Category Archives: gift ideas

Gift Ideas for Middle-Aged Husbands

I would very much appreciate gift ideas for middle-aged husbands. Here are the ideas I have so far:

(image from UGearsModels.com)

A UGearsModels…model. He’s asked for a few of these over the years. It’s like a toy! (These are also good for teenagers who like building things.) Paul likes the ones that are sort of related to his job, so he can bring them into work and everyone geeks out over them.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Scale spoon? Literally I got a Facebook ad for this. It is a spoon that weighs things. The reviews are…mixed. But Paul lovvvvvvvvvvvvvves our kitchen scale and is constantly weighing ingredients, so I thought this might be fun to try. I ordered it January 10th and it is still not here.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Back-scratcher. Like, the more things he can do for himself, the better, is how I am feeling these days.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

The Happy Isles Magic Puzzle. I got this idea from Life of a Doctor’s Wife. I was partway through reading her post, and immediately departed to go order the puzzle, and then came back to read the rest of the post.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Mega Smarties. Just HUGE Smarties. He loves these things and will buy them for over TWO UNITED STATES DOLLARS PER ROLL at a local store. I know Buy Local is theoretically better than Amazon, but also TWO DOLLARS PER ROLL COME ON.

 

Gift Ideas for Teens and Tweens

After the joint stocking-stuffers-we-buy-for-ourselves post, commenter Jd said:

I would also like to suggest a joint what are you buying the teens or tweens in your life post. While I don’t mind when people add suggestions I’m really interested in what is actually being given this year.

And I saw that comment and IMMEDIATELY cut-and-pasted it into a new post so I wouldn’t forget. I like the distinction of “suggestions” vs. “what is ACTUALLY BEING GIVEN,” and I agree with Jd’s assessment: I don’t mind the former, but the latter is what I really want to know / what I really find useful.

I will go first.

(image from getshashibo.com)

Shashibo Cubes. It looks like these are almost sold out; when I ordered, there were maybe a dozen or more different ones to choose from, and now there are only a few. My 10-year-old nephew had these on his list, and I went to the site to see what they were and ended up buying one for William (20, so, not a teen, but close) and one for Edward (16). I still don’t really know what they are, but they look intriguing, and it is harder and harder to find Fun/Novel Toys for kids as they get older.

 

(image from Target.com)


Strange Planet t-shirt. I got this for Henry (14): he saw it over my shoulder while I was looking for something else, and he laughed, and I said “Would you want that shirt?” and he said yes, and this is not a very interesting story. I also bought it for my nephew (10), along with the second Strange Planet book (Target link) (Amazon link) (he already has the first one).

 

(image from Amazon.com)

I bought this cute budgie shirt for Edward. I was looking at it for myself, and he saw it over my shoulder, and this is not an interesting story either, but long story short he liked it and I bought it for him.

 

(image from OldNavy.Gap.com)

I also bought Edward an Old Navy sherpa-lined sweatshirt, because he loves cozy things. (I did not pay $50 for it; there was some sort of good sale at the time.)

 

(image from Target.com)

I don’t know yet which kid will get it, but I bought the book They Can Talk (Target link) (Amazon link) for SOMEbody.

 

(image from Target.com)

Elizabeth (16) had Trixie and Katya’s Guide to Modern Womanhood (Target link) (Amazon link) on her list. I have no idea what the content is like, but I found out recently that she’s watched all the available episodes of the TV show Sex Education, which I am almost too embarrassed to watch IN THE HOUSE BY MYSELF because it is so explicit, so I feel the “Might this be too shocking for her?” ship has long sailed.

 

(image from OldNavy.Gap.com)

Last year Elizabeth wanted flannel pajamas, and I got her some Old Navy ones on a good sale, and they were a big hit and she wears them all the time, including wearing the tops as shirts and the pants under her ripped-up jeans for warmth. So this year I got her a couple more pairs. They’re going in and out of stock, so if you don’t see the ones you want, it’s worth checking back later.

 

(image from HotTopic.com)

Elizabeth wanted a bunch of mushroom- and star-themed stuff. These Hot Topic mushroom earrings, and these mushroom rings, and this mushroom necklace. Some mushroom socks and star earrings that are now out of stock, which eases my pique about all these items being on a better sale right now than the one I bought them on last month.

 

(image from aeropostale.com)

These star earrings from Aeropostale, and I also got her the star photo-clip lights, and the celestial nail stickers and mushroom t-shirt that now seem to be sold out. It’s making me a little twitchy to see how much is sold out.

 

(image from Target.com)

And this super-soft star sweatshirt was on sale for Black Friday, so I bought that for her, too.

 

(image from Target.com)

Henry really likes red buffalo plaid, so I got him these sheets.

 

(image from etsy.com)

Henry had “ring” on his wish list. He already has this one in black with his initial on it in a fancy font, and he wears it all the time, and so I was just browsing Etsy looking for something he might also like, and this one made from a Japanese coin caught my eye.

 

(image from thebodyshop.com)


I got my niece (12) a selection of body mists from The Body Shop. I don’t know if she’ll like them or not, but it’s a fun gift to GIVE, anyway, since her mother and I both loved stuff from The Body Shop in our teens. And I was trying to think about what I liked at age 12, and some of my favorite gifts were the ones from my aunt who would give me the same gifts she was buying for her 16-year-old daughter, so I got things that were thrillingly too old for me, like a bottle of perfume I used to scent kleenex and stationery; a thin delicate gold bracelet I almost immediately bent out of shape; and an icy-pastel-button-down-shirt/hot-colored-sweater-vest/plastic-pastel-pearls combo that was EXTREMELY IN STYLE with older girls at the time.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

I got this fidget toy for a couple of the kids when it was on a Black Friday sale for $7-something.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

These popping fidget thingies are very popular at school right now. Elizabeth and her friends all bought matching ones, which is good because I could buy this 4-pack without having to decide which of my children I like least.

 

(image from Target.com)

Weird But True Christmas (Target link) (Amazon link) looks like it’s probably a little too young for my kids, but I got it for Henry’s stocking anyway. (I was very interested in a review of it, which pointed out that it can spoil the Santa myth if your kids still believe in that. That’s something I forget to consider.)

 

(image from Target.com)

This Starface gift set was more than I like to spend on a stocking item, even at the $13 sale price, but it doesn’t seem right to wrap an acne treatment set and put it under the tree, either, if the child hasn’t REQUESTED such a thing. So it’s going into Elizabeth’s stocking. She and I normally use little invisible circle treatment patches for pimples (I got very few pimples as a teenager, but perimenopause has welcomed them back into my life more regularly), but these go for a different approach: the patches are brightly-colored/holographic star shapes. If she doesn’t want to use them, I will.

 

(image from Target.com)

Similarly, even at the $10ish sale price, I don’t want to wrap shaving supplies, even a cute set of them, and put them under the tree for Henry (WHO NOW NEEDS TO START SHAVING, I say incredulously to those of you who have been here since he was a newborn). I consider this to be “stuff I would have just picked up for him at Target during a regular shopping trip,” but with a $5 upgrade to something more special, so it’s really just a $5 stocking thing.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

This Christmas kittens t-shirt was a BEFORE-Christmas present for Henry.

 

I hope lots of you have gift-buying reports, too; I need more things for Henry especially.

Stocking Stuffers We Buy for Ourselves

Commenter Angela asked:

Sometime can you do a joint what-to-buy-for-your-own-stocking post where everyone chimes in the comments? I would love to hear what other people do when they buy for their own stocking.

