So, if you want to avoid the confused look on your family's faces when they discover oil funnels, wiper blades and Doritos in their stockings, start stocking up on the stocking stuffers NOW. Instead of spending all your money in one shot, just pick up a few items at each grocery or drugstore trip and by the time you've set the cookies out for Santa, the stockings will be stuffed and you can wait for the kids to drift off so you can chow down on Santa snack.
But there was something else bothering me about this last minute Chevron stocking business. Yes, it is a cliché to say Christmas is commercial, but wasn't I just supporting that cliché? I was racing out in an effort to buy any little thing so that I could say I gave something. I was spending money on things that no one wanted, candy canes that would never be eaten and trinkets that would be forgotten as soon as they were discovered. Just so I could say I stuffed a stocking. What was the point of all this? I decided that a stocking half filled with a few, thoughtful odds and ends that someone might actually use, interspersed with some peppermint patties and chocolate kisses would be far more appreciated than a stocking stuffed to the gills with useless crap.
So, a few years ago, after having this profound stocking stuffer insight, I decided to look online for a few stocking stuffers before Thanksgiving. I found PDAs for over 300 dollars, silver pocket watches, silver flasks, watches, perfume, silver corkscrews, leather wallets - all for well over $50 a pop. I couldn't believe it! At this rate, stuffing the stocking would cost more than buying gifts, decorating the house and tree and buying the meal all put together! I definitely didn't want another Chevron year, nor did I want a return to the days of finding a nickel and an orange in my stocking and trying to explain to my grandmother why oranges in December were commonplace now and no, you could NOT still by a coke for a nickel - not even at the cheap drugstore. But my idea of a stocking stuffer is everything under $10 and only one item over $5.
