-Coloring books
-Sticker books
-Stickers
-Crayons, markers, colored pencils
-Other art supplies, glue sticks, googly eyes, pipe cleaners, etc.
-Play dough
-Candy
-Nuts (in the shell, dd LOVES to crack nuts)
-Apples or Oranges
-Favorite treats
-Construction paper
-Notebooks
-Chap Stick
-Lotion

We celebrate St Nicholas Day on the morning of December 5th...so I give the kids a chocolate letter (the first letter of their name). It's a Dutch tradition that we picked up when we lived overseas in Europe. Other than that though, we don't do any candy, not for St Nicholas Day or Christmas Day because my kids just don't eat it, they're just not interested.

Otherwise, my Mom used to do an orange (or clementine) in each stocking and a little bag of nuts. We used to have this big bowl of nuts on the coffee table in the living room with nutcrackers...LOL. Seems so "70's" doesn't it? Nobody liked the Brazil nuts.

Anyhow, sometimes I do the nuts and orange...just depends.

Then stuff like little boxes of sugar cereals are a big hit with my kids because they don't get those on any regular basis. I always give a box of Cracker Jacks and a sm box of Animal Crackers. And then some South American treats like alfa jores, little pots of dulce de leche - just little things that the kids love.

In my family, my Mom always gave us cans of black olives. We were weird! What can I say! LOL!

I do do toiletries for my sister's stockings...lovely soaps and lotions and stuff like that. For the kids, I do a bottle of Mr Bubble and then that's about it for them in terms of toiletries. If I come across cute soaps or something, I might give them that. They really liked those soap slices with items inside for a while and then one year I found glow in the dark star soaps from Restoration Hardware and those were really cute.

I love buying nice coloring pencils or crayons or paints for stockings but my kids are getting a bit old for that. One year I found a round tin of Faber Castell colored pencils that fit perfectly in the stocking.

We always open our stockings first on Christmas morning. I like to put the throw away cameras in my kids' stockings so that they can take pictures of the day whenever they feel like it...just be sure to put each child's name on the camera so that you remember who's is who's when you get them developed. Also....chapstick...new gloves....character toothpaste, sugarless gum, stationary supplies (bought at the dollar store of course...and I found tinkerbelle stuff at ours!!) . My mother makes a stocking for EVERYONE and it is so much fun to go through them!!! She puts stuff in the guys stockings like duct tape, mini screwdriver sets, manicure sets to keep in their cars.....for the ladies, fingernail polish, fuzzy socks, bubble bath and bath salts, mittens....ect....

I like to put in toothbrushes, little lotions and small kleenex packs for their backpacks,
chapstick, card games, a few new school supplies like pencils, erasers etc. and a chocolate Santa.

Oh to be able to fill only a small stocking...Dh grew up with those GIANT stockings that are six times the size of regular stockings - so now of course we all have them. They are great to get but let me tell you, filling them is challenging! Usually I'll go to Target $1 aisle and shop year round for ds's stuff and I do fill it with toys but this year I tried not to get too many junky ones. Yes our stockings take 15 minutes to open. But dh asks for so little, I just go with it. Now what do I fill them with? What Don't I fill them with!!

For ds, he is really into bugs (he's almost 6) so when Target had their theme of bugs this spring/summer I bought everything 'bug' in the $1 aisle. Like pull back bug toys that scoot along the floor (ug, Giant beetles!), bug stickers, bug pencils (whole packs), bug boxes, magnifying glass, bug net, that kind of stuff. Anything small and gadget like - ds likes keychains that he can clip onto his backpack. Also, we go to Canada every year and they have a Dollarama - I think it is owned by Dollar Tree - but their stuff is much better. I get craft kits, beads, heck I even got him a metal gekko to hang on his wall. Of course he is a proud Canadian just like daddy, so he gets Canada themed socks, keychains, anything with the Canadian flag. We do books as well. I just thought of a great idea, his school is selling Spiritwear, I can buy both ds and dh ds's school's Spiritwear and roll it up and put it in there. A sweatshirt will take up lots of room!

Oh yes, we have the gigantic stockings as well! Dh's grandmother needlepointed them for my boys and they are beautiful but they are huge. I LOVE the suggestion of putting the batteries that the toys will need in the stockings. I always buy the batteries and have them ready in the drawer for Christmas morning, but it never occured to me to put them in the stockings. Those big old D battery packs (for the remote controlled cars that my ds is obsessed with) will take up lots of space! Great idea.

My son (5) loves office supplies like tape, paper clips, glue sticks, post-it pads, pack of rubber bands, etc that he can call his own.

My mil does stockings for all of us, and it's funny because she's not usually very practical in her gift giving but she gives us some good practical, consumable stuff in our stockings! We usually get soaps, shower gels, deodorant, toothpaste, toothbrush, lip gloss or balm, lotion, we each get a couple kinds of candy or gum we like, and usually some little tool for the guys and a kitchen gadget for us girls.

I am filling mil's stocking this year and she's getting b&bw lotion & shower gel, a bag of the choc/caramel D&T popcorn, some hot cocoa she likes, some candy, a 3 pack of socks, gloves, and a fluffy shower poof thing.

I am putting in a gift cert to Chuck E Cheese. The kids will be home for a couple of weeks and that will be a great after Christmas day out. I will take them early in the morning so I don't have to feed them and I take our refillable drink cups so it only cost for the tokens. Each of the kids will get a $5.00 cert and they can combine them together with the coupons I get in the paper to get almost 200 tokens enough for a morning of FUN!!

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A Family of 5's quest to forget the Joneses.

Oregano, my sister and I always got cans of black olives in our stockings too! I thought it was just our family.