Shopping for the big presents is easy. The big screen TV for your football lover, the VR headset for your gamer, the snowboard for your wintertime thrill seeker — those all are no-brainers. It's the little gifts that can be harder to hone in on.
Before you find yourself resorting to a pair of socks or impulse buys at the supermarket checkout, stop. You can do better.
Here are nine thoughtful stocking stuffer ideas that your loved ones will delight in pulling out of their stockings come Christmas morning.
Hand-painted Ornament
Christmas ornaments can run the gamut, from incredibly special and meaningful to fairly generic and forgettable — this one definitely falls in the latter category. The gorgeous collectible hand-painted glass ornament features a charming one-of-a-kind cardinal design by beloved artist Susan Winget, and it even arrives in an elegant keepsake box. This is one Christmas decoration that you'll have hanging from your tree year after year.
Hot Chocolate Tin Collection
If your Yule log has entered the digital age, then you'll need something to actually keep you warm while you sit around listening to the crackling sounds of fake flames. Nothing is cozier than a warm mug of hot cocoa on Christmas morning. (OK, maybe being wrapped in a Sherpa-lined blanket while sipping the cocoa.) This Holiday Hot Chocolate Tin Collection includes four festive tins, each filled with a different cocoa flavor (peppermint, white chocolate, milk chocolate, and caramel), making it easy to split between stockings. Just add warm water — not to the stocking, of course — to these mugs. Or, for a creamier brew, use warm milk. (Mustache not included.)
Chocolate Truffles
If you're looking to sweeten up someone's Christmas, look no further than this box of Limited Edition Holiday Truffles. Six different seasonal flavors, including gingerbread, candy cane, and crème brulée, all handcrafted in the Harry & David candy kitchen (their version of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory) perfectly placed in one little box. The chocolate lovers in your life will be thanking you all day (while they wipe the creamy chocolate off their face).
Gnome Salt & Pepper Shakers
We all know someone who loves to make their home a winter wonderland. What better gift for them than some winter-themed salt and pepper shakers? This adorable holiday gnome set will bring some cheer to any table throughout the holiday season.
Malted Milk Balls Jar
Does anyone really know what malted milk balls are? There's chocolate. There's some kind of crunch inside. The flavor is a bit nutty. Let's forget about those particulars and focus on the overall wonderfulness of these delightful gourmet malted milk balls, which come all snuggled inside a reusable quart jar. If you get these, go ahead and turn it into a challenge to see who can catch the most in their mouth. Guess what the winner gets? Another malted milk ball!
Santa Stocking & Cookies
This gift will not fit inside a stocking, but that’s OK because it is a stocking — one that comes already filled with, as the name suggests, cookies! A dozen buttercream-frosted holiday cutouts are stuffed in a stocking adorned with Santa's jolly face, a sprig of (fabric) holly, and a bell. You can try to find a more festive-looking gift than this, but we bet you'll come up empty (unlike the recipient's belly will be soon after they get this).
Coffee Assortment
While the kids are sipping on the aforementioned hot cocoa, their parents will be enjoying the wake-up juice you so generously gifted them. (And they'll need it after little Tiffany and Johnny woke up at 4:30 a.m. to start unwrapping their presents.) These exceptional coffees come in three holiday flavors: butterscotch caramel, toffee nut, and dark chocolate candy cane. After a few hours of the hurricane known as Christmas morning comes blowing through, those adults might want to consider making this cup of java a more potent one.
Cookie Dough Popcorn
It's almost impossible to describe how delicious this flavor of popcorn is, but we'll give it a go. The good folks at The Popcorn Factory start with cinnamon sugar popcorn — amaze! — then proceed to toss in mini chocolate chip cookie dough bites — our mouths are literally watering — then drizzle it all in white confection — swoon! — and, finally, top the whole darn thing with red and green sprinkles. Go back and read that again, and then tell us this isn't something everyone on your list would want to find in their stocking on Dec. 25. (You're lying if you say it isn't.)
Personalized Wine Glass
It's the time of the year when wine lovers break out the Beaujolais Nouveau (or another of their favorite wines), and there's no better way for the oenophile on your list to enjoy a libation than in a personalized, classic modern stemless wine glass. Each one is custom printed with up to three lines of text in your choice of font. With 24 design colors to choose from, it's easy to mix and match a couple or set of four to warm your wine drinker's heart on cold holiday nights.
AUTHOR
Jason Stahl is an Emmy Award winner who has reported on just about everything from the future of terrorism to North Korean tourism and why Las Vegas is great for kids. He’s interviewed countless personalities from Gene Simmons to Common to Sir Richard Branson. He’s held editorships at WONDERLUST, SPIN, Google, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, MSN News, NBC Sports and Centennial Media. Stahl’s the co-author of 20 Things You Didn’t Know About Everything: Duct Tape, Airport Security, Your Body, Sex in Space… And More. The aspiring deli man lives with his wife and son in Jersey City Heights where he operates Hank Schwartz’s Delicatessen & Appetizing.