Looking For Non-Toy Stocking Ideas

We always get socks. And the girls get jewelry. We also typically get Starbucks or music (iTunes) gift cards. And gum. : )

Can of black olives. Believe it or not. Every stocking every year. And then of course I get the great shots of kids with 10 black olives on 10 fingers. Helps that we rarely eat black olives and that all of us love them!!!

My kids get socks and underwear every year - I didn't put any in 2 years ago and they requested they go back in the next year. Even a fun t-shirt with a character they are into.

lip balm, socks, hair stuff, toiletries, small games, deck o' cards, and lifesavers...

Stockings tend to be filled with a lot of the essentials they're due to need anyway! Socks, underwear, hats, mittens, toothbrushes, toothpaste, chapstick/lipsmackers, CD's, disposable cameras, pens/pencils/crayons, music CDs, gift cards (Target, Barnes & Noble, Starbucks are my kids' top 3). My daughter, 8, gets play make up, earrings, nail polish, and my son, now a teenager, gets smelly deodorant and body wash like Axe, razor, and skin care products.

what great ideas here! One tradition we had growing up was the family always got a new game from "Santa". I've carried that to my family now and it's fun to have a new family fun game to play together while home on break.

We always bake for Christmas (my son and I) so I have since started the tradition of putting a new cookie cutter in his stocking each year. He especially loves the Williams-Sonoma cookie cutters (and I do too) because they come in cool containers - like the train cookie cutter set. Cookie cutter are great for both boys and girls. :)And in conjunction with that - I try to find a kid's cookbook (with lots of pictures).

I am putting underwear and socks in my kids stockings, along with fruit snacks (they are still little, 3 1/2 & 22mos and this is not a treat they get often and I didn't want to load them up with candy). Little books are fun and I'm also putting in toothbrushes for them; hair barrettes, etc.

Arts and crafts supplies. My little guy is two and he is obsessed with making things so this year I'm stuffing his stocking with his own special craft supplies: glue sticks, brushes, paints, pom poms and googly eyes. To be honest, I wouldn't mind a few supplies in my stocking either!

This year I ordered playing cards from ArtsCow, using photos of our pets, for each of the kids' stockings. Always love to include pens, pencils, or art supplies, too.

I found these wonderful crayons that are in their own individual plastic container so that each one can be clicked like a pen to push the crayon out the top. No tearing off paper and less mess. Kids love them. they also like small handheld games, interesting mechanical pencils and all the clips and things at Staples in their "fill a bin" display. For adults I have found they also like all the "fill a bin" stuff at Staples. they like small notebooks for pocket or purse. I found some beautiful ones at Hobby Lobby that are beautifully decorated on the front and have words like Faith, Patience, Friends. ON the inside they are also decorated on the edges of each page and then have quotes along with lines to write on. Another thing they like are gift cards to local eating places.

Santa does stocking at our house and always brings a toothbrush Plus a sample size of hand cream and lip balm. when the kids are old enough they also get a sample size of deordorant along with the orange, nuts, candies and small toy.

We always did toothbrushes and floss and other dental items in the kids stockings. They even began to look forward to these items as young adults.

We write "end of the year" notes to the kids talking about their favorite things, trips they took, how much they have grown, etc. My son loves to get art things. Scotch tape is BY FAR the favorite in my kids' stockings every year. We also do gift cards to favorite restaurants. Socks. Mittens & hat. Ornaments. Small picture frames. Toothbrushes. STICKERS. Last year on a whim I grabbed those brightly colored flossers for kids - they LOVED them. In fact, my 3 year old specifically mentioned them a few days ago when we were talking about Santa & what he might bring. (Flossing is a lot more fun for kids now than it was when I was younger!) Magnets (I don't know about your kids but mine spend HOURS rearranging the magnets & photos on our fridge). Hair things. ANYTHING with a kid's name on it - cup, pencils, notepad, etc. Flash cards. Fun key chains. Small flashlights. Pocket knife (for older kids or adults, of course). Sunglasses. Razors (again, for adults!), small bottles of shampoo and/or hand lotion. Worry dolls (though I suppose those might be considered toys). Stamps. My kids both love playing with calculators though until now I've never thought to put one in a stocking. Post-it notes. That's all I can think of at the moment!

I love little mini things for stockings - like small stapler, mini tape dispenser, etc. We also usually do lip balm, a deck of cards maybe, hand lotion, fun pens & pencils...stuff like that.

Chapsticks, gloves (my kids especially like the magic stretch kind that are like $1 a pair) & hats, gift cards for the movies and big movie size boxes of candy, gift cards for Jamba Juice, etc., those bottles of body wash with the character heads or foam soap, lotion, magic wash cloths, flashlights, carabiners, bungee cords, music cd's, card games....you made me think about it, now I need to go shopping.

Stockings are my girls favorite memories of Christmas. I personalize each stocking to my kids. Each starts with a silver dollar in the toe, a personalized letter or mini album for each child (my husband contributes to this too:) and all end with a beanie baby. Stuff them with simple things they each love.

Didn't read all the comments so sorry if I repeat:
My MIL is great at stockings. She often does a pair of knit gloves, hand sanitizer, chapstick, etc. but one of the biggest hits was little LED keychain lights. They are super bright (almost like a laser pointer) that my husband and his brothers LOVED. Simon would probably love it, too.

We always got new pencils, a notebook, new crayons, a toothbrush (but a cool one). Little boxes of sugar cereal were always special. As we grew older - music, books. Now as a grown up - seeds, candy, a bulb ready to be forced -- but I would be happy for pencils, crayons now too. :) Pez dispensers (and a refill). Silly socks. Coloring books. My mom works at the local food co-op -- so there was always random lotions and other things she collected from vendors over the year.

POPTARTS... we have a tradition at our house called POPTART TUESDAY... they are not a staple in our house unless it's tuesday, the kiddo's get them in their lunches on that day and Santa always leaves a package of poptarts in their stocking every Christmas Eve... there are gingerbread flavored poptarts but my kids are crazy for the brown sugar cinnamon. Also, my grandma always gave us a chocolate letter... our initial... we have a dutch specialty store near us that sells them. I remember as a kid thinking it was so cool to get a chocolate letter S!