I want to share a family tradition with you, one that saves money and stress during the holidays. Every year our family completely fills each other’s Christmas stockings with items from the dollar store. It drives me nuts when I see commercials for “stocking stuffers” like iPhones and watches. To me, those are major gifts. Who can afford to fill stockings with items like that? For our family, stocking stuffers tend to be fun, smaller items that don’t carry that kind of price tag.
Even before having kids, my husband and I would go to the dollar store for Christmas gift bags, wrapping paper, and other misc. things for the holidays. One year while we were saving up for our next trip, we came up with the idea of filling each other’s stockings entirely with items from the dollar store. This became a really fun tradition. We would go to the store together, each starting at separate ends of the store, and shop for each other. For $10-$20 each, our stocking would be overflowing. It’s become a brilliant way to save money during the holidays!
The cool thing about the dollar store is that while you can find some cool little items that you do need, you can also find a lot of hilarious items or knock-offs that make great gag gifts. We tend to always include one or two for each other that are a complete gag.
After having children we were able to keep this tradition alive in a big way. The dollar store is chock full of great little toys for kids, including a lot of their favorite characters (Spiderman, Avengers, Disney/Pixar Cars, Ninja Turtles, etc.). There are also great little Christmas items (stuffed animals, candy, etc.). Talk about a budget-friendly Christmas idea that the kids love!
Now that the kids are older, they have a ton of fun getting in on this tradition, too. Now when my husband and I split up in the store, we each take one of the boys with us. My husband and I choose gifts for each other, and the boys choose each other’s gifts, and we always keep it to a mandatory budget of $10-$12 each so we don’t overflow the stockings and keep it fair and equal. Here is the loot S picked for G this year at our local Dollar Tree:
Not bad, right?
This is an example of what I get for the hubs (hopefully he won’t read this blog post before opening his stocking on Christmas):
Some of it is silly (Spa Haus Aqua Bold), but the rest are actually things he could use. I love the recycle bin pen cup!
When we get home, we each separately stuff the stockings so no one sees what’s inside theirs before Christmas morning. It has become so fun to see the reactions on Christmas morning!
There you go. Now you know one of Fab Everyday’s tricks to keeping the holiday a little more affordable, and definitely lower-stress!
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Crystal Cawile says
We love the Dollar Store too. You just have to look and you can find great stuff. I bought a vase that was flat, made of plastic and had beads in it. When you added water the beads puffed up and then you could add flowers etc. I have had it for several years! I have a Christmas Catus in it. And of course for only a Dollar!!