 

And I saw her comment and IMMEDIATELY cut-and-pasted it into a new post so I wouldn’t forget.

I will go first and tell you what I do. FIRST! I set up a non-see-through bag in a place (like a closet) where I can put the things that I buy for my own stocking throughout the year. The idea is that once I put them in that bag, I won’t SEE them again until Christmas, so I WILL be surprised by at least SOME of the things. This works best in years when we do not have a CONTINUING PANDEMIC and so I am shopping in stores regularly, and so some of the things I buy for my stocking might have been purchased 11 or 10 or 9 or 8 or whatever months ago and I have GENUINELY forgotten about them.

SECOND! My general CONCEPT is that whenever I am out shopping, and I see something relatively inexpensive that immediately appeals to me but I think “Oh, I shouldn’t”/”Oh, I don’t really NEED that”/etc., I NEXT think “STOCKING!!” and then I buy it and I put it in the Stocking Bag.

This can include ALL SORTS OF THINGS. Nearer to Christmas, maybe I see some cute shortbread cookies! Or some interesting candies! Or some expensive keto treat! Or any OTHER treat I want to try! Or things you would have bought for yourself ANYWAY, but the fun is having to wait for it! Buy it, and pop it into the stocking bag!

Further from Christmas, anything non-edible/non-perishable might be added to the bag. Pretty gift-tags on clearance in January! Cute notecards in February! I’m already bored with this pattern and am going to stop doing it by month! Conditioning hand masks! Interesting tea flavor! Fun lip balms! Pretty fridge magnets! Sweet notepad! Cute traveling pill case! Pretty earrings! Nail polish/stickers! Hair thingies! Things I wish to buy at craft/charity fairs! Just, throughout the year, anything you see where your heart reaches out for something and your mind says no—let another part of your mind say “But: stockings! It’s perfect for your STOCKING!” and buy it!

I am not saying spend a million dollars, or buy ALL the things I am about to mention—but I AM saying spend as if you were making a stocking for someone you loved. How much do you spend on your child’s/spouse’s/partner’s stocking? Spend at LEAST that much on your own. I add a fairly hefty “having to buy my own” tax on top of that, because it really isn’t right to have to fill our own stockings and we all know it—including the person who ought to be handling our stocking. Think of how much it would cost them to pay someone else to make a stocking for you; that’s how much you should spend on your own stocking.

So that is the GIST. And I find that once I get into it, I think of SO MANY GOOD THINGS. Today at the grocery store I remembered I usually I buy one of those bottled/canned coffee drinks, the ones that are $2-4 each. Sometimes I buy an individual can of an interesting-looking energy drink. This year I have already bought an oversized bottle of beer. (A post for another time: Swistle has discovered that she DOESN’T dislike beer, as she previously assumed; she only dislikes IPAs. She is VERY KEEN ON coffee stouts/porters, and is planning to venture out into NON-coffee stouts/porters to see if it’s the coffee part she likes, or the stout/porter.) Last year I bought the foot cream recommended by Nicole (HI NICOLE!), which I kept meaning to try and then kept not buying. (“Things you keep meaning to try but then keep not buying” is a FABULOUS category for stockings. A facial mist, perhaps? One of my friends highly recommends the Olly sleep gummies; that’s the sort of thing that if you were thinking “I don’t know…should I try them?” would be PERFECT for a stocking. Or perhaps the ones to make us EVEN MORE RADIANT AND EVEN MORE LOVELY??)

I almost always buy myself some socks. I’ll see a pair at TJMaxx/Marshalls, wool-blend and a pretty color, and into my cart they go. Or I’ll be shopping a good pre-Christmas Old Navy / Gap sale, and there will be some really nice cozy-looking socks, and I’ll think “I don’t really NEED any more socks…” and then I’ll think “STOCKING.” I also like the Goodfellow men’s boot/crew socks (I wear a women’s 10-11, so women’s socks are sometimes too snug), and just bought myself these cute stripey ones on sale.

Lip balms, especially fun ones! Face lotions! Hand creams, maybe a special one that comes in a smallish tube for the same price as a large bottle! A nicer conditioner/soap than I’d usually buy! A nice-smelling hand sanitizer, or an interesting one that claims to moisturize! Face masks, the rejuvenating/moisturizing kind but also the pandemic kind! Hand/foot treatments! A bunch of fun samples! Laptop/bumper stickers! Wee teensy pots of jam! New pens/pencils! One year I bought myself a reproduction jade salt shaker for something like $3.99 at HomeGoods, and I keep it on my desk. One year a toothpaste company put out toothpastes in odd flavors, and I bought a mini tube of each. This year Elizabeth has misplaced one earring each from two pairs of earrings I really like (I like the circles and the dark flowers; the others, I don’t really Get), so when I saw this morning that they were on sale, I re-bought them and I will put them in my stocking.

I take a few days off at Christmas, but I love keto treats, and they tend to be expensive, so I generally buy some for my stocking: some years Quest has put out seasonal versions of their bars/cookies (a peppermint-bark bar; a snickerdoodle cookie), and I love that. Or I’ll buy my favorite keto peanut butter cups or my favorite keto alllllmost-kind-of-a-Snickers bars. It’s nice to have them to look forward to in the days when the treats and festivities are over and it’s back to the usual.

I often get ideas while shopping for other people. One year my sister-in-law asked for facial mists, and I bought a couple for myself as well. There are two people dear to me who have birthdays in December, and it’s not uncommon for me to say “Oh! THIS is cute! One for them, and one for me!” Or I’ll see something that would make a great stocking stuffer for several people in my life, and I’ll get one for myself as well. Or an online order will come with a free sample, and I’ll put that in my stocking.

 

 

Okay! Now all the rest of you who shop for your own stockings (this is such a sad/happy club to belong to—but so much better not to be in it alone), please add your ideas!

Gift Ideas for Friends

I have a dear friend who has a birthday near the end of this month, and we like to exchange birthday gifts. We live far away from each other, and I think that makes it more challenging to think of gift ideas. If I were frequently at her house, or we were going out shopping or out to eat, I would constantly be collecting input: her kitchen is yellow! she likes pictures of dogs! she could use a new kitchen knife! she likes soaps that smell like treats! she mostly wears blue/purple/green! she loves caramel things! she accessorizes with scarves! she doesn’t drink coffee anymore! she likes to try new things! she loves cookies! she always picks up that cute mug but never buys it! she wears big earrings! her coin purse is boring!

But because we’re physically distant, I hear a lot about her inner thoughts and emotions, and very little about whether she drinks loose tea / is really into hand lotions / loves aqua / is always chilly / has too many notebooks / needs a new cardigan / wears stud earrings / can’t make herself spend $25 on that lipstick.

It’s okay, because we are at the stage of life where it doesn’t feel like it matters very much. I buy her some things I think/hope she might like (usually an assortment of smaller items, to hedge my bets); she does the same for me; if we fail, who really cares? We’ll donate or re-gift or whatever; and another nice thing about being physically distant is that we’re not going to notice that the picture isn’t on the wall / the vase isn’t being used / the clothing isn’t being worn / whatever. And so I consider this an entirely fun mission: find something she MIGHT like! or will at least enjoy opening!

