What are you stuffing your DC's stocking with?

[new_mommy25]

I thought it would be fun to see what others are doing to get ideas.

This is what I have so far. I think I have enough. DS is 15 mo.
Thomas train
board book
kids bubble bath
raisin box
new hair brush
tube of tennis balls (will probably be the biggest hit)
set of 4 Melissa and Doug puzzles (Ross)
Animal crackers
music shakers and bells
toy cell phone (the flip phone kind)
ornament

*ideas*
If we didn't own them already I would buy Baby Einstein flashcards and washable Crayola crayons. I'm looking for a mini magna doodle.


Last Christmas DS was almost 4 months. He got:
board books
teethers
warm hat from Gymboree
small Tiny Love, Kids 2, and Lamaze toys (mostly from the Target baby aisle)

[jubilee]

Wow, your son's stocking must be big to fit all that in! My 20 month old will have the Gymboree Alphabet Soup finger puppet set, a 6" stuffed Brennan Bear from Baby Gap, boxes of raisins, and some Christmas Little People. That is all that will fit in his stocking! My almost teenager will get candy, beef sticks, a paperback book, a dice game set, etc.

[new_mommy25]

Lol, no the stocking isn't that big. Everything that doesn't fit inside will be on the side. When I was growing up stocking stuffers never had to fit exactly inside.

[wilelm]

Ours either. We didn't have a fireplace, so my mom hung them from the piano. Anything that didn't fit inside the stocking sat underneath on the piano.

Miriam is getting:
mini rainstick
train whistle
Oball
butterflute (little flute surrounded by a soft butterfly body)
doll bottles with milk and juice
microphone that echoes back her voice

Sheila
Mother of Miriam, 03/10/03 and
Had a name, but husband informed me suddenly he didn't like it anymore, due via c-s 12/30/04

[barbarhow]

Bubbles!
Bubble bath
soap crayons
an animal mobile
a top
a couple CDs
I can't remember what else
..........
We have a ton of stuff for him already-including a Kettler Air Jumbo-but DH informed me last night we need to get him more. Huh? He's always telling me to save money. Go figure.
Barbara-mom to Jack 3/27/03, a Red Sox fan
expecting #2, a Yankee fan, around 5/9/05!

[C99]

I have the following for Nate, who will be 23 months on Christmas day:
- train whistle
- set of LLABO train cars from IKEA
- small pack of Kinderbars
- 1 package of M&Ms
- clementines
- 4-pack of Tonka cars (like Matchbox cars, but a bit more cartoonish)
- tree ornament (I made this)
- white board markers for his easel
- bouncy rubber ball thing
- small, wooden spinning top

I had thought of bubbles and chalk, but I don't like to use them in the house and it's cold here.

[Raidra]

Colwyn will be 14 months at Xmas, and he'll be getting:

Bubbles
Kid sunglasses (so maybe he won't go for mine)
Play-dough
Board books
Thomas trains
Animal Crackers
Gerber Juice Snacks
Lollipop or Candy Cane

[brubeck]

Both kids (2 and 4) are getting:

bag of chocolates
Toy Story action figures
mini-size books (board books for DS, Peter Rabbit for DD)
alphabet placemat
Bob the Builder trains (for new train table)

Everything fits in the stockings. If it doesn't fit it goes under the tree.... or train table. :)

[kristine_elen]

Are we horrible? We're not doing stockings. I've been holding off doing things like this until he's old enough to understand it more. I figure there will be enough things I have to do along these lines that I might as well give myself a pass on the things that can slide for now. (We are getting him a present, though. And we had a party for his 2nd b-day, so I guess we're indulging some things already.)

[cchavez]

I'm trying to remember what I stuffed in his stocking.....

a mini magnadoodle
a child sized sports water bottle
a toothbrush
boardbook


I plan on putting cheetos and raisins in there too.

I know there is more but I just can't remember what else.

[C99]

Kristine,

In the family I grew up in, we didn't "do" stockings and I don't think any of us are worse off for having missed on the experience. So...I don't think you necessarily have to do them. In my husband's family, they have always done stockings, so I decided to just continue that tradition when we had kids of our own.

[MartiesMom2B]

So far Martie has the following in her stocking:

-bath fizzies that turn the water different colors
-2 Rolie Polie Olie washcloths
-A crazy straw
-a mini frisbee

Then I'm going to get her some paint with water books and some brushes and then get whatever I find for $10.00 at the dollar store.

Can I say that our tree is filled with a zillion gifts under it and only two presents are NOT for Martie. It's going to take her 3 hours to open up everything.

-Sonia

[MelissaTC]

I need to get shopping!

So far, he has 2 bottles of the fun antibacterial foam from Bath and Body. I buy him a new ornament every year but I already put it on the Christmas tree. We also bought him Bertie the Bus and Harold the Helicopter.

I plan to buy:

A couple of Matchbox cars
Fruit snacks (Dora or Winnie the Pooh...whatever is on sale!)
new toothbrush
bubble bath
Little People Christmas tube

[jamsmu]

We always got magazines in ours. DS will *hopefully* get a Sesame Street magazine (free subscription will *hopefully* arrive any day now) and--

* box of cheerios
* bag of goldfish
* bath toy
* new box of crayons
* coloring book
* new hat (his is a cheapie and it is ripping already!) and gloves to match if I can get my act together and get them.

