There are no written records about the origin of the Christmas Stocking, but it is an integral part of the holiday today. On Christmas Day, children rush to their stockings – typically hung on a mantle or shelf – to find small toys, candy, and books stuffed inside. For adults, the stocking is typically filled with rechargeable batteries, accessories, and magazines.
For the traveler, there are a lot of great items to buy that will quickly fill a Christmas Stocking. These items are small, make wonderful add on gifts, and are relatively inexpensive. Maybe one of these will make a perfect stocking stuffer for the traveler in your life this year?
2021 Holiday Gift Guides
Before you can buy the perfect Christmas gift, you have to find it. Each year, I publish a series of Holiday Gift Guides to help you find fantastic travel gear, accessories, unique gifts, and awesome items to put under the tree.
Stocking Stuffers Under $15
Field Notes Memo Book
Field Notes co-founder Aaron Draplin is an avid collector of vintage memo books once used by farmers. Based in Chicago, Field Notes memo books are entirely made in America and designed for modern-day use. Their lineup includes pocket-sized memo books, national park-themed memo books, and larger notebooks.
Field Notes memo books are perfect for jotting down directions to local attractions, tidbits of information about the destinations you visit, and important information like phone numbers and street addresses. With this handcrafted leather journal cover, you’ll always have a memo book when you need it.
DEVICO Travel Utensils
Taking the leftovers of savory food back to the hotel can be fantastic the next door – but not if you are lacking utensils to eat them with! The DEVICO Travel Utensils are the perfect companion for the road tripper, weekend adventurer, or general traveler.
Fork, knife, spoon, chopsticks, straight straw, bent straw, and straw cleaner – the entire set is made of stainless steel and comes in a nifty zipper case for easy travel. Never dig for plastic sporks again!
Adventure Medical Kit .5
Cuts, scraps, bites, and pricks – getting hurt while traveling is bound to happen. Having a great first aid kit in the car only helps when you’re in the car. For all other incidents, the Adventure Medical Kit .5 can take care of minor scrapes and cuts right away.
The small first aid kit features bandages, clean wipes, blister pads, and accessories to treat minor injuries. The kit comes in a waterproof case to keep the contents in excellent condition until needed. Small enough to fit in a pocket, you can take this first aid kit anywhere you travel.
ARTIKA Travel Sewing Kit
Accidents happen while traveling – and sometimes that means to our clothes. Ripped seams, missing buttons, torn pockets. It’s easy enough to put on a different pair of shorts, but if you’re on a long trip you might need to repair what you have.
The ARTIKA Travel Sewing Kit has everything you need for minor repairs to clothing. The travel kit features 30 needles, 12 colored threads, needle threader, scissors, and tape measure. Complete in a zippered case, it’s easy to travel with this kit.
Tide to Go Instant Stain Remover Pens
Stains happen while traveling – especially at the barbeque restaurant. When the worst happens, pull out the Tide to Go Pen to remove the stain before it becomes worse. The three-pack will keep you going for awhile on the road while traveling and can be stored just about anywhere.
Stocking Stuffers Under $30
Addalock
Hotel rooms almost always have a deadbolt lock to keep you safely secured inside. But what about long-term rentals, Airbnb, and bed and breakfasts? Often, these types of lodging feature only the lock on the doorhandle.
Addalock gives you the opportunity to add a lock to a door that needs an extra. The device uses a durable piece of metal that slips into the door’s latch, secures the faceplate, and then secures to the inside of the closed door. Addalock only works on residential doors, but it secures those doors against lock picks and kick ins.
Fenix Flashlight
On the road, in a hotel room, or just looking for a pair of socks buried in a duffel bag, a flashlight comes in very handy while traveling. The Fenix series of flashlights are perfect for travel with an all-metal body, incredible brightness, and durability.
The Fenix E12 features 160 lumens with a 75-yard reach and operates on a single AA battery. Only 3” long, it’s the perfect EDC accessory.
Anker Elite Dual Charger
Smartphones and tablets always come with their own charging blocks – and I recommend you use those blocks – but noise cancelling headphones, wireless earbuds, and lots of tech accessories rely on providing your own USB power source. The Anker Elite Dual Charger is a great option for keeping these devices charged.
