My favorite part of opening presents is opening my stocking. For a few years when the kids were little, Brad and I skipped doing stockings for ourselves – which I admit was kind of a bummer. Now that we have parsed back the gifts since the kids are older and we are trying to travel more, the stockings have become even more important and we added ours back into the mix.

As a kid, we always opened our stocking last and no matter what, the foot was filled with toothpaste and Kleenex packs. You didn’t even have to get to the bottom to know. But the beginning was always a little more exciting: lots of candy, books and my dad would tend to put something in our stocking my mom didn’t even know he had purchased. It is how I procured my first Walkman and lots of other technology or jewelry.

I take a lot of time to find fun and interesting things for the stocking and luckily for me, you don’t have to go much further than Old Town.

The first thing I got everyone was a gift card from Old Town Books. My entire family likes to read and we are leaving for a big trip on the 28th. I figured everyone could pick something out for the long flight because you can only watch so many movies.

Blair’s stocking is always the easiest; she knits so there are always fun new things at fibre space. Typically I don’t understand what they are for, but she loves them. Then of course lots and lots of products. She has always been into skincare and sweats by Daily Dose from XXXX. At age 17 she is really worried about wrinkles too, so I got her a silk pillowcase. And she has tons of hair like me, so I got her a microfiber headband for washing her face.

Coleman was easy: I just had to grab a few products (okay, I did get some Nike socks on Amazon) and the pens and paper from Penny Post. He just started doing some sports writing for his school paper so some great pens, paper and something to keep it all organized was perfect.

Brad considers himself a bit of a foodie, so it’s always fun to shop at Red Barn Mercantile for his stocking. You might be surprised but it’s a great place for men’s gifts. He loves oysters, bourbon and his cast iron skillet so a new ice cube mold, knife and oil for his beloved cast iron skillet did the trick. He is also constantly asking me for hand cream so I stock up on it for his truck and work bag.

I could have bought tons more. There are so many unique gifting options in Old Town, so skip Target and Amazon this year and SHOP LOCAL!

SEE ALSO: Elizabeth’s Shop Local Gift Guide: Old Town, Alexandria