I love to give gifts. And I like gifts to be useful or delightful or both. Which is one reason I will spend hours searching for a fun object or experience to give as a present. I truly enjoy the process.

But stocking stuffers? All I want is for stocking stuffers to be small and fun and easy. And I don’t want to pay for shipping! Free shipping is something I think about a lot lol. Since there’s a tangle of shipping delays and supply chain issues this year I figured I’d better shop early rather than wait for Black Friday like usual. I’ll save my bigger ticket items (like a rhumba!) for later. For months I’ve dreamt of a rhumba that will suck up all the loose dog hair scattered across my floor. Getting excited to buy a discount vacuum cleaner signals that you’re officially and unequivocally old (and boring). Ok so let me redeem myself. Because I’m fun, super fun! (about as fun as a discounted vacuum cleaner lol)

Since I love food most of my stocking stuffers this year are small treats. I picked items that people could easily enjoy, no effort or assembly required. For example, instead of a cookie mix that requires someone to dirty a bowl and turn on the oven, I got pre-made cookies from my favorite chocolate company. This way no one has to lift a finger… except to lift the cookie to their mouth. 🍪🍪🍪🍪🍪

Soma Chocolate

I am obsessed with this company. They make some of the most creative chocolates I’ve ever seen. Their creations are both comforting and familiar as well as exciting and original. I can’t get enough. I want to try everything! And nearly every single item I’ve tried is excellent. Last year I purchased several Soma Chocolate advent calendars. Every morning we’d hop out of bed, run into the kitchen, and sample the new teeny tiny Soma treat for that day. Eating a piece of chocolate every morning was such a wonderful way to wake up - it felt so indulgent! The advent calendar featured many one-bite samples of their award winning chocolate bars, which was a great way to find new favorites. There was even a gingerbread cookie shaped like a ninja cat. What more could you want? Last year I named Soma one of my favorite brands of 2020. But honestly it’s one of my favorite companies ever.

Here’s a list of what I ordered for stocking stuffers this year. All of their fruit bars are fabulous and the pecan chocolate toffee cubes are irresistible. I cannot wait to try their three new seasonal bars (called “twigs”) which are mint chocolate, hazelnut chocolate, and apple caramel flavored. It all sounds so good!!!

Twinkle Fest Advent Calendar
Pecan Chocolate Toffee cubes
Mango Lassi Bar
Mango Chili Bar
Blackcurrant Bar
Wild Apple Caramel twig
Travel Bar- Gianduja
Mint Chocolate Twig
Mini Dark Bar- Cherries
Gingerbread Ninja Cats
Roasted Corn Tumbled in Milk Chocolate & Harissa Spice

HOTSOX

I have always loved silly socks. They fall into the same category as silly pajamas or brightly colored spatulas. They’re fun and functional. Every time I put on a pair of wildly patterned socks I smile. They make me happy. I have quite the collection and I thought this Christmas would be the perfect time to add to it. Everyone will receive a pair of socks this year because one can never have enough socks. Never ever. Socks are another one of those things (like vacuum cleaners) that seem supremely boring when you’re younger but when you hit a certain age (for me, it was 25) you start to think, “Omg socks? Why thank you!” Silly socks are functional and fun.

I figured Amazon would have a large selection of socks and guess what? Amazon did not disappoint. They had mountains of socks. They had socks with mountains. All of the socks! Here’s what I found.

Socks with dogs
A dachshund wearing a cowboy hat
Yoga girl socks
Law & justice socks
various dog breed socks (like bulldogs, labs, goldens, and adopt-a-dog socks)

Now that I think about it three of those socks include dogs haha. We’re a dog crazy family. I spotted lots of other cute themes like book socks, wine socks, baking socks, spa day socks, socks with chickens, and socks with Italian desserts. My guess is that there’s a sock for everyone on Amazon.