Featuring two USB-A charging ports each with 12W of power, the Dual Charger can keep most electronic devices and accessories charged on a daily basis. The plug folds into the body of the charger, making it easy to pack in your suitcase.
HEROCLIP Hanger
The HEROCLIP is an aptly named travel accessory because it can be a hero when you need it. The versatile device can function like a standard carabiner clip but it also includes a folding hook that rotates 360-degrees.
Use the HEROCLIP to hang your bag, water bottle, or digital camera from just about any kind of surface – tabletop, deck railing, or chair. With a 60-pound capacity, you’ll find reasons to use this clip.
Darn Tough Quarter Cushion Socks
Everybody gets socks for Christmas – make sure they’re a great pair. Darn Tough Quarter Cushion Socks are perfect for outdoor adventures, weekend getaways, or just walking around town.
Made with merino wool, the socks are comfortable year-round. In the summer, the socks keep your feet dry and cool. In the winter, they’ll keep your feet cozy warm. And true to their name – they are darn tough socks.
National Park Week 2024
Learn about the annual celebration of the National Park System and read my travel guides to national park units across the country.
Stocking Stuffers Under $50
Ocoopa Rechargeable Hand Warmer
Cold hands, warm heart is a nice slogan for date night, but in reality, cold hands are just miserable. Of course, gloves would be a nice way to stave off the coldness – or you could use the Ocoopa Rechargeable Hand Warmer.
With a 10,000mAh lithium-ion battery, the electric hand warmer features three settings from 95-degrees to 131-degrees and can last up to 15 hours. When the battery dies, simply plug it into a USB-C charger for a quick recharge.
The Wander Club Travel Keepsake
The Wander Club Travel Keepsake is an interesting way to collect mementos from your travels. The keepsake begins with a Token Holder – leather keychains or necklaces. Then, tiny travel tokens are slipped onto the holders. Tokens are engraved with names of states, countries, landmarks, and national parks – and you can order custom engravings.
Orvis Engraved Brass Luggage Tags
A unique gift for the frequent traveler would be the gorgeous Engraved Brass Luggage Tags from Orvis. Up to four lines of custom text – each twenty-five characters long – can be engraved onto brass tags with brass carabiner hooks. With a set of three custom tags, it’s a good start to getting all the bags tagged before the next adventure!
Tile and Apple AirTag
When Tile came on the market in 2017, it helped people find their lost keys, track stolen bags, and reconnect with the accessory case they left behind. Since then, the world of Bluetooth trackers has expanded with the addition of Apple AirTags.
Bluetooth trackers cannot connect to a cellular network independently, instead relying on nearby smartphones. Tile devices transmit their locations to other Tiles or smartphones with the Tile app installed and setup. AirTag uses the Find My network, similar to how Apple users can track their lost or stolen iPhone, iPad, or MacBook Pro, connecting to other iPhones to transmit location. This limits both options to relying on other devices for tracking, but the Apple network is much larger.
Tile has more options for devices. The Tile Sticker is the smallest device and perfect for small travel items like speakers, headphones, and even tablets. The Tile Slim is the size of a credit card, perfect for slipping into a wallet, purse, or protective case of a tablet. The Tile Mate is the device that started it all, perfect for attaching to keychains, slipping into bags, or attaching to digital cameras. The Tile Pro is the most powerful with a longer transmission range, allowing your most important items to be better tracked if lost or stolen.
Apple only offers a single version of the AirTag. The AirTag uses a simple one-tap setup to instanly connect to your Apple ID account, allows you to give each AirTag a unique name, and tracks everything through the Find My app on Apple devices. One of the biggest advantages of AirTag is the tiny built-in speaker that emits a sound on command to help you pinpoint the location.
When deciding which to buy, it may come down to as simple as the smartphone used. AirTag will only work with iPhones, and while Tile will work with both Apple and Android devices, it’s better working with Android.
Amazon FireTV Stick
Many luxury and mid-range hotels are upgrading to smart televisions with the option to sign in to your Netflix or Hulu account while traveling. But not all streaming services are available – content like HBO Max and Paramount+ – and not all televisions have been upgraded.
