Looking For Non-Toy Stocking Ideas

My kids go crazy for office supplies: rubberbands, mechanical pencils, clips,lead for the pencils, sticky notes (they make flip book cartoons with them). They also have loved craft supplies like gumdrops and toothpicks (building material for fantastic buildings/bridges), tape!!!, popcicle sticks, googley eyes, pipe cleaners, foam pieces, etc. My kids also get totally geeked out about even the smallest amounts of money-so they like quarters, a rolled up dollar... Always we do fun toothbrushes and chapstick. Flashlights, comb, mirror, small family photograph framed, sports equipment, fishing gear, and my very favorite-$5 gift cards for ice cream, McDonald's, a movie ticket, etc. Have fun!

Our 2 1/2 and 4 year old boys are getting finger paints, water colors, paint brushes, letter-shaped paint sponges, chalk, and washable dry erase markers in their stockings. Another idea for kids' and grandparents' stockings is to buy two copies of a book, one for the child and one for the grandparent to read over the phone. Our boys love following along in their books while Grandpa, who lives out of town, reads bedtime stories via speaker phone.

believe it or not, toothbrushes. we're big Green Bay Packer fans (living in OR) and have gotten my older son (who is Simon's age) GBPacker toothbrushes. flashlights to be used while camping, bike lights or those glow-in-the-dark bracelets/sticks that glow when you bend them (also good for camping).

Always add: lip balm - specifically - L'Occitane's
a tree ornament and unusual bath things !

My 5yo loves carrying a notebook around and writing notes and stories. I hit the dollar aisle and found notebooks, pens, pencils and stickers.

What about a personalized cd of their favorite song or an imix off of itunes? I'm including a free game of bowling, flashlight and of course, tape! Kids do love tape!

my mom (and now I do it too) always filed my stockings with art supplys - new pens, pencils, crayons, stickers, little books that were blank on the inside. Another tradition was to put in the stocking something to cook. I remember one year i got some blueberry muffin mix and some really cool muffin papers. i got to make them in between opening the stockings and opening the gifts under the tree. it was awesome.

I put in toothbrushes, toothpaste, bubble bath, bath crayons, those washcloths that expand when wet (from the dollar store), salami sticks, nuts...

Are you near an ocean? My kids recently did a message in a bottle - all you need is a bottle with a cork and some sealing wax to melt over it. It was lots of fun.

Socks are a standby for adult stockings in my family. Sounds so boring, I know, but who doesn't love a really good pair of socks?! :) A small ornament is nice too. I sometimes give a gift card to our favorite coffee shop for exactly the cost of our two favorite coffees so I can tell my husband it's just for the two of us (haven't done this for a stocking before, but for $5-6, it seems like a good stocking option).

I always get a flashlight from Mom - I was afraid of the dark as a child and so she always gives me one.
Also when I was a kid- we got stockings then ate breakfast then did presents- so my parents put something that would keep us busy for the morning. For me, it was always books. For my brothers, it was things that needed to be assembled like legos.

art supplies, school supplies they might have lost or be running out of, passes to an event, a special picture framed, a water bottle stuffed with goodies, a journal or notebook. My mom always re-stocked our make up in the stockings, but I later learned it was so we'd stop using hers. Christmas and easter, like clockwork, she got her makeup back.

We give them their own stash of AA/AAA batteries, ear bud headphones (because they never last long) and if I've signed them up for any community center classes in the next couple of months I'll make a certificate for that and put it in their stocking.

Oh yeah, and Burt's Bees Hand Salve. My parents and my husband's parents are all gardeners and outdoorsy types - we all swear by this stuff!

i always put a special hot cocoa mug in my childrens stockings each year they feel so special and love using their own special mug all year long and i include some fun hot cocoa for them i find unique packages of it at tj maxx!

There are some pretty cool USB keys out on etsy right now. I got my husband a Captain Kirk Pez dispenser made into a USB key. A bit pricey, but cool none the less. Also kitchen gear always makes an appearance in someones stocking.

i use to make handmade coupons for my kids--there were various kinds like, kiss me, hug me, love me, whisper in my ear, tug my ear--its great to come up with silly ones also--and i always put EXPIRES: NEVER! on all of them!!!

I got my son a Mentos spout. It's a spout you screw onto a 2 liter of diet coke, and you pour a pack of peppermint Mentos into the diet coke (the mentos comes with the spout) and it makes a geyser. Don't do it inside. The kids get a kick out of making mommy's diet coke explode. I got it at Michaels. Actually Michaels had a bunch of fun stocking stuffer stuff.

Socks & underwear.
Cool or fun notebook / pens / pencils.
Small bouncy balls, a favourite chocolate bar, bubble bath.
Lots of good ideas here!

My mom always does a theme for each of us even tho we are all grown up now and we still LOVE it! Last year, my husband got all different kinds of mini rum bottles, I got all different kinds of votive candles, my brother in law got different salsas, and my sister got nail polish bottles. Other years we have received hot sauces, bbq sauces, flavored tea, coffee, gum and mints, bath products, flavored oils, craft supplies, and tools, to name a few. It is always fun to see what our theme will be. She usually tries to keep it in tune with what were are into that year. For the kids, she buys toys and candy. She says it is her "Nana's Right" to buy all of that stuff.