[Morrigoon]

My stocking never got candy and fruit (well, maybe occasionally candy, but not on a regular basis). We always just got small gifts in there. If I'm getting a gift card, that's usually where Dad puts in (yes, even now we do stockings). But we'd get trinkets, small toys, one year we got cans of silly string (note: ONE year!), jewelry, anything small enough to go in it.

My parents always put out a gift from them, labeled to us from them, and then the "Santa" gifts were put out overnight, and only had our names on them, no "from" filled out on the tags (tradition now, but I'm sure it started out as not wanting to write "from Santa" in mom's handwriting on everything).

Good stocking fillers could include things like travel games, action figures, small dolls, wooden toys, CDs, candy or fruit (or if you wanna cover all bases, you could use the "chocolate orange"), maybe some fun quirky pens or other "party favor" type gifts (go check the favor aisles of Party City to see the kind of toys I'm talking about. Things like Chinese yo-yos, heck, real yo-yos, slinkys, tops, ball-in-maze games, that kind of thing.)

Traci... perhaps you can explain to Indi that while Santa listened to him, he forgot to write it down on his "list", so it would be best for Indi to pen a letter to Santa, to make sure he remembers, and because Santa likes to get nice letters too. Maybe use the opportunity to instill a discipline for sending Christmas cards by having him send Santa a Christmas card and stick his letter in it? You can get cheap Christmas cards at stores like Walmart or Target, or also at the 99-cent store. Bulk boxes are WAY cheaper than individual cards, and some box sets include mixed cards so you can still select cards that work for the recipients.

Also, if you have not done so already, I suggest you introduce your family to the fine collection of holiday films by Rankin-Bass.