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Christmas stocking gift ideas

I always used to struggle filling up my children’s stockings.  It is not always easy looking for small gifts that easily fit.  I still have younger children in my family and I absolutely love to put together a stocking for them.

There are so many options for what to put in a Christmas stocking. The traditional approach to a Christmas stocking for kids is to fill the toe of the stocking with either an easy-peel orange or satsuma, or a Terrys chocolate orange.

Other ideas include adding the traditional gold coins which you could do by adding in a small bag of chocolate coins or even some money.

Putting together the stockings at Christmas is one of my favourite Christmas activities and these little. nik naks are always really appreciated sometimes more so than the big expensive items.

Last year I went on a Christmas Stocking mission and this is what I have come up, hopefully this will help give you a few more ideas.

  • Scratch card
  • Gift cards
  • Lego min figure
  • Plasticine pack
  • Hair bobbles
  • Hair clips
  • Match box car
  • Pen
  • Pencil
  • Rubber
  • Money
  • Key ring
  • Socks
  • Tattoo
  • Stickers
  • Glow sticks
  • Card game
  • Glitter
  • Badge
  • Nail polish
  • Funky tooth brush
  • Bouncy Ball
  • Marbles
  • Christmas earrings
  • Nerf Bullets
  • Chocolate
  • sweets
  • Candy Cane
  • Book mark
  • Bag decoration
  • Small action figure

Don’t forget some adults love a Christmas stocking too. For adults, stocking fillers could be chocolate, some fruit, something useful like socks and maybe some mini perfume samplers or skin creams to fill space. You can also be a little cheeky and add a cocktail can to start the festivities.

The 5 gift rule

The 5 gift rule is a useful way to plan buying gifts. This is particularly useful if you are buying for children or a large family. The 5 gift rule helps you plan for a variety of different types of gifts whilst keeping the number of gifts sensible.

For presents the general 5 gift rule is:

  • 1 thing they want
  • 1 thing they need
  • 1 thing to read
  • 1 thing to wear
  • 1 thing to do

Hope this has given you some stocking inspiration don’t forget my Christmas Calendar countdown is now available.

Happy Christmas Planning

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Christmas present hiding

Hiding Christmas presents is something I have to think about every year. I like to be super organised and start my Christmas shopping as early as I can, the summer sales can be great for picking up bargains but my issue is where do I hide them?

I always have to think of clever ideas where no one in my family will be quick to look. I also have to remember where the hiding spots are.

Being organised is always the key with Christmas.

I am sure some of us as children we went off looking for Christmas presents, you may even as gone as far finding them and then opened up your presents to see what was inside and then quickly stuck it back together again. Naughty Naughty!

I have come up with a list of places that you can potentially use as hiding places. But make sure you keep a list of what you have brought, who you have brought for and where you have hidden the present.  Print of my trackable printable to help you keep track of your Christmas shopping.

I have been known to hide presents to well and then I can’t actually find them when it comes to wrapping them up! Not a good move.

My top hiding places are

  • Garage or shed – Hide them in empty boxes or thick bin bags.
  • Laundry Basket – Hide items in a disused pillow case and then leave this at the bottom of the ironing pile.  I mean in my house I tend to be the only one who does any ironing so the chances of anyone looking here are very slim.
  • Suitcase – The holiday suitcases have been put away and are no longer in use so this is the perfect place to hide items
  • Family – Use the family for deliveries and to hide items, they may have a spare room where you can leave items that no one will see. This is good for larger presents such as bikes.
  • Car boot – If you have a boot tidy in the back on your car this is another great hiding spot but always ensure you lock your car.
  • Empty shoe boxes – You may have a few of these in the bottom of your wardrobe so empty out the shoes and fill the boxes with presents.
  • Loft – Perfect place that children will struggle to get into.
  • Plastic Tupperware tub – We all have quite a few of these in the kitchen cupboards, keep a few empty and use these to hold small gifts.
  • Filing cabinet – If you have a home office the filing cabinet is a great place as this can also be locked.
  • Ottoman – Mine is full of bedding and towels so I can hide items in between.
  • Underwear drawer – This is a personal space where no one should go so hide a few items in here.
  • In books – Gift cards, iTunes vouchers can easily be hidden within a book

I hope I have given you a few ideas to make your Christmas present hiding a little more stressful.

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