This year I am in the mood for fresh ideas. I feel like too many years in a row I have gotten her the fun pens and the novelty sticky-notes and the book it turns out she’s already read. And YOU don’t know what she’d want any more than I would—but you’ll have a fresh batch of ideas, and also I thought this could end up being a comments section filled with ideas we ALL could use, not just for our distant friends having birthdays, but for the upcoming holidays. Just sort of GENERAL GOOD IDEAS for other people, or for ourselves. And they can be small or large, because sometimes I get her one bigger thing and sometimes I get her a collection of smaller things, and because we all probably have people at various price levels on our lists, and because we need stocking/fill-in gifts as well as main gifts.

I will mention a few things here, from things I have in various carts to consider and/or from recent orders, just to get us started:

(image from Amazon.com)

Giraffe drink stirrers. I bought these for Paul one year. They are just as whimsical/ridiculous as I’d hoped.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Ponytail holders with…those bead/ball thingies. The other day we were discussing whether middle-aged women could wear scrunchies the second time they came into fashion, if those women had also worn those scrunchies the FIRST time they came into fashion, and that led me to wonder if these bobble things still existed. I AM READY TO WEAR THEM AGAIN. (I would buy them for my friend, but she has sassy short hair dyed in fun colors.)

 

(image from Target.com)

Meri Meri enamel hair slides. Well okay here are super cute hair clippies perfect for sassy-short-hair-dyed-in-fun-colors.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Pom-pom earrings. I MEAN!!! This is stocking stuffers for six separate people right here!

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Vintage McCall’s Patterns notecards. I love these, but partly because I have happy memories of my mom using these patterns, and my friend does not have a good relationship with her mom, so maybe not.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Flower socks. So bright and cheery!

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Cat sticky-notes, if I HADN’T already done too many fun sticky notes, which I have.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Menopause: A Comic Treatment. This is on my OWN wish list, but I haven’t read it yet, so it seems risky to give to someone else until I have.

 

(image from sephora.com)

Tocca Discovery Set. I bought this for myself (If I spent $10 more on an order I’d save $10 on shipping, so it was basically FREE) (plus $10), and there was only one sample I immediately put into my “see if someone else would like this one, because I do not” pile. But I don’t know if my friend wears/likes perfume. See, that is something else I would know if we were in person more often.

 

(image from Target.com)

A New Day stud earrings. This is a set of three pairs of tiny, delicate stud earrings I impulse-purchased because I loved them instantly when I saw them at Target, and I had to look and look and look to make sure these were the same ones I bought, because they look so much worse when ENLARGED like this. In person the teensy circles are so tiny and delicate and sparkly! The teensy flowers are so tiny and delicate and dark! The teensy…whatever the third ones are…are so sparkly and delicate! I wear the circles and the flowers all the time! But I would never have bought them, seeing them like this. Still, she wouldn’t see them like this, she’d see them as I saw them.

 

(image from Target.com)

Starbucks Fall Blend coffee. All the special blends taste the same to me: fall, spring, Thanksgiving, Christmas—all the same. And I will buy them EVERY TIME. There is something so happy and heartening about using the Thanksgiving blend the week before Thanksgiving, and the spring blend when you are HOPING winter is ending and the tulips will be coming up soon. This is putting me in the mood to put together a care package type gift for my friend. With the unicorn hair clippies up above, plus maybe the stud earrings, plus the nail polish I am about to mention.

 

(image from Target.com)

Sally Hansen Insta-Dri nail polish in Cinna-snap. I bought this to get an order up to the $10-off-$40-of-beauty-products threshold, and I am wearing it right now and I really like it. It dried quickly enough, even with two coats, that I did not manage to scuff/nick it. It’s not as brown-red as I’d expected/imagined, more of a classic deep wine red I probably already own, but I do like it. Very nice for fall/winter.

 

(image from Target.com)

Suave Pink Honeysuckle travel hand sanitizer. This was another of the things I basically got for free by trying to get up to $40 of beauty stuff so I could get a $10 gift card. I am still giving everyone hand sanitizer as gifts, and I wanted to try out this scent before giving it to anyone. I like it! I don’t know if you’ll like it. I’d describe the scent as a clean/soapy/fresh floral. It’s a bit rich at $1.50 for a purse-size bottle, but nice as a fun stocking stuffer. (Hand sanitizer: a middle-aged woman’s idea of a fun stocking stuffer.)

 

(image from Target.com)

Burt’s Bees Ginger Lime lip balm. I don’t remember where I saw this mentioned as a highly-desirable and hard-to-find flavor, but no description could make something more irresistible to me unless it was also “limited edition,” so I bought one, and I do like it. (I also love ginger lime diet Coke, which I still have not seen since the pandemic got underway. Alas.)

 

(image from Target.com)

Dear little mug. This is not at ALL an expensive mug (two single dollars), but I find it charming to the point of being unexpectedly touching. (Or the Nope mug is an option, too.) I would pair it with the fall Starbucks coffee above, or with cocoa, or with tea.

 

(image from Amazon.com)

EuroGraphics Cupcakes puzzle. I LOVE this puzzle. I am not a person who does 1000-piece puzzles, and I don’t like DIFFICULT puzzles. But this is more the kind of puzzle where you can keep snapping in pieces at a satisfying rate, and where you can be like “Dibs on the Christmas tree cupcake!” or “I’m working on all the hearts!” or whatever. Note that the background color varies, meaning this is more like seven smaller puzzles. Plus: it looks delicious. (Similarly terrific: the doughnuts version. The background color difference is less obvious, but the dots ARE different colors and give important clues.)

 

(image from Amazon.com)

Wool-blend cat socks. I just ordered these for Paul’s sister, who loves cats and lives in a chilly old house. (I bought the snowflakes ones for her boyfriend and also for me, because I wear a women’s size 10-11 shoe so I usually find men’s sock sizes more comfy, and because I already have/love the more colorful ones.)

 

(image from decomposition.com)

Decomposition books. Oh my gosh! How does anyone CHOOSE?? I would buy these for everyone in my life if I could CHOOSE which ONES to BUY.

DIY Swistle Target Care Package

The Galentine’s Day packages are all done and everything has arrived, so now I will not feel like I’m spoiling any surprises if I discuss what was IN them. And also, this will enable you to assemble a Swistle Target care package for yourself or for someone else, if that’s something you would like to do!

I asked each winner these questions:

• Does the recipient drink coffee? tea? cocoa?
• Allergies / sensitivities / dietary restrictions?
• Prefer a sort of FOOD-BASED box or more of a NON-food-based box?
• Favorite color, in case something has a color choice?
• Would hair elastics or hair clips be of any use?
• Anything else that might be helpful to know?

and I used those for my starting point, for thinking about the person and getting an idea of them. Perhaps you will be a little irritated by the pervasive non-parallel structure of those questions, as I am, and yet not be motivated to fix them, as I also am not.

For MANY of the packages, I began by choosing a mug to contain the answer to the first question, and because mug-plus-hot-drink feels cozy and affectionate to me. This section of the post may be a little discouraging, because hardly any of these are in stock anymore. (Some of them may still be available in the actual Target store, which is where I found the first mug for myself after it sold out online.) But the way I FOUND these mugs was by searching “mug” and/or “OpalHouse mug,” and that is where I would start if I were doing this again: Target always has an assortment of cute mugs, and there’s no need to have These Exact Ones.

(image from Target.com)

My favorite color is green, and it’s hard to find things in green. So if someone answered that THEIR favorite color was green, I tended to choose this Cup of Happy mug, guessing that, whether or not they would have chosen this mug or its message for themselves, they would nevertheless enjoy its rare greenness. I also chose it for people who did NOT say their favorite color was green, just because I liked it and thought it was a pretty good cheerful mug for a care package.

