Looking For Non-Toy Stocking Ideas

My mom always makes a christmas ball with crepe paper with little items rolled up into it along the way. You could put in the pieces for a small lego item to build something small for Simon. My girls always get small animals or tiny glass figurines.You just roll the items up in the crepe paper and keep on rolling and rolling as you go putting in one item here and there. It is a riot to watch the kids unroll these and see what will come out as they unroll it. I think these are a traditional English item?

Handwarmers were my stocking-find-of-the-day! I also try to always have one "real" gift (a bigger ticket item that's small in size tucked low in the stocking - for that "wow" factor!

This year tickets to the Wizard of Oz are going in. Getting rid of last year's toys made be rethink this holiday. Hoping not to just stuff with stuff.
Prisms for my little science kid.
A whole box of tissues for the baby to rip apart with out me stealing them away. He'll be in heaven!

I'm getting my 7 year old a self inking stamp with his name on it from EXPRESSIONERY.com this year. I'm sure he'll stamp everything he owns, but he's old enough to not stamp things that SHOULDN"T be stamped (walls, tables, etc.).

The kids have always been very nice and not snickered at it when they get things like toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant (for kids that don't use deodorant yet the roller body paints they can use in the bath tub) & chapsticks in their stockings - something that everyone needs or uses and you can find some interesting ones to share sometimes :-)

I always do toothbrushes, floss, and carmex. This year for my husband I also bought him one of those Bic lighters to help light the grill and woodstove. Usually something that can be used.
Always have some coal, too (LOL)!

When we were kids the best thing in our stocking each year were the package of personalized pencils our parents got with our names on them.
I often put mini photo frames in my kids stockings...sometimes with a photo or sometimes without so they can choose their own favorite photo to insert. I also often buy each a new music CD or book to read.

I like to add little edible treats, like chocolate covered popcorn or peanuts, special candy canes, small boxes of Godiva chocolate, or even a package of assorted tea or coffee flavors.

Movie tickets.

What a great list! I just bought beach towels with hoods (Christmas in Australia), but more generally thing that are needed and don't have the toy wow factor, we have had animal torches, labels for clothes and lunch boxes, was thinking batteries, some times clothes and hats. Recently read a post of someone bying all home made gifts, what about chutneys and hand made sauces etc for the adults.

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.