Hanging Christmas stockings over the fireplace is a custom that’s been around for many centuries. Legend has it that there was once a very poor man with three daughters. He lost all his money to useless inventions and could not afford for his daughters to marry. This made him very sad and he worried what would happen to them after his death.

St. Nicholas had heard about the man and his daughters and wanted to help the family out. He waited until night had fallen and he snuck into their house through the chimney.

He had brought three bags of gold coins, one for each daughter. While coming down the chimney he seen the socks hanging over the fireplace, the girls had hung them out to dry earlier that day. He dropped one bag of gold into each girl’s socks. When morning came the old man and three daughters were overjoyed! The daughters were able to get married and live a happy life. This began the tradition of children hanging their stockings or putting out their shoes waiting for Saint Nicholas.

Sometimes it’s more difficult to pinpoint the right smaller gifts and stocking stuffers than it is the big gifts—especially for children. The Christmas Toys blog offers help by providing a list of a few popular gifts for children that cost less than $10–a great list of gifts at the right price.

If you’ve already begun buying gifts and stocking stuffers, you may also already be looking for a place to hide “Santa’s stash.” For tips on where to store your gifts until the magical morning, check out this post on SantaProof.net. You may just discover a new hiding place that the kids haven’t figured out yet.

Need some stocking stuffer ideas for a lady who loves to pamper herself or is into all of the hottest trends? This slideshow of stocking stuffer ideas from Marie Claire has both of those areas covered. They’re featuring everything from jewelry and pashminas to stylish reusable water bottles, and covering a several different price ranges.

Need something to fill a stocking up in a hurry? A rolled up T-shirt is an easy way to fill up a stocking, but it doesn’t have to be a boring, plain T-shirt. Why not give a funny T-shirt instead? If the intended recipient has a good sense of humor, he or she will probably love getting a humorous shirt in a stocking on Christmas morning. Need somewhere to shop? Check out the Joke Gifts blog for some links to funny T-shirt sites, including one that lets you make a custom T-shirt with the saying of your choice.

Christmas ornaments make great stocking stuffers, because they’re small and usually inexpensive. They can also play a part in preserving your family’s Christmas memories, if you start a Christmas ornament tradition when your kids are small. To find out how to get this tradition started and keep it going, check out the Christmas Tree Decorating blog.

This video showcases some excellent stocking stuffer ideas, especially for the men on your gift list. Filmed by a news crew on-location at a Home Depot store, it shows small and inexpensive but useful tools that the man in your life will surely appreciate.

You’d probably be hard pressed to find someone who isn’t cutting back on the Christmas budget this year. Stocking stuffers can suck down a lot of your holiday dollars if you aren’t careful with what you buy, since a lot of small items can be very pricey. The people of the Dollar Stretcher forum put together some great stocking stuffer ideas last year for people of all ages. Check it out if you need some ideas.

Since we linked to some great stocking stuffer ideas for teenage girls last week, I wanted to make sure teenage boys were covered this week. Like the girls, teenage boys can be hard to shop for, but if you employ a little creativity and stick with a theme that matches things they’re interested in, your stocking stuffers are sure to be a hit.

A modern standby stocking stuffer seems to be the gift card. You can buy a gift card to almost anywhere and use them for anything you want, which teenagers love. Both boys and girls like to hang out at the mall with friends, so having a little free money to spend is always good. An iTunes gift card lets them download some music, while a gift card to Walmart or Meijer will let them buy almost anything.

CDs and DVDs are another small item that most teenagers are interested in. Look at what kinds of CDs and DVDs your teen already has to gauge what he might like to have, or you can just ask for ideas. You can also encourage your teen to read by putting a book or magazine related to a topic he enjoys into his stocking.

Small toiletry items are also a great go-to gift–cologne or a razor will probably be well appreciated. A pocket knife is another small item that is infinitely useful, assuming your teen is mature enough to be trusted with it.

As always, candy makes the perfect “filler upper.” You can buy his favorites and stick them in his stocking so he can either have a Christmas Day candy-eating spree or save some for later.

You don’t have to be super-crafty or have a lot of money to be able to put together some cute DIY stocking stuffers and small Christmas gifts. In this video, one mom shows how to do several easy projects, and the supplies for most of them can be bought at the dollar store.