More examples of mugs I chose:

(image from Target.com)

Hello Gorgeous mug. Friendly! Flattering! It doesn’t have to be weird that your mug is making a pass at you!

 

(image from Target.com)

You’re Doing Great mug. The one I sent had different colors/design, but that one is now out of stock, replaced by this one, and I would have just as happily sent this one if this were the one available at the time. This seemed like an especially good mug for a care package sent in These Uncertain Times, I thought. WE ARE DOING GREAT, CONSIDERING.

 

(image from Target.com)

This Is Going Well mug. I have this mug and enjoy it on days when things are not going well. (I also find this Nope mug persistently amusing, for reasons I can’t quite put a finger on.)

 

(image from Target.com)

Floral mug. This one wasn’t available yet when I was sending packages or else I definitely would have sent it in some of them. I include it now in case you are thinking of putting together a pretty Mother’s Day package for someone.

Next! I added the coffee and/or tea and/or cocoa to put INTO the mug. For coffee drinkers, I often chose this pretty bag of Starbucks coffee:

(image from Target.com)

It seemed so cheerful and hopeful to be talking about spring. If I were creating a care package at a different time of year, I would pick whatever seasonal blend was available at the time.

Or sometimes I sent this cold brew concentrate, either black or caramel, because that seemed fun and like something someone might not buy for themselves as easily as they’d buy a bag of coffee grounds, and because I was surprised it was available for shipping when it is so heavy and liquid.

(image from Target.com)

 

Sometimes I added some of these little flavored creamers I like:

(image from Target.com)

 

For tea drinkers, I liked to choose a Harney & Sons tea, because it comes in such pretty tins, and because it seems like the sort of thing a person might not just casually buy for themselves the way they’d buy a $2 box of tea at the grocery store. I chose WHICH tin based on (1) what the recipient said about tea (caffeinated/herbal, their usual preferred flavors, etc.) plus (2) what the recipient said about their favorite color. I would reluctantly allow the tea itself to outweigh the color of the tin, but it WAS fun when someone said, for example, that they liked herbal teas and the color green, and I could send them a perfect combination:

(image from Target.com)

But sometimes the fancy tin took up too big a chunk of the budget for a particular recipient (i.e., there were other things I MORE wanted to send them), or I had some other reason for wanting to send a different tea, so sometimes instead I sent one of my own less expensive favorites, such as probiotic tea in lemon ginger (tastes better) or lavender chamomile (more emotionally soothing).:

(image from Target.com)

Or one that isn’t necessarily one of my favorites, but falls firmly into the Fun To Try and Maybe You Don’t Already Have It category, such as Tazo Glazed Lemon Loaf.

(image from Target.com)

 

For cocoa drinkers, sometimes I sent a box of Lucky Charms hot chocolate, because I had just mentioned it in a post about some fun things I’d added to a Target order, and I thought that might have made other people interested to try it too. I chose this option more often if I knew the recipient had children because, for myself, I wanted to try one envelope of it and that was enough, and it’s nice to have children to surprise with the extras. I also chose it more often for recipients who seemed like they needed some fun/joy, because I found the entire concept delightful: the odd product combination! the little envelope of familiar cocoa, attached to a little separate envelope of cheery marshmallows!

(image from Target.com)

 

But sometimes instead I chose to send my new favorite weird fun-to-try hot chocolate, which is this cinnamon one I bought for pure novelty and am now on my second box of:

(image from Target.com)

 

And sometimes I added a bag of fancy Smashmallow marshmallows:

(image from Target.com)

 

Next! I added TREATS and SNACKS. Because this care package idea started as a Galentine’s/Valentine’s thing, I liked the idea of a box of chocolates; I often chose a box of Ferrero Rocher, which is one of my own favorites:

(image from Target.com)

 

For the earlier packages, I often included a bag of Valentine’s candy, like Valentine’s Hershey Kisses, but then those sold out. For a few, I included a bag of Cadbury mini eggs:

(image from Target.com)

Sometimes I included a box of this cookie-brownie mix, which is another of my own favorite treats:

(image from Target.com)

 

Sometimes a bag of kettle corn, which has been one of my dearest friends during this pandemic:

(image from Target.com)

 

And/or white cheddar Popcorners, another of my favorites:

(image from Target.com)

 

If the recipient was doing keto, I sent one of my own top favorite keto treats, these Quest peanut butter cups:

(image from Target.com)

 

NEXT! Fun little beauty/care items! Pretty much everyone got a nail polish. Sometimes I chose one based on the recipient’s favorite color, but otherwise I mostly chose this smacks-of-spring Lacey Lilac:

(image from Target.com)

 

I have one of these wee little pots of Vaseline lip therapy next to my reading chair, and I don’t stop being charmed by how wee it is, and I liked how the pink/rose thing fit into the Valentine’s/spring concepts, and so I sent out a lot of these, too:

(image from Target.com)

 

I had a lot of beauty face masks accumulating in the bathroom cabinet, and recently I stopped trying to save them for a special occasion (especially since I would never use them before a special occasion, just in case I might have an unexpected reaction), and just started USING them, so those were on my mind when I was trying to think of fun little beauty things. Sometimes I chose one based on the person’s favorite color, not because the color of a face-mask package MATTERS, but just because I think it makes your eyes happy if you open up a box and see a color you like, and because I knew I didn’t know what kind the person would want ANYWAY, so Favorite Color seemed as good a way to decide as any. Or I would choose a pink/red one, for the Galentine’s/Valentine’s theme. Or I would choose a hydrating option (because it was winter) or a lavender option (for stress) or a peeling option (for fun).

(image from Target.com)

 

I was going for a Tenderly Taking Care of You theme for these packages, and so I sent out a lot of my favorite Pond’s face cream:

(image from Target.com)

I love this stuff, and it feels like one of those products that endures because it just keeps being good. Products with charcoal or herbs or algae may come and go, and those are enjoyable too, but Pond’s just keeps being Pond’s and it’s comforting to use something so reliable.

 

I also sent a fair number of Thayer’s rose petal facial mists, which I use—among many, many other facial mists, because once I started acquiring them it was difficult to stop:

(image from Target.com)

 

Hand soap is a Love Language now, so I think every single person got one of those. As long as the recipient didn’t mention an aversion/allergy to scented things, I generally sent my own favorite, which is Everspring lavender bergamot, and I chose the foaming kind because it’s more fun and because that’s what I buy because it’s more fun:

(image from Target.com)

 

Toward the end of the packages, I stumbled by accident on THIS gorgeous creature, and chose it for I think every single one of the remaining packages:

(image from Target.com)

It’s ORANGE AND PINK! The tiger’s TAIL is on the back of the bottle!! It says “Be gentle with yourself” on the side!! What could be more perfect for Galentine’s Day???

