With the holidays right around the corner, it’s that time of year to start shopping for all the friends and family on your gift list. If you’re like many of us, Christmas stockings are part of the fun. If you’ve run out of creative ideas for stocking stuffers this year, why not consider thinking outside of the box and filling them with items that are actually useful and helpful! These ideas can be especially appropriate for parents who might be used to giving their kids candy in their stockings. This year, try taking the opposite approach. Here are a few ideas for oral health care stocking stuffers.
- Fun dental products for kids. Manufacturers of dental products make a variety specialty items designed especially for the little ones. Make tooth-brushing time fun with brightly colored or cartoon-theme toothbrushes, flavored toothpastes, a cool toothbrush holder, and a kid-designed plastic cup for rinsing after brushing.
- Dental products for adults. If your gift list includes stockings for adult members of the family, you can stick with your oral-health theme by including new manual toothbrushes, travel-sized toothpaste and mouthwash, and a couple of pocket flossing products.
- Opt for tooth-healthy snacks. Skip the candy this year and go for snacks that are not only healthy but delicious too. Kids love treats like small boxes of raisins, bags of nuts, sugar-free gum, fruit “leather” and bags of trail mix or granola. Just make sure the treats you include have no added sugar. You may be surprised how much your little ones – and adults as well — will love these snacks!
- Pick fun toys for the tots. In place of candy, find small toys to fill your kids’ stockings. Decks of cards, fun-colored pencils, miniature books, stickers, and bouncy balls are all great replacements for cavity-making candy.
- Choose fun stuffers for adults too. Kids aren’t the only ones who’ll enjoy small gifts in their stockings. For adults, include sets of inexpensive pens or pencils, notepads, keychains, small flashlights, flavored lip balm, small bottles of hand lotion, playing cards, inexpensive sunglasses, socks – the list is almost endless!
This year, why not try something new when it comes to stocking stuffers? Chances are, you’ll be assembling stockings for people you love, so take this opportunity to give them gifts that are not only fun, but good for them as well. After all, if you could give any gift to someone you love, it would probably be the gift of good health, or in this case, good oral health.
