Patch Voice: A Guide to Christmas With All the Stuffing

By Colleen Walsh Fong

Have you ever wondered how the practice of filling Christmas stockings got started?

This is one tradition I didn’t really get it when I was a kid. Not that I was turning down any extra little goodies, but it seemed kind of odd. For one thing, we didn’t even have a fireplace until we moved to a new home when I was 8 years old and you were supposed to hang your stockings by the fireplace with care. So we just hung ours up along the staircase to the second floor. For another, why put stuff in socks--or in our case decorative felt stockings with our names on them? Why not just add them to the pile of loot left out by Santa for us to find at ridiculously pre-dawn hours?

The jolly old man left the goods unwrapped and under the tree in our house. If I’d had 6 kids I wouldn’t have wrapped them either. But I think my Dad spent many a Christmas Eve assembling things there’d never be time to wrap. And the individual stacks were labeled just to make sure one of us didn’t stake a claim on the wrong pile. I would have, too, if I could have gotten away with nabbing my sister’s Venus Paradise Color-By-Number set. I coveted that for years.

Our gifts were always of the off-brand sort, and the piles tended to be small. But I was shocked into gratitude when I learned that children in some countries received all of their gifts in their stockings. My little pile of loot suddenly felt huge by comparison and my Santa seemed really generous.

But back to those stockings. The predominant theory of the origin of Christmas stockings centers around St. Nicholas, Bishop of Myra. Hold onto your socks. It’s a long and dubious tale. It seems the Bishop helped a poor family who lacked the dowry money to ensure their three daughters could marry. St. Nicholas decided to make an anonymous donation in order to protect the needy family’s pride. So he waited until the fire had died and the family was deep in slumber, and tossed three bags of gold down the chimney where they landed in the stockings the three daughters had coincidentally washed and left to dry in front of the fireplace. Even as a kid I didn’t buy the story, but if its result brought me a little more loot I could pretend as well as the rest of the kids.

I never knew what I might find in my stocking, but there were usually some unshelled nuts, a tangerine, and a candy cane, and then maybe a few necessities or two, like a pair of tights and an emery board. Not a lot, but still better than the remaining 364 days when I got no stockings except for the real ones I needed to wear to school.

So when it came time for me to play Santa and select my children’s stocking stuffers I had to study up on the going rate of stocking spoils. According to my kids their friends were getting all kinds of amazing things in their stockings. A quick chat on the bus stop one morning put that myth to bed. But I learned that kids were definitely doing way better than my generation in the stocking department.

I also learned that lots of parents—and no offense guys, but mostly the males ones—struggled with stocking stuffer ideas. So if you find yourself in the position of being the stuffer of your family’s stockings, here are a few possibilities. And guys, if you don’t remember it’s your job to fill the stockings at 10 pm on December 24th, many Walgreens and CVS stores are open 24 hours or at least until midnight, and you can find most things on this list there. And here’s another handy tip: don’t forget that Mrs. Claus might like to find a few little Christmas treats in her stocking, too.

Younger Kids:

· Slinky

· Plastic Snow Globe

· Candy

· Hand-held Electronic Games

· Travel-sized Board Games and Puzzles

· Pick-Up Stix

· Trading Cards

· Mini Lego Kits

· Costume Jewelry

· Silly Putty

· Mini Etch-a-Sketch

· Glitter Glue

· Markers

· Crayons

· Inexpensive Watch

Middle School/High School Kids:

· CD’s, DVD’s, or iTunes Gift Cards

· Starbucks, Movie Theater, Target Gift Cards

· Sunglasses

· Sunglass Neck Strap in School Colors

· Candy

· Nail Polish

· Manicure Kits for Men or Women

· Video Games

· Lip Gloss or Burts Bees Products

· Warm Socks

· Slinky (Good throughout lifecycle for the XY Chromosomers)

· Key Rings for That Car They Aren’t Old Enough Yet To Drive

· Gender Appropriate Cologne

· Ear Buds

· Name Brand Cell Phone Case

· Cash

College Aged Kids:

· Fancy Wine Stoppers

· Wine Pearls

· Beer Can Openers

· Koozies

· Sunglasses

· Sunglass Neck Strap

· iTunes Gift Card

· Video Games (Yes, still)

· Slinky (See above)

· Good Chocolate like Godiva, Lindt, or Ghiradelli

· Name Brand Watches (Probably not available at drug stores)

· David Yurman Jewelry (See disclaimer above)

· Name Brand Cell Phone Case

· Ear Buds

· Gift Cards

· Key Rings for That Car They Wheedled Out of You

· Cash

Men:

· Golf Balls and Tees

· Gift Card for a Round of Golf

· Tickets to a Sports Event or Concert

· Nice Watch

· Manicure Kit

· Eye Mask

· Video Games (Yes, still)

· Slinky (See above)

· Quality Men’s Cologne

· Any Expensive Electronic Device that Will Fit (Probably not available at drug stores)

Women:

· Hand Lotion

· Nail Polish

· Nail Accessories

· Sleep Mask

· Facial Mask

· Soap

· Gift Card for Massage

· Gift Card to Her Favorite Clothing Boutique

· Good Chocolate

· Sephora Gift Card

· Real Gemstone Jewelry (If it’s available at the drug store you’ve got the wrong stuff).

When you’re out of time even for the drugstore, or you just want to augment your goodies with a few virtual items, take to your computer. Anyone with an email address can receive electronic gift cards.

Ebooks--especially my Easy Weekly Meals touchscreen cookbooks--make wonderful virtual stocking stuffers for anyone who needs to prepare delicious, healthy, and easy food. Check one out for the chefs on your list. (You didn’t really think you’d get out of a plug for my wonderfully easy and fabulously affordable touchscreen cookbooks at the prime spending time of year, did you?)

Stuff your stockings well this year, and add some virtual “stuff” to your giving too.

Colleen is a freelance writer specializing in producing custom content for businesses.

Featured Image Courtesy of Stuart Miles / FreeDigitalPhotos.net