 

Then it was a matter of adding miscellaneous things based on my sense of the recipient. SOME recipients became notecard twins with me (these cards are EXTREMELY MY VIBE):

(image from Target.com)

 

SOME recipients joined me on my current Trying Weird Cereals journey (I take one day off from keto per week, and the FIRST THING I eat on those days is CEREAL):

(image from Amazon.com)

 

SOME got cozy socks, until it started feeling too springlike for that:

(image from Target.com)

 

They’re out of stock now, but while I was still trying to find heart/Valentine’s items, SOME recipients got heart-shaped paper plates:

(image from Target.com)

and/or a heart-shaped melamine plate:

(image from Target.com)

and/or glitter heart stickers:

(image from Target.com)

and/or these heart baggies:

(image from Target.com)

Once the heart baggies sold out, I switched to sending these elephant/heart ones:

(image from Target.com)

 

When it became March and I switched from a hearts theme to more of a spring theme, I sent a lot of these spring floral string lights, which I also bought for myself:

(image from Target.com)

and one or the other or both of these spring bunny/floral melamine plates, which I also bought for myself:

(image from Target.com)

and sometimes the coordinating paper napkins:

(image from Target.com)

 

SOME recipients got fabric face masks, especially if it worked with their favorite color:

(image from Target.com)

(image from Amazon.com)

 

SOME recipients got a cheery dish towel. First I was sending out a heart-patterned one, but then that sold out, and then I was switching to more of a SPRING thing, so then I sent this one in yellow or occasionally in pink:

(image from Target.com)

 

If the recipient were a teacher, or someone else who would be doing a lot more hand washing/sanitizing, sometimes I sent moisturizing hand sanitizer:

(image from Target.com)

or a repairing hand mask:

(image from Target.com)

or an overnight hand treatment:

(image from Target.com)

or this Neutrogena hand cream, which is really good and I’d forgotten all about it:

(image from Target.com)

 

For recipients who seemed like they needed some color and fun, I sometimes chose this pack of bowls:

(image from Target.com)

and/or a pack of LED light-up balloons:

(image from Target.com)

and/or these little cuties:

(image from Target.com)

and/or this fancy little gentleman (they have new ones seasonally; search “Spritz bird”):

(image from Target.com)

 

I sent flower earrings once or twice, but then remembered not everyone has pierced ears, and some people have grabby babies, and etc., so I stopped:

(image from Target.com)

 

I asked the hair-accessories question mostly because of these spiral phone-cord hair elastics, which I have and love:

(image from Target.com)

and for this cheery springlike bow barrette, which I didn’t buy for myself at the time but now have added to my cart:

(image from Target.com)

[Hello, I am here from the future to add a note to myself, and to you, which is to use the search term “Bullseye’s Playground” on the Target site (and then, I recommend, sort price low-to-high). Tons of odd not-very-expensive interesting things such as animal-shaped planters, fake tulips, inexpensive yoga equipment, seasonal dish towels, cute dish cloths, pretty jar candles, wall stickers, fairy lights—a bunch of stuff I wish I’d seen when I was making the packages. And tons of things in MULTIPLES (four plants, three jar candles, four towels, ten fake tulips), which would be perfect if you were ordering things to assemble gift bags for local friends.]

Very Soft Gummies/Gumdrop Candy and Good Stain Removers

My brother and sister-in-law bought me several months of a Universal Yums subscription for Christmas, and I can HEARTILY RECOMMEND this idea. A box arrives FULL OF INTERESTING SNACKS from a particular country. Bubble chocolate! Veal-flavored potato chips! Stroopwafels! I sit down with the box and try a bite of every single thing, one after another, while reading the little booklet that describes what the deal is with each item. A DELIGHT.

Anyway, last month was Ukraine, and in the box were these fruit jellies:

(image from UniversalYums.com)

which I am delighted to discover I can temporarily order more of from the Universal Yums site, because I LOST MY FOOL MIND OVER THEM. I am not usually a fruit-candy person. I am not usually a gummi/gumdrop-candy person. But I ate these one after another, and made everyone else try them even though that meant fewer for myself, because I needed other people to agree how good they were. (No one else in my household was as enthusiastic as I was, though everyone said Yes, Mother, Very Nice.)

Here is what I liked about them: they are meltingly SOFT. Gummi candies vary in BOUNCINESS, and I do not like the bounce, and these have no bounce. Gumdrops aren’t very BOUNCY, but they tend to be FIRM, and these were not firm. Here is what I am wondering: do you know of other candies like this, but readily available in the U.S.? I have heard Haribo highly praised, but it is WAY TOO BOUNCY. (I do not CRITICIZE it for this: it is SUPPOSED to be bouncy. But I am looking for NOT-bouncy.) I have tried Sunkist Fruit Gems, and those are VERY CLOSE to what I’m looking for, but not quite soft enough, and also the flavors except raspberry feel like they’re burning my mouth with citric acid.

 

NEXT TOPIC. Stain treatments. I already have spritz-on stain treatments I like, but I wanted to ask if you have favorite add-a-scoop-to-the-whole-load-of-laundry kinds. My parents moved, and when they moved they left us a lot of cleaning supplies, and so I finished off their tub of Oxi Clean and I really liked having something like that to use, especially for reusable pads and so forth, but also to put in with the littler boys’ laundry, since at least one of them still wipes his face/hands on his shirt/pants. I am wondering if Oxi Clean is the well-established Best, or if there are others you would recommend.

Grocery Shopping Report; Galentine’s Day Gift Idea for Future Years

I went grocery shopping yesterday. They were having an issue with chicken nuggets again: almost the whole case was filled with one single brand of one single variety of chicken strips.

They had SOFTSOAP SOAP REFILLS. I have not seen those for nearly a year. They’ve had an Arm & Hammer brand refill that I’d never seen/noticed before the pandemic, but I tried it and didn’t like the scents at all (and they LINGERED ON THE SKIN), and I know that sounds a little picky, and if there’d been no other choice I would have used them and barely even complained at all, but I DID have other choices, and so I went with those instead, but they were more expensive than buying Softsoap refills, so anyway it was very happy to see them available again.

They had NAME-BRAND DISINFECTING WIPES. I have seen those only a few times in the last year. And I didn’t buy any: I have been scanning for them EVERY TIME, feeling anxious every time I didn’t find them—but when they had them, I thought, “Eh, we don’t need any.” Pandemic  Mental Weirdness.

They had lots of paper towels, enough to have a bunch of packages sitting on the floor of the aisle. Plenty of toilet paper.

The canned fruit is still weird: shelf after shelf of cranberry sauce and pineapple, maybe a few cans each of some odd varieties like Triple Cherry Fruit Cocktail, but nothing else.

Still no Grape-Nuts, but I’d found them at Target right before I lost the ability to order from Target (STILL NOT RESTORED BTW, WHAT IS THE EVERLASTING HOLD-UP HERE), and fortunately had ordered several boxes so we were all set.

Everything else seemed pretty normal. Oh: they don’t seem to have cut daffodils this year, at least not yet. Other years, they sell little packs of a dozen stems with still-closed flowers for $1.79, which makes them an amazing cheap date: I’d buy one pack each time I went grocery shopping (which used to be twice a week), taking out wilted ones as they occurred, so I’d always have a nice full bouquet in various stages of bloom. Anyway, I haven’t seen them yet this year. They did have cut tulips, but those are $6 a bunch, and also the cats chew on the leaves.

 

I want to tell you what I did for Galentine’s Day gifties this year! I couldn’t tell you before, because some of my friends read this blog and I didn’t want to ruin the surprise! But they were so extremely fun to put together, and I was happy with how they turned out.

Normally I feel as if most of us already have PLENTY of mugs, in fact TOO MANY mugs, and so mugs are kind of an iffy gift idea. But when I saw these mugs, I changed my mind:

(image from Target.com)

I wanted one for myself, and I REALLY DO have too many mugs, and I am at the point where I need to GET RID OF a mug if I get a new mug, so anyway that is how much I loved these heart mugs.

