6 Utterly Awesome Pieces Of Stuff For A College Student's Christmas Stocking
It's the holiday season, and that means your college-aged kids are coming home for a visit. While your kids may now be young adults, nobody every really outgrows their Christmas stocking -- because that's usually where some of the coolest, most useful, or just plain fun gifts are hidden.
If you're a little stumped about what to stick in your college student's stocking, here are some ideas that even St. Nick would approve:
1. A Chocolate Orange
A lot of families have a tradition that involves putting an orange in the toe of each person's stocking. That particular tradition heralds back to the era where citrus fruit was much rarer (unless you lived near an orange grove). Children didn't often get these sweet treats, so an orange was actually a luxury item. Honor the tradition with a chocolate orange instead. Widely available in both milk and dark chocolate, the orange-shaped and infused chocolates break into slices for sharing -- and they won't go bad as quickly as the real thing.
2. USB Batteries
You can now find USB rechargeable batteries that aren't much thicker than a couple of credit cards and meant to be carried in a backpack, wallet, or purse. Your college student is on the go along -- and probably finds his or her phone constantly needing a charge. These will also work on any other device that uses a USB cord, like a Kindle.
3. Busines Cards
So what if your college student hasn't graduated yet? He or she can still use business cards to advertise any side jobs he or she does to make money -- like house sitting, editing work, tutoring or dog walking. Cool business cards can be made on a number of sites, like VistaPrint, MOO, or Zazzle. Add a business card holder in as another, related gift, and you've got a great pairing.
4. Mental Toys
Whether you use these as desk toys or stress relievers, they're just plain awesome. They're designed to give you something to play with that will momentarily distract you -- which can help important breakthroughs in your thoughts come to the surface. Pick two or three cool little items for a stocking, like a fidget cube, magnetic thinking putty, or highly magnetic buckyballs. If your budget's a little bigger, consider buying a 3D doodling pen that will let you college kid bring his or her doodles off the paper for good.
5. Designer Luggage Tags
Whether your college student travels back and forth a long distance or not right now, there's going to come a time when he or she is going to need a good set of luggage. Job interviews -- or the job your student gets -- may require a lot of travel by plane or car service. Even for students just starting college, it gets old shoving everything you own into a couple of plastic trash bags and a few boxes while you cart things back and forth every break. If you're giving your student a nice luggage set this year, compliment the gift with a set of designer luggage tags. Easily identifiable luggage tags can be a real blessing when traveling by mass transit (bus or plane) -- unique tags make spotting the right bags so much easier in a sea of similar-looking bags rolling along a conveyer belt.
6. Origami Cash
Cash is always an appropriate stocking stuffer, but there's no law that says you can't play with it first. Go to the bank and get new bills and then spend a little time following some easy instructions on how to use the bills -- of any denomination -- into origami hearts, stars, clothing, cranes, and unicorns.
One thing is for certain -- if you have fun putting the stocking together, the odds are good that your college student will have just as much fun opening it! Contact a company like tagcrazy.com for more information and assistance.