Gift guides are taking over again. Gift ideas for him, gift ideas for her, and suggestions for every extremely specific type of person in between have been all over the internet since September. But one thing that’s often left until the last minute? The humble stocking stuffer.
We feel like the stocking is usually thought to be a mere mantle decoration to hold the “let’s just get this out of the way” items. (You know, like a new oven mitt or a gag gift.) But let’s be clear on something: Just because stocking stuffers are small in size doesn’t mean they have to be cheap or bad.
Weird novelty items like fake poop or bacon-scented candles are technically cheap and will technically fit in a stocking, but they’ll also end up in the junk drawer pretty quickly. You can still use the element of surprise to stuff a stocking with something your recipient wouldn’t expect — just make it something that fixes a problem they’ve mentioned to you before. (Thoughtful!)
Whether you’re gifting on a budget, have a spending limit within your gifting circle, or need a tiny-but-impressive gift to add as a surprise, small stocking stuffers can be just as great as big presents. We’ve asked around and done some research to pull together 50 of the best *actually useful* stocking stuffers out there.