Mouth

I was looking for gourmet goodies when I stumbled upon a store called Mouth. They offer a solid selection of high quality food products from small batch producers. I recognized familiar brands like Lark shortbread, EatSeeMore sausage, and Dona Chai, plus plenty of brands that are new to me. They also curate gift sets with fun themes like cocktail night and spicy snacks. All of the gift sets would make stellar hostess gifts. Oh and most products are American made! Not only are their treats the perfect size for Christmas stockings, they also offer something for everyone in my family.

So here’s what I got. I’ve split my list into “sweet” stocking stuffers, “savory” stocking stuffers, and “sausage” (yes sausage) because I ordered four different packages of sausages lol. You might say I went a bit ham (pun intended harhar).

SWEET

Toffee Caramel Corn
Organic Dark Chocolate Toffee Crunch
Bacon Peanut Butter Cups
Apple Pie Caramels
Pecan Butter Crunch
Blackcurrant Shiro Plum Jam
Cocktail Kumquats
Chai Tea Concentrate
New World Granola
Fruit Chews in pomegranate, blood orange, and Meyer lemon

SAVORY

Olive Sea Salt Shortbread
Burnt Sugar & Fennel Shortbread
Pizza Shortbread
Smoked Pepperettes
Black Garlic Biltong
Black Truffle Popcorn… I ate this right out of the box. Tasty! I want a bigger bag!
Black Truffle Beef Jerky… The jerky has a nice earthy flavor thanks to the truffle. Unfortunately there were too many chewy bits for my taste. Perhaps the biltong will be better? That style of curing usually produces softer meat.

SAUSAGE

Bubbe’s Chicken Soup Sausage
Truffle Brats
Merguez Lamb Sausage
Aussie-Style Snag Sausage

All right I feel like I need to explain the sausages haha. In case you’re wondering, no I will not use the sausages as stocking stuffers (though I bet some people would like that). Instead I’m going to cook them for family dinners around Christmastime. As much as I love to cook I’m sure there will be one night (or three) that I’d prefer to just throw some sausages in a pan with vegetables and call it a night. That sounds super easy. And because the sausages are precooked there’s no risk of poisoning anyone, yay! We already ate the Merguez lamb sausages. The seasoning was nice and the lamb was not gamey at all, which is often why people don’t like lamb. However, I thought the sausages were small and I could easily have eaten two. Next time I’ll order two sausages per person. Double the sausaggggge. Oh and I’m looking forward to trying the EatSeeMore Chicken Soup Sausage. I’ve heard such good things about them.

Update: Mouth now has Christmas food! I spotted lots of chocolate peppermint treats and a gift box named “Holiday Nosh Pit,” which just sounds fun! I placed my order mid-October to beat the holiday rush. Unfortunately I placed it too early to snag the holiday stuff. But it’s there now and it looks delicious.

LookFantastic

Mini beauty products are such a fun stocking stuffer. Usually I’ll buy a set of three or more small items like lip balm and then divide the set between three people. That way everyone gets a different flavor or color of the same product and no one gets stuck with three lip balms that they may or may not like. Sure you could gift one person the entire three pack. But would you rather have three hair scrunchies? Or would you rather have one scrunchie, one candle, and one lip balm? I’ll take the variety pack, please! Variety is the spice of life after all.

This year I ordered from a beauty retailer I’ve never used before: LookFantastic. This UK based chain offered tons of mini beauty products that were clearly made for Christmas stockings. I snapped up the following:

Olaplex Hair Repair Trial Kit
Patchology Best in Snow Holiday Kit for hands and feet… hmm it appears this kit is sold out on LookFantastic but I found that same kit on the Patchology website, UltaBeauty, and LovelySkin.
Peter Thomas Roth Hydration Celebration Kit
Peter Thomas Roth Masking Minis Kit

Not only are these sets perfect for stocking stuffers, they’re a smart way to try a product before you commit to a big bottle. I’ve definitely made the mistake of ordering a “holy grail” product with five star reviews only to find it does not work for my skin. Buying a mini set seems low cost low risk. And since I’m gifting my sister and myself a set of mini masks, we can mask together! I picture us slathering on a mud mask, wearing our silly socks, and eating Soma chocolate while we watch a Christmas movie. How nice does that sound? Sounds pretty great to me.

