Hello,
everyone! And, welcome to Day
#19 of A
POP CULTURE ADDICT'S ADVENT CALENDAR! We're
really getting down to the wire when it comes to Christmas, and I hope that
most of you are prepared. Whether it
comes down to buying last minute gifts, mailing out last minute Christmas
cards, or picking up last minute groceries for your Christmas feasts, you had
better get moving! After all, it is
only six days away!
Oh,
and the stockings! You must not forget
the stockings!
In
fact, that's what this blog entry is all about! Stockings and stocking stuffers!
How
many of you had a stocking when you were little? I know I did. In fact, I
actually had two different stockings during my childhood.
I
should probably explain. I don't know
where my parents picked up the stockings, but they have probably been in my
family for ages. My mom's stocking was
really the only normal looking stocking in the bunch. My sisters had twin stockings that looked exactly the same, only
one had gold trim, and the other one had silver. Dad's was really unique.
I bet he was the only one whose stocking looked like a cowboy boot!
(Seriously,
I kid you not. He has a cowboy boot
stocking. I wish I had a picture to
show you, but I don't have the stocking handy on me.)
My
first stocking was kind of unique as well.
You know those bright red longjohns that people wore at the turn of the
century with the trap door on the caboose?
Mine was like that, only toddler sized.
And it worked out well for the first seven years of my life or so, as it
was child sized, and I was the youngest in the family for fifteen years before
my niece was born. But while the
stocking was very cute, it was also very impractical, as it could only hold one
or two items as opposed to the twelve or thirteen that the stockings of my
sisters could hold. Eventually, when my
sister got married when I was eight years old, she gave me her old stocking,
which allowed for more stocking stuffers.
(Not
that I really needed the extra stuff - it was more or less an excuse for my
parents to wrap fewer gifts. Truth be
told, aside from gifts given to me, I am the designated gift wrapper in my
immediate family!)
But
it got me thinking about all of the various gifts that I received in my
Christmas stocking. Most of them were
beautiful and well thought out, but others were sort of duds.
Mind
you, the duds weren't too horrible. It
wasn't like Santa filled my stocking with Stove Top stuffing like Amelia
Bedelia did in one of her books. They
were just...interesting.
And,
I thought I would make a list of some of the things that I used to get in my
stocking when I was a little boy (and...ahem...as a thirty-something
adult). Some stuff you might have also
gotten, and some stuff you will wonder why I even got them in the first place. But nevertheless, here are my stocking
stuffer stories!
FRUIT
Every
kid in our family always got at least two pieces of fruit in our stockings
every year. My sisters would often get
Asian Pears (or "Snow Pears" as they called them), but I was happy with
my oversized orange and Red Delicious Apple.
I suppose it was Santa's way of trying to offset the amount of sweets
that he would leave us.
Speaking
of which...
ICY SQUARES
It
is really hard to describe an Icy Square to all of you who have never had one,
but these things are so addictive, creamy, and good! They are smooth and silky, and melt in your mouth. They aren't quite minty, but they definitely
feel cold on the tongue. I suppose that
is where they get their name. Anyway,
if you haven't tried these things, get them.
Absolutely worth it.
ARCHIE COMIC DIGESTS
Okay,
when I was a kid, I used to always get at least a couple of these in my
stocking. I mean, the cost was quite
reasonable at the time, and you used to get 256 pages of Archie goodness in a
double digest - well, at least until 1992 when they shrank to 192 pages. At any rate, these compact books fit
perfectly in stockings, and to avoid getting bent covers, these books were
always placed at the very top of the stocking.
What can I say? Santa was
clever.
TOOTHBRUSH AND TOOTHPASTE
Well,
I suppose to offset the sugar rush that stocking stuffers could bring, Santa
would have to have something to prevent cavities. Not the most exciting gift, but I understood why we got them. See also shampoo, conditioner, razor blades,
and deodorant.
"DRIZZLE" THE BATHTUB HAND PUPPET
Uh...yeah. This was a stocking stuffer that I got
probably sometime in the late 1980's (we will say 1989 for argument's sake),
and it looked EXACTLY like this one. I don't
know where the name Drizzle came from.
Maybe the name was on the package, or maybe I came up with the name
myself. But I will admit, Drizzle did
make bathtime a lot more fun...well, at least until he disintegrated after a
few months of use. And, here I thought
that sea dragons loved the water...
R.I.P.
Drizzle the Dragon 1989-1990
MAGELLAN - THE DRAGON FROM EUREEKA'S CASTLE
I
have no idea how they got this in the first place, as I hated Pizza Hut, and
these finger puppets were sold exclusively at Pizza Hut restaurants (what was
the obsession with puppets at Christmas about anyway?)
Anyway,
as someone who used to watch Eureeka's Castle and loved it, I was happy to get
this one. Truth be told, I kind of
liked the big green guy.
BATH BEADS
Yes. I did get these in my stocking. And, yes, I truly do believe that Santa made
a mistake, and gave these to me instead of my sister. Or, maybe Santa thought I smelled bad and needed them
anyway. Yeah, let's go with that. And that isn't even the worst thing I ever
got in a Christmas stocking!
A GEOMETRY SET
Really,
Santa? A geometry set? You are giving a geometry set to someone who
admittedly hated math class? On second
thought, the bath beads don't sound so bad after all.
Okay,
so I shared some of my stocking stuffer memories. Now I turn it over to you.
What
did your stocking look like? And what
were some of the treats that could be found inside of it?
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