Hello Hello! I hope you all had a good weekend! Before we get rolling with some fun things this week (and before I forget!) I wanted to explain how my friends organize our Stocking Exchange Party! So many of you sent emails asking exactly how it works and I want to share details so that you can save this post and plan ahead if you want to do something like this next year with your friends. It’s something we all look forward to!
Years ago when we were thick in the holiday season running around trying to create magic for our families and brainstorming gift ideas for our husbands and kids, we started telling stories about the sometimes sad state of our Christmas stockings. Once in a while a gift inside, maybe some candy and sometimes absolutely nothing. Of course none of us really care.. it was just a funny inside long running joke. Then around 2020 (I think!?) SNL came out with their Christmas Robe skit that showed everyone in the family getting spoiled on Christmas morning with fun gifts when the mom just gets a robe. Her stocking is flat and empty and even the dog gets more gifts than mom. (If you haven’t watched it look up SNL Christmas Robe.. it’s so funny!) For a couple more years we laughed about how we should have written that skit because it was the Christmas morning we had always described and joked about! Most moms can relate. :)
Sooo.. in 2023 two of my friends decided to plan, organize and host a yearly stocking exchange party and a new tradition was born. We would spoil each other! No more empty stockings for mom on Christmas morning! Sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands. :)
My two friends who host this party every year started it by sending out an evite with the date, time and location of the party along with an explanation of how it would work. We would each be filling one stocking for a friend and the budget was set at $200. That’s a higher price point for a party (this isn’t something I could have done in our early married years!) and you can obviously set the budget at any price you want! I do think this requires a bigger budget than a favorite things party item just because you’re filling a stocking with gifts that your friend will really love/use and you’re also buying a stocking so I would recommend a budget of at least $75. In early November (after the initial evite) we all get a text message with a little survey in it to fill out. These are some of the survey questions..
Where are your favorite places to shop?
Of these categories, what are you most interested in/drawn to right now? (Beauty products, hair products, clothing, jewelry, workout attire, home decor, kitchen/cookware, other?)
-Is there a certain brand that you love?
-What are your favorite colors/scents?
-What are your favorite flavors, candy, foods?
-What scents, colors, flavors, candy, foods are you NOT a fan of?
-What makes you feel pampered?
After everyone turns in surveys we get a text about a week later with the name of the person we are buying for that year and the answers to their survey. (My friends use an app to pair people up randomly each year and just choose again if we get someone we already gave a stocking to.) I love the survey because even though we all know each other it’s fun to learn little details we maybe didn’t know! We always get assigned our person before Thanksgiving so that we can take advantage of Black Friday deals. That’s why this is a party you want to think about and organize early in November! So that everyone has plenty of time to shop for their person. The lunch usually takes place sometime the week before kids are out of school for Christmas break in December. We try to get smaller things that really fit inside of a stocking! But most of us have brought an item or two most years that is wrapped and didn’t fit. :) Our person is supposed to be a surprise, but of course the hosts know who has who and of course some of us talk… so some are surprises and some aren’t each year.. ha.
We have now done this for 3 years in a row and it’s always at the same location. My friends chose a beautiful lunch spot we all love!
Lilian’s in Rancho Santa Fe if you’re local! You could mix up the location each year or even do this at someone’s house. We love dressing up and going to the same restaurant each time.
Sometimes we eat outside..
Sometimes we eat inside.
My friends who host this always bring extra details to make the table even more gorgeous like this stunning flower arrangement!
They make cute place cards so we know where to sit.
And we always get a beautifully wrapped box of See’s chocolates.
Clearly taking a pic of my diet coke has become just as much a tradition as the party itself. :)
We take some group pictures as people are arriving and then get a picture each year with the person we gave a stocking to and the person we got one from. Then we enjoy a nice long lunch just talking which is honestly our favorite part of it all! We love taking time together during a busy season to be together and catch up. Then we leave with a full beautiful stocking to open on Christmas morning!
2023
2024
2025
It’s always the same group (first two pictures not everyone had arrived yet). Such a special tradition! I’m so grateful to friends who plan fun things like this during the holidays. I hope that explanation was helpful. It is a party that requires a little more planning! Especially the first year you do it. If you have any other questions let me know and I can answer in the comments and add more details in the post if I’ve left something out!
Sharing some fun round-ups below of your favorites and my favorites from last week! I’m still trying to decide what I’m doing this year with my Saturday 6/Sunday Edit posts! I might mix things up and just share the Sunday Edit favorites at the end of other blog posts instead of a dedicated post on Sunday just for collages? I don’t know yet, but I will let you know when I figure it out! January always makes me want a fresh take on things! :) Enjoy your day!
