Today is the actual the real Feast of St. Nicholas!!! After yesterday’s post, sharing about how we celebrate, I thought you may enjoy a few of our favorite stocking stuffers. We go for eco friendly and educational with most of our gifts and buys.
1. I’m not one for stuffed animals, but my kids are so I try to think outside the box. For really little ones, I love anything from Under The Nile. These scrappy dogs are just precious!
While not eco-friendly, educational is a plus for us as well so these plush mini-microbes made the list. Something soft to snuggle up to when they’re sick? hug your germs, kids.
Or seriously. A brain cell? I want to hug a brain cell!!!
2. When it comes to school supplies, I find that inspiration comes when whimsy and nature take over the typical for us. So this year I splurged and changed up a few things.
If we must write so much, we can pretend we are hobbits with these twig pencils!!! Surprisingly, having such fun pencils gets them put back away more often and we haven’t lost them!! We have a colored set and a graphite set
I keep most school supplies in a closet but these go on my shelf, inspiring us all to write or color.. something, anything to use a twig pencil!
Along those lines, I love these crayon rocks!! I have them on our wish list to get as soon as I can.
Or really go all out and get this amazing beeswax crayon set!! I think this makes me want to be a kid again.
3. We are getting ready to learn about magnetism after Christmas break. How cool is this magnetic putty to play with!?!
4. With a recently nail polished obsessed 10 year old girl, who spent an hour last night painting Star Wars characters on her brothers’ fingers, some all natural Piggie Paints seemed like a good idea.
5. If you read my recent post on our new love for the game KUBB, you may want to try it out with this inexpensive tabletop set!
6. With lots of car time, paper dolls have become a new quiet activity that the kids love and I love for them. For Lil’ Bit, there are lots of magnetic tin paper doll sets that hold all of the pieces and are easy to grab and take with us on the go. The boys get into it too. Planes, farms, cars, fire station… not that they don’t play with the princesses, too. They love it all. Big Sister goes for the more refined REAL paper dolls. They make me happy and I admit that I’ll play with them, too! Little Women, Little House On The Prairie and other Storybook Characters. There are so many different time periods and themes!!! And so many vintage paper dolls for under $10!
7. This kit to make a kaleidoscope filled with natural stones and thinks is just so fun.
8. Because it’s winter, I also always try to disguise a few of our essentials as stocking gifts. It helps me justify the cost of buying something better than what I would grab at the store. Chapped lips are a fact of life for us so I try to be sure everyone gets a tube of a natural lip balm. we like these.
9. And don’t forget the candy and treats. We go for candy without food coloring, high fructose corn syrup and preferably organic.
Candy canes are a must, too, but once again no foodcoloring or HFCS for us. These may take some effort, but they are worth it. Seriously, the best tasting candy cane I’ve ever eaten!!! They are so good! You can find these sometimes at Whole foods or maybe order the set of 6 with a group of friends.
10. And for our final item on the list, we always get new toothbrushes for Christmas, Easter and Back to School. It’s my thing. That way I don’t have to think about how old they are and when I should replace them. I just mentally “sync’ them to those holidays. These are big for kids but they love them and get a kick out of sending them in to be recycled. They all fit into our toothbrush holder the same and everyone has their own color. Done!
Snack time with hot cocoa in honor of St. Nicholas’ Day is calling my name, so off I go to hang out with the kids. I hope this helped give you some ideas to finish up your shopping. Go get some stocking stuffers, peoples!
