ve gotten to put into our stockings this year.
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A note on this – I have been doing a lot of Christmas shopping and price comparisons, and while Target did have one deal that was buy one get one 50% off for toys, overall the prices at Amazon have been the best – except books! I bought a bunch of books and I used abebooks.com (which has lower prices than thrift books) and eBay – secondsale has a buy three get one free offer which is really good.
Watches
Small, exciting to kids, and useful, watches are a great gift if your child doesn’t already have one.
This is a highly rated, budged friendly Kid’s Watch
If you are looking for multiple children, this is a good deal on a set of two watches, one boy and one girl:
Earrings are small and practical, as long as you don’t err by placing quantity over quality and buying a bunch of cheap earrings that are bound to get scattered and unappreciated. I would recommend finding a nice earring that will be special and significant, at a reasonable price.
Looking forward to a week of winter vacation with your kids, bunkered down in the house together, it can be good to get a couple fun card games to stick in their stockings.
Depending on how careful your kid are, these can last a while, and they do keep kids entertained on car rides or waiting rooms without making a mess. You fill the pen with water, and they draw/paint with the water to make the pictures turn to color.
This sounds boring, but when things are wrapped up nice and put into a stocking, they will be exciting to open no matter what they are, and pencils and pens are always going to be useful, so why not make it into a gift since you have to buy them anyway?
Nail polish is a cute and practical gift for any girl or woman. I prefer the insta-dry by Sally Hansen. It comes in a ton of colors. You can find it here: