topic Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠 in Q Talk

Stocking Stuffers 😠

Shanus — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 17:56:05 GMT

What an overused expression! I hear this from all the hosts and vendors!!! Since when did $50-$75 items get stuffed in a stocking as an "extra"? Growing up, I joined many friends on Christmas morning and their stockings were filled w/ candy, lipgloss, $5 trinkets, and other small inexpensive treats. When did the anti get so high that cell phones, expensive jewelry, $30 & over shadow palettes, etc. become the norm? At HANUKKAH, a small gift each night was sufficient....focusing more on the holiday which has nothing to do w/ gifts, but an effort to appease our kids who felt left out of Christmas. Help me out on that one, fellow Jewish posters. I've heard my non-Jewish friends say that Christmas has become so commercial that folks have forgotten the true meaning of the holiday. Perhaps the over spending, expensive toys, peer pressure & enticing offers from retailers are to blame. When my kids became teens, they received 1 reasonably priced gift on the 1st night. The other nights of HANUKKAH, we also lit candles & sang holiday songs. Not only were we giving them a taste of latkes, but the story of HANUKKAH not the gifts.

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

Trix — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 18:00:00 GMT

In my family if you are given something like the $50 IT Holiday palette, it certainly is not considered to be a stocking stuffer. For us stocking stuffer means a movie tickets, gourmet candy, cookies, or perhaps a couple pairs of socks.

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

wvumountiefan — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 18:03:03 GMT

ITA. My son is in college, and he still loves the scratch off lottery tix I put in his stocking every year. I put some gas cards and other little gift cards.

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

Sooner — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 18:30:29 GMT

Families are different. Different people make different amounts of money. Different people have different giving habits. . .

I'm sure some people would view what any of us give as "extravagant and wasteful." My mother loved to give people gifts and she went way overboard. She did it because she loved us and was way more excited about giving something than getting something.

As ALWAYS, DON'T JUDGE PEOPLE BY $$$. LOOK INTO SOMEONE"S HEART NOT THEIR WALLET OR BANK ACCOUNT. Generosity, when given out of love, is never a bad thing. Love is what it is all about!

You can give your kids and loved ones nothing and they will be rotten; you can give them everything and they will be wonderful. It depends on what is given and why and how.

The important gift is L O V E!

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

queendiva — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 18:41:08 GMT

Stocking stuffers in my house for DSs: candy, shower gel, toothbrush, Lotto scratch off tickets, socks,chapstick, a small toy, flash drive.

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

stevieb — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 18:47:09 GMT

@Sooner wrote:
Families are different. Different people make different amounts of money. Different people have different giving habits. . .

I'm sure some people would view what any of us give as "extravagant and wasteful." My mother loved to give people gifts and she went way overboard. She did it because she loved us and was way more excited about giving something than getting something.

As ALWAYS, DON'T JUDGE PEOPLE BY $$$. LOOK INTO SOMEONE"S HEART NOT THEIR WALLET OR BANK ACCOUNT. Generosity, when given out of love, is never a bad thing. Love is what it is all about!

You can give your kids and loved ones nothing and they will be rotten; you can give them everything and they will be wonderful. It depends on what is given and why and how.

The important gift is L O V E!

This...

And in addition, I'd add that growing up, I was just as likely to find a 'major' gift of money, jewelry, whatever... in my stocking as among the larger wrapped presents under the tree. Different people do things different ways. Likewise, there have been times when I 'hid' someone's 'big' gift in their stocking or even on the tree... There is no right or wrong as to how to gift others nor about how more significant gifts 'should' be presented.

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

QVCkitty1 — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 19:02:32 GMT

It's a selling tactic, of course they want you to stuff your stockings with bigger ticket items. If that is what is done in your family, great, but keep in mind why QVC suggests it-- the sale !🎄

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

Mz iMac — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 19:04:09 GMT

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

Krimpette — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 20:01:55 GMT

We usually got an orange, a popcorn ball, a candy cane and maybe a couple of small goodies. Nothing in the over $10 range for sure!!!

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

PINKdogWOOD — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 20:54:37 GMT

@Shanus Bravo to you Ms Shanus! Your last sentence says it all - whether of the Jewish faith, Catholic, Christian, Hindu, it doesn'ta matter, the true story and meaning of the season is not of buying & giving gifts. Not at all.

I stopped buying 'stuff' for other people years ago. It saddens me this time of year that few 'get' what this season is about.

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

stevieb — Sat, 03 Dec 2016 23:37:17 GMT

@PINKdogWOOD wrote:
@Shanus Bravo to you Ms Shanus! Your last sentence says it all - whether of the Jewish faith, Catholic, Christian, Hindu, it doesn'ta matter, the true story and meaning of the season is not of buying & giving gifts. Not at all.

I stopped buying 'stuff' for other people years ago. It saddens me this time of year that few 'get' what this season is about.

Oh, I think plenty of folks 'get' what the season is all about... and they also choose to give and receive gifts... The two aren't mutually exclusive...

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

Sooner — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 06:17:48 GMT

@PINKdogWOOD wrote:
@Shanus Bravo to you Ms Shanus! Your last sentence says it all - whether of the Jewish faith, Catholic, Christian, Hindu, it doesn'ta matter, the true story and meaning of the season is not of buying & giving gifts. Not at all.

I stopped buying 'stuff' for other people years ago. It saddens me this time of year that few 'get' what this season is about.

What does what gifts are given have to do with who "gets" it, and how I'd like to tell can you tell who "gets" it????

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

Moonchilde — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 06:42:45 GMT

@stevieb wrote:
@PINKdogWOOD wrote:
@Shanus Bravo to you Ms Shanus! Your last sentence says it all - whether of the Jewish faith, Catholic, Christian, Hindu, it doesn'ta matter, the true story and meaning of the season is not of buying & giving gifts. Not at all.

I stopped buying 'stuff' for other people years ago. It saddens me this time of year that few 'get' what this season is about.
Oh, I think plenty of folks 'get' what the season is all about... and they also choose to give and receive gifts... The two aren't mutually exclusive...

There's giving and receiving gifts according to one's income, and there is keeping-up-with-the-Joneses, overspending to the point of six months debt to buy your kids expensive electronics they'll be bored with at the end of that six months and want something more/else.

I believe the OP is about commercialism, competition and the greedy entitlement some parents are helping to foster in their kids. Throw in children of divorce, multiple sets of grandparents and competing step parents and it gets, frankly, ugly. I see it. I experience it. It disgusts me. It's not about getting your kids what they want within reason and you can afford, it's about having to deal with all kinds of created "having" frenzy.

And yes, holidays (any holiday, any culture) is about the cultural traditions and associated beliefs, not JUST gifts. Even leaving religion aside, without gifts there can, and should be if possible, family memories created around the holiday just being *together*, even if Xmas dinner is McDonald's. It shouldn't be just about the gifts so that they are more important than the rest of it; I think that's all the OP is saying.

Re: Stocking Stuffers 😠

Carriestp — Sun, 04 Dec 2016 07:32:15 GMT

Oh good grief...

Feel free to put whatever you wish in stockings and give others the same freedom. Who cares if it's an orange, a gift card or a diamond necklace?