I put four 2-packs in my cart: there are eight women in my wine-and-appetizers group, including me, so that works out perfectly. I felt like I was really overdoing it to order in mid-January, and maybe I’d have another idea I wanted to do instead, so I thought I’d just wait until the next time I was doing a Target Pick-Up and add them to that order—BUT THEN THEY SOLD OUT FOR PICK-UP AND SOLD OUT IN THE STORE. In MID-JANUARY! So then I ordered by mail, and thank goodness I did, because later that same day they were SOLD OUT FOR MAIL ORDER!!! In, I remind you, MID-JANUARY.

And then they arrived, and one mug was broken. It wasn’t a total disaster: I still had enough for all seven of the women in my group; I just wouldn’t have a mug for me. This was very sad, especially because I WANTED to have matching mugs with all of them. Thus began a Shopping Obsession that lasted a number of days: I would check Target’s site multiple times per day, hoping the mugs would come back into stock. One day they DID!!!—and by the time I’d gotten my cart up to the minimum $35 for shipping, THE MUGS WERE OUT OF STOCK AGAIN. That was a dark day.

From then on, I kept a cart POISED AND READY TO GO, so that if the mugs ever came back again I could order IMMEDIATELY. And that day DID COME, and I ordered IMMEDIATELY—and then worried: what if they both arrived broken?? I had ONE mug to spare, but not two! I should have ordered an extra set. I will do that now. I formed another order, feeling ridiculous—AND THE MUGS WERE SOLD OUT AGAIN, AND THEY NEVER CAME BACK INTO STOCK AGAIN AFTER THAT. Happily, the two mugs I’d ordered arrived unbroken, so I had one for each of the women in my group, one for me, AND an extra, which I sent to my sister-in-law and it did not break in the mail!

So that is the story of the mugs. In the meantime, I thought about what to put IN the mugs. I started by putting in one individually-wrapped teabag each from some of the many, many kinds of tea I’ve acquired. (If I hadn’t already had all those teas, I probably would have bought a few kinds and put in a couple bags of each; I probably would have gotten the fun/yum/interesting ones like glazed lemon loaf, vanilla bean macaron, and wild sweet orange.) Then I added one packet of Swiss Miss Lucky Charms hot chocolate, one packet of cinnamon hot chocolate, and one package each of Starbucks Via instant French Roast and Italian Roast. The coffees and the cinnamon cocoa are sold in 8-packs, which was so perfect; I highly recommend forming a friend group of eight, to take advantage of this for future Galentine’s Days. The Swiss Miss was in a 6-pack, so I bought two boxes, and then I had enough for my four favorite children as well. (Actually I sent one each to my niece and nephew, and put the spare packets in the cupboard to let nature take care of it.)


(I wish I’d put one pink and one red mug in front, so it was easier to see both kinds. BYGONES.)

I put all the little drinks packets into the mugs, then put the mugs into little Valentine’s Day gift bags I’d bought on clearance last year, with a sheet of Valentine’s Day tissue paper also bought on clearance last year. Then I tucked in individual packets of cookies: Pepperidge Farm Mint Milanos and Famous Amos. And then a few Dove chocolates, just to fill in the cracks.

I was going for sort of a “hot drink and little treats”/”tea party” concept, and I was happy with how it turned out, and my only regret was not ordering MORE MUGS and doing MORE OF THESE for MORE FRIENDS. I was thinking only of my wine-and-appetizers friend group because that’s the group that’s done Galentine’s Day parties in the past—but I also have OTHER friends, and it would have been fun to drop off little gift bags at their house, too! Especially in a pandemic! Well. There is no Happy Story of Happiness I cannot find an element of regret/sorrow in, apparently.

Gift Ideas for Medical Staff: Follow-Up

I am so glad and grateful that Beforetimes Swistle was the kind of person who couldn’t resist buying that cute box of Christmas cards or that cute roll of wrapping paper even when technically she already had more cards and paper than she needed, because that means Pandemic Swistle did not have to go out to buy either cards or paper. I am down to the scraps of wrapping paper, but frankly probably still have enough cards for another whole year.

Thank you for all your input on gifts for medical staff—even, unexpectedly, thank you to the people who ignored the pretty specific instruction to NOT tell us what gets thrown in the trash: in normal times, I don’t want to hear that a team tosses all homemade food because they’re assuming their patients live in disgusting squalor or whatever, but IN A PANDEMIC it turns out I DO want to hear that some medical establishments have PANDEMIC rules that mean they are required to throw away food. (And the TONE of those two types of comments is so different that the making of the latter type of comment doesn’t feel like it breaks the rule against the making of the former type, and it is so pleasing to have a comments section intuitive enough to instinctively understand that.) I absolutely don’t want to spend eighty benevolent dollars on Kringles just to have the Kringles literally thrown away, and was glad to feel saved from making that potential disheartening mistake.

But…is there no better way to handle this, considering we are NOT seeing any evidence that the virus spreads by two people each taking a slice of danish an hour apart? IS that really different than two people picking up a snack-size bag of cookies an hour apart? Wouldn’t “standing around a basket of individually-wrapped items” be exactly the same as “standing around a plate of cookies,” and wouldn’t we just avoid both of those standing-around situations? And aren’t we talking about trained medical professionals who know not to touch and breathe on every portion before selecting one? Must we really THROW AWAY perfectly safe and edible food? “No one gets anything and the food is thrown into the trash” doesn’t seem like the FIRST AND ONLY solution that should occur to us. I don’t have any sort of medical degree, but I can think of two possibilities:

1. Have one trusted staff person designated to carefully wash hands and wear gloves and then divide up brought-in communal food into baggies or onto plates or whatever, so that it is now individually-portioned.

2. If for some reason that can’t work (I can’t think of any reason that can’t work), AT THE BARE MINIMUM an entire food item could be sent home with one person, and then the next entire food item could be sent home with another person. It could be done by drawing names out of a hat, and could be considered a Fun Pandemic Holiday Raffle.

 

Anyway. That’s kind of a lot of attitude in those paragraphs, considering how much fun I had choosing individually-portioned things, and how happy I was with what I chose:

I started with a base of individual coffee drinks: four 4-packs of canned Starbucks drinks, one pack of each flavor available: espresso & cream, espresso & cream light, black, and mocha. I considered the 4-packs of glass-bottled Starbucks drinks, which I find very satisfying (they come in more treat-like flavors than the canned drinks, and I use the empty bottles as small vases), but I felt uneasy about transporting breakable stuff / bringing glass into a hospital, so I just went with the cans.

Having four packs of drinks made me feel inclined to choose four packs of snacks. I went for a variety of types: salty Gardetto’s / Chex Mix / Bugles mix, sweet Pepperidge Farm cookie packets, sweet fudge-dipped mini Oreo packets, and hearty Caramel Cashew trail mix packets. I was fairly limited by what was available for curbside pick-up, but that kept me from getting bogged down in choices. I placed the order, went and picked it up, and brought it with us to the appointment. It all fit in two of the handled paper bags the curbside grocery store has been using, so I could write “Happy Holidays to Pediatric GI from the Thistles!” on both in Sharpie marker. I gave the bags to one of the nurses, figuring (1) she knows where food for the whole department is supposed to go, and (2) if for some reason the food CAN’T be shared department-wide, the nurses are the people we spend the most time with and have gotten to know the best, so I’d most want them to have it.