[khakismom]

Kathleen's got:

*Tiny Barbie cup with some candy
*Lifesavers book of gummy savers (a tradition my parents put in my stocking ever since I was a kid)
*Angelina DVD
*Bottles for her baby
*Coloring book
*One-time-use Disney-princess camera (she asks for this every day and asked Santa too :))

Ellen's got:

*Small wooden puzzles (from Target's $1 area--which I LOVE!)
*Elmo DVD
*Lifesavers book of gummy savers
*Eric Carle book
*Bottles for her baby
*Bouncy ball

I still want to throw a few more items in their stockings--probably some cheap dress-up jewelry (Ellen *loves* her pearls! :D)

I have so much fun doing stockings for everyone--it's my favorite part of Christmas shopping. Last year I filled DH's, my brother, SIL, and parents with all kinds of little goodies and great gift cards (from Starbucks, Panera, Krispy Kreme, etc). Stocking stuffers are my favorite gifts to give!! :)

[tippy]

When do you hang your stockings and more importantly, when do you "give them" to your dc? We never had stockings growing up but when I visited Sesame Place this summer with DS I bought him the cutest Elmo Stocking. I'm just not sure what to do with it! :+ Any direction you can provide would be appreciated!

Teva
Mom to AJ born 1-8-03

[jubilee]

In my house, we hang empty stockings and "magically" they get filled after bedtime on Christmas Eve. As soon as the boys wake up, they will get to open their stockings and the one gift that Santa brings. That will tide them over for a while! Then it is shower and breakfast time. Then we open the rest of the gifts!

[new_mommy25]

When I was growing up the stockings were always hung. On Christmas Eve we would take our stockings down and lay them under the tree. In the morning they were full. The gifts were never wrapped and we were allowed to attack the stockings right away. We had to wait until everyone was up to open presents and the stockings would tide us over until then.

[new_mommy25]

Julie, we are always posting at the same time! We must be in similar time zones or you are just up late, lol!

[tippy]

Thanks Julie and Angie!
Teva
Mom to AJ born 1-8-03

[Joshuasmommy]

I love stocking stuffers, they are my favorite gifts!

Joshua will be getting:
Little People Christmas tube
2 Thomas trains
Teddy Grahams
washable crayons
Little people cars for his garage
books
maybe a dvd

[smomom]

Maureen - did you see the "pearls" on Target's $1 aisle? I saw some there this weekend.

[steph2003]

Kristine -
you aren't horrible or if you are then I am too! I'm at a loss for stocking stuffers for my 10 month old son. He won't understand what is going on anyway. I figure I'll stuff his stocking maybe starting next year? My family didn't really do stockings...sometimes we'd slip something in there if it was small enough to fit. Like last year my DH surprised me with a gift certificate for a prengancy massage he slipped in my stocking.

[MelissaTC]

My Mom would put them by our bed. When we woke up on Christmas morning, we were allowed to empty them. That had to hold us until everyone was awake to open presents.

We have ours hanging over the fireplace. I fill them as I go along because Matthew is too young now to understand. But once he is old enough, he too will put an empty stocking by his bed and hope that Santa fills it with great goodies!

[calebsmama03]

Timely list for me - I need to shop this week!

Angie - FYI they have the mini magnadoodle at Target, but it's called something else now (doodlepro maybe??) They're in the toy aisle with the playdough, etc and are usually hanging up. C got his for Easter (13 mos) and loves it! I love that the "pen" is attached, lol!
Lynne
Mommy to Caleb 3/3/03
http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbons/ribbon_emerald_18m.gif[/img][/url]
Oh my!! #2 5/05

[jubilee]

I am up late, always until 2am at least (insomnia). I'm on the West Coast. But since I can't be on a Hawaiian beach, at least I'm on Hawaiian time! :)

[deborah_r]

I have a "mini-magnadoodle" for DS. It is indeed called a DoodlePro, and it's made by Fisher-Price. It has a little clip on it for attaching to a backpack or something, but obviously DS does not take advantage of this feature. I found it at Toys R Us, and I had a hard time finding where they were recently (when I was looking to buy a big one because he loves this one so much) - they weren't with a lot of the other similar toys, but actually over in the "baby" section, near the corn poppers.

BTW, I picked up the Parents Magazine version of the MagnaDoodle at Target, and I returned it. I tried it out when I got home (the way it was wrapped I couldn't test it in the store) and the drawings were really gray, not like the fairly crisp black line you get with Magna Doodle.

I am so depressed because you guys all sound so organized. I have his Kettler, but it still needs to be assembled. I have the MagnaDoodle and the Little Tikes Workhorse, need to be wrapped. (I'm afraid to wrap and put under the tree, because when my MIL was here last week, we had a "mini-Christmas" and now he knows how to unwrap presents. So I figure I'll just have to keep telling him "no, don't touch".) And that's all I have so far, haven't even thought about stocking stuffers.

Question: When you all say you got "bubbles", is that the blowing kind or for the tub? I have the Gymboree bubbles, but I never let him do them by himself, so I guess I wouldn't think of giving that as a present for him. Can toddlers do those bubbles themselves? I tried to get him to blow, but he didn't get it.

[cinrein]

My Target has tons of the mini doodle pros and the big ones. I picked up a few of the big ones for gifts a while back for less than $8 each!

Cindy and Anna February 2003