Zionsville Times Sentinel

Commentary

December 19, 2012

What gifts do you stuff in the stockings?

Zionsville — If you haven’t already hung your stocking by the chimney with care, you might want to get busy.

Stuffing day is almost upon us, but what to stuff? Merriam-Webster defines stocking stuffer as “a small gift suitable for placing in a Christmas stocking.” That definition is a little vague, and it got me to thinking about what kinds of things different people think are suitable for stuffing.

I got more than 45 million hits when I typed stocking stuffer into my search engine. Clicking on several of the links proved to be interesting. Apparently, there are retailers who would have us believe that any item which is small enough to be stuffed into a stocking qualifies as a stocking stuffer. Oh, how I beg to disagree, but there are other people in the world, so I did a quick poll of some of my coworkers. It seems that their versions of stocking stuffers and mine are pretty similar, so I am going to go on the assumption that what I grew up with was somewhat normal, that most people don’t spend $25 or $30 on a stocking stuffer, and many people put an orange in their stockings.

See Wednesday's paper for the full column.

 

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