It turned out that our hospital doesn’t have a policy about non-individually-packaged food: I heard the nurses discussing an apparently impressive cookie plate a co-worker had brought in. But since they were also talking about how they were going to get through everything before it went bad, I was still very glad I’d brought individually-packaged, shelf-stable stuff: it can easily be set aside for a time of fewer cookie plates. It’s the kind of idea I may want to continue to use after the pandemic—especially since it really was fun to CHOOSE things.

Gift Ideas for Medical Staff

Last year I wanted to bring some sort of holiday gift to the pediatric GI department where Edward gets his Remicade infusions. We are there for hours and hours each time, and it used to be every 7 weeks but now it’s every 5 weeks which is basically once a month, and it’s been years now so we’ve gotten to feel warmly about everyone there.

But I couldn’t decide what to bring. The nurses are always talking (amongst themselves, I mean, not to us, but the nurse’s station is right outside the door so we can hear them) about how they have to eat better and exercise more, and also I imagine that MOST people who bring holiday gifts would bring treats? Perhaps I am wrong. But I know Paul’s office is always just FULL of treats in December. (But probably not this year, with the pandemic.) I would love to bring treats if they’d love to have treats, but I don’t want to BURDEN them with treats. And in a pandemic there is the additional issue of whether they’d feel comfortable with food brought in, even though (1) the overwhelming evidence seems to be that food does not pose a threat, and (2) I’d be bringing something made by someone else—like treats from a bakery or grocery store.

Anyway, last year I got overwhelmed and did nothing, and felt at peace with that decision until AFTER our December appointment, when I wished I’d powered through it and done something, ANYTHING. Holiday tasks feel overwhelming beforehand and wonderful afterhand, in my experience: like, even when it’s NOT in a pandemic I always dither and fret about the mail carrier, and I always feel SO HAPPY AND GLAD after I’ve put the gift card in the mail box. So I made a note for this year to DO SOMETHING FOR THE PEDIATRIC GI DEPARTMENT.

Here are the things I’ve considered:

1. Grocery store fruit tray. For $20-25, I can get a nice big tray of assorted fruit, which should feel somewhat treat-like while still fitting into most people’s eating plans, and without adding to the possible overload of cookies/bars/etc.; I could add a container of caramel dip and a container of chocolate dip, or anything else I see sold by the fruit trays, to increase the treatness for anyone who would LIKE to increase the treatness. Downside: fruit this time of year may not be terrific and it doesn’t last long; also, I’d have to go to the grocery store to get it (I’m okay with that, but in a pandemic anything “going inside a store” has to count as a downside).

2. An order from O&H Danish Bakery. A dear friend sent me two of their Kringles, and they were SO DELICIOUS AND FUN. They’re big oval ring-shaped danish, and you cut off pieces and eat them. And they freeze gorgeously: I cut a bunch of pieces and put them in baggies in the freezer before my children could locust everything up, and I took out a piece every afternoon to have with my coffee, and it was glorious. Anyway, I could send the department a few Kringles, or there are also other holiday packages involving, say, two Kringles and two coffee cakes, things like that. Downsides: could possibly be adding to burden of too many sweets/treats; also, rather expensive. Upside: they’d be shipped, so they’d arrive as a surprise and I wouldn’t have to be there! (I don’t like the part where I’m bringing in things and people might feel they have to make a big deal about it, and in the case of our Remicade appointments different people keep coming into the room so maybe they’d ALL say something, and it’s so agonizing.)

3. An order from See’s Candies. This is another of my own favorite special treats, and I feel like I could put together a nice selection of chocolates and candies. Downsides: again, expensive and adds to potential overburden of sweets. Upside: again, SHIPPED, so I don’t have to be there; also, they keep for a fairly long time, so they wouldn’t have to be eaten at the same time as any other possible resident treats.

4. A bunch of assorted things that I can get with Drive-Up at Target: basically the pandemic care package concept. Like, what about some of those four-packs of bottles/cans of Starbucks coffee? And a big parcel of those snack-size chip bags! And some packs of festive Milano and/or Pepperidge Farm cookies! And some hand lotion! And so on. Upside: this would be super fun for me, and everything would KEEP really well in case they didn’t want it now. Downside: heavy/bulky to lug through the hospital; also, I was estimating the cost and it would be comparable to the Kringles/See’s ideas, but for something that doesn’t seem like it has the same impact.

 

Do you have other ideas? And I hope we can all remember that, as when discussing teacher gifts, no one likes to hear their careful and lovingly-intended ideas called “crap” or “junk” or  “a waste” or whatever, and that too much of that kind of talk makes people just give up and do nothing instead, and with bad unfestive feeling about it too. And also, we should all keep in mind that there is no single Right Answer that meets every department everywhere: for example, some departments get too many sweets and feel burdened, while others hardly get any and would greatly enjoy getting more. So if for example you are or know a nurse, perhaps you could list things your/their department would love to receive, rather than dishearteningly listing all the stuff that gets thrown in the trash immediately. And if you have brought gifts to medical staff in the past, I hope you will feel free to say what you decided on, without this cautionary paragraph making you feel self-conscious that other people will criticize it.

 

Follow-up!

Stocking Stuffers in a Pandemic

I have turned my mind to the issue of the kids’ stockings, and I guess Paul’s and mine too, but I feel like Paul and I could have some pretty sub-par pandemic stockings and not really worry about it, whereas more than one kid has commented in the past that they almost like the stockings better than the gifts.

Normally I shop for stockings bit by bit, when I’m out and about anyway. Maybe I’m shopping with my sisters-in-law after Christmas and find some good stocking stuffers on clearance and set them aside. Maybe I’m shopping with my mom at HomeGoods and we find some fun gadget or useful little item. Maybe I find some nail polish or earrings or socks and set them aside. And I fill my own stocking by seeing little things I want while out shopping, and thinking “Yes, but do I really NEED that?,” and then thinking “OH I can get it for my STOCKING!”—and then tucking those things aside in a bag in the closet, without looking into the bag as I add each new thing—so that things I bought earlier in the year are genuine surprises. Then, closer to Christmas, I buy a whole bunch of candy and snacky things to fill in the gaps, plus useful supplies they need anyway (socks, hair elastics, new toothbrush, anything anyone puts on the shopping list during December), plus little bottles of interesting boozes for the grown-ups.

But this year I am not shopping as I normally would. I do have a few things I bought on clearance back before the pandemic started. But everything else feels WAY more difficult, because I have to THINK OF the thing and go looking for it online, rather than letting the ITEMS find ME. And I haven’t been finding things on clearance all year, as I normally would have. And searching “stocking stuffers” brings up a lot of stuff in the $20+ category which…is not how we do stockings. And I think this is going to end up meaning that this year’s stockings will be heavier on candy/snacks, lighter on everything else.

Here’s what I’ve been finding online, in addition to what I’m already considering from the post about Paul’s sister’s stocking box:

 

Holiday Fruit Snacks:

(image from Target.com)

(or if you need more, there’s a 28-pack box). It’s rare to find something packaged with the same number of items as I have children! I bought two 5-count boxes, because the kids all like fruit snacks; if I’d seen the 28-count box, I probably would have ordered that instead BUT OH WELL. [These have arrived, and it is only 1/2 ounce per fruit-snack packet, so now I definitely wish I’d ordered the 28-count. I might order those TOO.]

 

Cute hot chocolate:

(image from Target.com)

 

Interesting hot chocolate:

(image from Target.com)

 

Duke Cannon soap for Paul:

(image from Target.com)

These giant bars are his favorite soap. They also have Big Ass Lump of Coal and Frothy the Beerman.