The safter bet would be to travel with the compact Amazon FireTV Stick. Almost all flatscreens in hotel rooms feature a USB port. Simply plug the FireTV Stick into the port, connect it to the hotel’s Wifi, and you’re ready to stream your favorite shows and movies from the streaming services you’re subscribed to already.
Leatherman Multitool
Victorinox may set the standard for the multitool with their Swiss Army knife – first produced in Switzerland in 1891 – but Leatherman sets the standard for an American-made multitool. Since the company’s founding in 1983, Leatherman multitools have been produced in a factory in Portland, Oregon.
The Leatherman Squirt PS4 is pocket-sized at just 2.25-inches long and features 14 useful tools – needle-nose pliers, scissors, three screwdrivers, wire cutters, metal file, straight knife and a bottle opener.
Anker PowerCore III 10K Power Bank
In a world of mobile devices, endless streaming, and constant data transfers, we need power to our cellphones more than ever. Anker is an industry leader in portable power banks for cellphones, tablets, and laptops, but with their latest power bank they have taken to the next level.
The Anker PowerCore III 10K Power Bank features a Qi charger to wireless charge your cellphone. This allows you to simply place the phone beside the charger in a bag, purse, or flat surface, and the charging begins. With a 10,000mAh lithium-ion battery, you’ll be able to charge your mobile device dozens of times.
Anker USB Car Charger
Cellphones, tablets, power banks, and headphones. Our lives are increasingly demanding on rechargeable lithium batteries. But if you’re anything like me, you only spend about 8-10 hours at a hotel each day, which can make it difficult to charge multiple devices.
The Anker 42W USB Car Charger is the perfect way to charge devices on the go. Plug the device into the 12V charger in the car – all cars have at least one – and you have access to a 30W USB-C port and 12W USB-A port. This will allow you to charge most mobile devices and accessories while road tripping!
Manfrotto PIXI EVO Mini Tripod
Capturing photos and videos with smartphones can be a lot easier with a good tripod. But who wants to lug around a hefty aluminum tripod all day? The Manfrotto PIXI EVO Mini Tripod stuffs into the bottom of a bag but can easily support a smartphone when needed.
The tabletop tripod features extendable legs, a smooth ballhead, and a quick knob for attaching a smartphone bracket.
Joby GripTight Pro 2
Cellphones are the most used digital camera for recording video and capturing still photos. Naturally, people want to hold cellphones vertically – but that doesn’t always make for the best videos or photos. That’s why the Joby GripTight Pro 2 is such a useful accessory.
The grip can secure a cellphone to a tripod or handle grip and – using a knob on the back – rotate from a vertical orientation to horizontal. The Pro 2 – the latest version made by Joby – also includes a cold shoe mount for adding a small light or microphone.
Travel Magazine Subscriptions
Ranging from regional to entire states and beyond, travel magazines can be a fantastic source of inspiration throughout the year. With monthly issues arriving in the mail, subscribers will be treated to gear reviews, destination guides, and ideas for future travel. Most magazine subscriptions are under $50, and some are much cheaper.
Stocking Stuffers Under $100
Black Diamond ReVolt 350 Headlamp
Late night hiking, searching for something in the car, or just going for a walk down the street, a good headlamp can literally light the way. The Black Diamond ReVolt 350 Headlamp is a great headlamp.
The rechargeable lithium-ion battery can last up to 200 hours on the lowest power setting, but just in case you can swap it with three AAA batteries. With a maximum 350 lumens power, the headlamp can reach almost 300 feet.
Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Wireless Earbuds
Noise cancelling headphones are great for use in coffee shops, airplanes, and crowded places, but do you want to be one of those people wearing them while walking down the street? While out and about exploring a destination, the Anker Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Wireless Earbuds are perfect for listening to music, making phone calls, or listening to directions.
The earbuds will last for about 7 hours on a single charge, but the carrying case acts as a second battery and adds an additional 21 hours of charge. Use the earbuds as a stereo pair or independently, each with a built-in microphone for making phone calls.