Mo Hotta

Hot sauce is a great gift in my opinion. It’s shelf stable, it’s tasty, it’s ready to be dumped on whatever food your spice-loving heart desires. Because there are so many different styles of hot sauce there’s guaranteed to be something for everyone who likes heat. Perfect for stocking stuffers.

I happened across hot sauce seller Mo Hotta by accident. I had just googled “sir farts a lot” because I was looking for socks for my dad. I thought it’d be funny to give him socks that featured a little medieval knight saying “Sir Farts A Lot” because I have the maturity and humor of a four year old child. But instead of socks up popped a bottle of hot sauce. With a little knight in armor. And the title said Sir Fartalot hot sauce. Bingo. I asked and the Internet delivered. This unusual hot sauce is sold by a company called Mo Hotta. As I looked through the Mo Hotta website I found several gems. Like a Queen of Farts hot sauce destined for my sister (heheh) and a passionfruit hot sauce for me. I threw in spicy peanuts and popcorn for my dad. And I found a “yard bird” sauce one reviewer said was ideal for buffalo wings. Other reviewers claimed a bottle of Jamaican jerk seasoning was the best they’d ever had. I’m definitely going to make Jamaican jerk chicken around Christmastime. Oh and a coupon code allowed me to select one *free* bottle of chipotle hot sauce that’ll go well with fish tacos. All in all I got multiple stocking stuffers as well as sauces that’ll easily liven up family meals. Yum!

Sir Fartalot Hot Sauce
Queen of Farts Hot Sauce
Bee Sting Mango Passion Hot Sauce
Walkerswood Traditional Jamaican Jerk Seasoning
Mo Hotta Mo Betta “Yard Bird” Wing Sauce
Iguana Smoky Chipotle Pepper Hot Sauce
Ass Kickin’ BBQ Microwave Popcorn
Ass Kickin’ Chipotle Honey Peanuts

Lucky Scent

Now that it’s November and the days are growing colder and darker I like to have a candle flickering in the background. It feels cozy and comforting. Usually I’ll burn an unscented tea light in a glass votive. But for stocking stuffers I wanted to find some good scented candles. Although there are tons of quality candles it’s difficult to find scents I truly love. I took a perfume class in San Francisco a few years ago and found myself absolutely entranced by the tomato essence. It smelled like summer in a bottle, green and light and intoxicating. I would’ve loved a purely tomato perfume. So for my stocking stuffer I got the Roma Heirloom Tomato candle from Flamingo Estate. For others I purchased a candle that supposedly smells like a “bohemian library” (oooh musty books) as well as a white sage body wash. Then I threw in a pine tip tea which sounds a wee bit woody but my sister swears it’s delicious and citrusy. At least she knows I won’t steal her tea.

Roma Heirloom Tomato
Bohemian Library
White Sage Body Wash
Douglas Fir Spring Tip Tea

Keap

I also bought mini candles from Keap, a company based in Brooklyn. I read somewhere that several restaurants in New York burn Keap candles, which I assume means that the scents don’t overpower tasty food smells. All of Keap’s scents sounded appealing so I did what any indecisive person would do: I got them all. All of the mini versions that is. Keap sells sets of either four or eight mini candles that burn for two hours each. Which is just enough time to decide whether you like the scent or not. I’ve already burned the fig and the pinewood candles and they were lovely.

Set of mini candles

I hope that something on this list of stocking stuffers sounded delightful or delicious or both. At the very least I hope my shopping list entertained you in the same way that peeping other people’s grocery lists is nosey and fun. Enjoy!