 

Rice Krispies treats:

(image from Target.com)

I panicked and bought five of these, then realized I could have bought a 32-count box of minis for much less money per ounce.

 

Razors for the college boys: disposables for Rob and refills for William.

(image from Target.com)

 

Shaving cream for the college boys:

(image from Target.com)

 

New hair brushes for Henry and Rob, because theirs are gross:

(image from Target.com)

 

Hair elastics for Rob, Elizabeth, Henry, and me:

(image from Target.com)

 

Scrunchies for Elizabeth:

(image from Target.com)

 

If you have a number of people who would enjoy scrunchies, may I recommend this bizarrely inexpensive set of 40, which sells in the $8-10ish range?

(image from Amazon.com)

Elizabeth wanted to buy them with her own money a year or two ago, and I was all, “Oh, honey, at that price those are not going to be any good”—and I was completely wrong, and Amazon tells me I have bought them FIVE TIMES now (they’re great to donate for fundraisers/auctions).

 

Similarly, this surprisingly inexpensive set of pom-poms to clip onto backpacks:

(image from Amazon.com)

You can put some in each stocking and let people trade colors.

 

I thought Elizabeth might like to try this hair-drying tee that may be no better than the actual t-shirts she’s been using:

(image from Amazon.com)

 

These dumb over-priced M&Ms tubes I buy anyway because the kids inexplicably love them, and now it’s been so many years it’s become Tradition:

(image from Target.com)

 

Ring pops:

(image from Target.com)

 

My favorite kind of Junior Mints, I buy a dozen boxes each Christmas just for me:

(image from Target.com)

 

Candy cane Tic Tacs:

(image from Target.com)

 

Chocolate oranges:

(image from Target.com)

 

Socks (last year Rob commented, “I can tell I’m getting to the boring grown-up stage of life, because I am genuinely glad to see these!”)

(image from Target.com)

(image from Target.com)

(image from Target.com)

(image from Target.com)

(image from Amazon.com)

 

Gum:

(image from Target.com)

(image from Target.com)

(image from Target.com)

 

This hand soap for Paul, who loves lemony stuff:

(image from Target.com)

 

Ticonderoga pencils (thanks Alyson for the reminder!): black for Rob and William, metallic for Elizabeth and Edward and Henry, and NOIR HOLOGRAPHIC for Paul.

(image from Amazon.com)

 

A metal 2-tablespoon measuring spoon for Paul, who every morning uses the 1-tablespoon measure twice for peanut butter and has already broken two plastic tablespoon handles:

(image from Amazon.com)

 

Bonds of London Pear Drops. I don’t know who was eating these online but SOMEONE was, and I wanted to try them, so I ordered a bag for my stocking. I am appalled to see that “pear drops” (I love pear-flavored things) are apparently also BANANA-flavored (I am…not fond of banana-flavored things), which I didn’t notice until after I ordered. I also bought the sherbet lemons for Paul, so perhaps I will just…switch bags.

(image from Amazon.com)

 

According to Amazon, I have bought these Kikkerland pens 15 times, and that doesn’t even tell you how many packs I bought each time. They are my favorites and my sister-in-law’s favorites, so I buy some for our stockings each year when they’re in the $6-7ish range.

(image from Amazon.com)

 

I don’t know where all the gloves go, so I buy inexpensive ones for the stockings every year (or, better yet, the year before on clearance).

(image from Target.com)

(image from Target.com)

And Paul’s sister had these fingerless gloves on her wish list:

(image from Amazon.com)

 

These paper glasses are so odd, and I don’t know how they work, but this is our third Christmas playing with them and the kids exclaimed upon seeing them come out of a box. They turn lights into pictures, I don’t know how. So if you wear the “snowman” pair, and you look at Christmas lights, you will see a little snowman in place of each Christmas light. And if you look out the window and a car is driving by, you will see snowmen where the headlights are. It is BIZARRE, and well worth the price.

(image from Amazon.com)

 

Glitter Decorate-a-Christmas-Tree mini Dover book (kids are too old for it; this is for me):

(image from Amazon.com)

 

Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies:

(image from Target.com)

I had some of these leftover from doing care packages for grown-ups, and I put them into the kids’ stockings. Henry surprised me by REMEMBERING them the next Christmas, mentioning in December that he hoped there would be Chessman cookies in the stockings again. They ARE yummier than one would expect. And there’s also Milano snack-packs, if you prefer a little chocolate.

 

Oreo dippers:

(image from Target.com)

I’ve been getting these for stockings since Rob was a toddler. I like to get the big pack so I have enough for my niece and nephew and for at least some of the grown-ups, but if you don’t need as many they’re also sold in a 6-pack. And there are pretzel-and-cheese-dip, breadstick-and-cheese-dip, and crackers-and-cheese-dip versions, if you prefer savory: sometimes stockings get kind of overfull of sweet.

 

Speaking of which: Pringles.

(image from Target.com)

 

And Chex Mix.

(image from Target.com)

 

Trail mix packets:

(image from Target.com)

Caramel Cashew is a favorite, but they also have Monster, Peanut Butter Monster, Cashew Cranberry Almond, Omega 3 Walnut, and Simply Trail.

 

If you know someone doing keto and you don’t mind spending more money than you’d expect, there are some pretty yummy Quest bars and cookies and snack-size bags of chips sold individually for about $2 each (I KNOW) at my grocery store. My own favorites are the chocolate-chip cookie dough bar, the double chocolate cookie, and the nacho tortilla chips. The past couple of years, Target has had some seasonally-flavored Quest items in the stocking-stuffer section: a peppermint-bark flavored Quest bar, a snickerdoodle/gingerbread flavored Quest cookie, things like that; I’m not seeing those on the site, but they might have them in the store. I’m getting these Quest Peanut Butter Cups for my own stocking, because I have been longing to try them and they’ve only just become available for shipping:

(image from Target.com)

(I will of course be eating ABSOLUTELY NOT KETO AT ALL for Christmas, but it’s nice to have a “fun” “treat” to look forward to in the sad aftermath.)

 

Paul likes the O’Keeffe’s brand, so I usually get him hand cream (Target) (Amazon) and/or lip balm (Target) (Amazon) for his stocking.

(image from Amazon.com)

(image from Amazon.com)

And you could get the nice foot cream (Target) (Amazon) Nicole recommends, for your own stocking. (I want to try the Night Treatment.)

(image from Amazon.com)

(image from Target.com)

 

I got a couple packs of these holiday Chapsticks last year and distributed them among the stockings.

(image from Target.com)

And I got myself an adorably wee little mini-Vaseline in creme brulee flavor, which I can still find at my grocery store but I’m having trouble finding online. Here it is in a 3-pack of flavors from Amazon. Or there’s a cocoa-butter two-pack or single. Or a rosy-lips single or two-pack.

(image from Target.com)

 

Mini staplers are the kind of thing I prefer to get on clearance:

(image from Target.com)

 

Fundraising/political t-shirts. These are on one hand WAY too expensive for stockings. But what happens is that the kid feels neutrally-positive about having the shirt (not strongly enough to put it on their wish list, but generally positive toward the organization/politician), and I feel high-positive about supporting the organization/politician, so I buy the shirts (or get them free with a donation), and I will put the shirt in someone’s stocking. Or one year, ACLU had their basic tee for $10, so I bought one for each of the three kids who were mildly interested in having one. It isn’t so much a stocking gift as something I would have bought them anyway if they’d wanted it, and it takes up a nice amount of space in the stocking.

(image from HRC.org)