Healthy stocking fillers for kids and adults

What can go into a Christmas stocking, or into a Polish St Nicholas parcel on 6 December, so that it is more than a bag of sweets? A child and an adult call for different treats and different portions, so pick healthy stocking fillers with the person who opens them in mind. Find something good for every name on your list, from the youngest to the grown-ups!

Before you fill the stocking:

• Two dates: a family that keeps both traditions fills a St Nicholas shoe first and a Christmas stocking later in the month.
• Fillers by age: lollipops, fruit snacks and vegan fudge go to children, while adults can get dark chocolate, prunes in chocolate and nut butter.
• A label warning: sweets with more than 10% of polyols such as xylitol, erythritol or maltitol must say they may have laxative effects.
• A ready filler: among our healthy snacks for kids you will find Bob Snail fruit rolls made from just apple and strawberry, small enough for a shoe or a stocking.

What counts as a healthy stocking filler?

Fruit, dark chocolate, nuts, sweets with sweeteners or a vegan take on a classic sweet all qualify when the ingredients and the portion size suit the person.

Give a child smaller pieces, and fewer of them, than an adult. When you browse healthy sweets for kids, check what each sweet is sweetened with and how much one piece weighs.

Healthy stocking fillers for kids

A lollipop, a fruit snack and a piece of fudge or chocolate-covered fruit give a child's stocking three different tastes. You can split these healthy stocking fillers between the St Nicholas shoe and the Christmas stocking.

Sugar-free sweets for kids

The Mniam-Mniam lollipops from Starpharma, sold as sugar-free lollipops, set of 7 flavours, are sweetened with xylitol, gluten-free and made without artificial flavourings, colours or preservatives.

Like erythritol and maltitol, xylitol is a polyol, and polyols can sweeten sugar-free sweets for kids. Sweets with more than 10% polyols must carry the line „excessive consumption may produce laxative effects”, so give such sweets to a child in small portions.

Fruit snacks without added sugar

Bob Snail Apple-Strawberry fruit rolls from the healthy snacks for kids section are made of 80% apple and 20% strawberry. Each 30 g roll has no added sugar and contains naturally occurring sugars (52 g per 100 g), and with 13 g of fibre per 100 g it is high in fibre.

Vegan fudge and chocolate-covered fruit

Super Krowka toffee fudge (150 g) is vegan and gluten-free, made with organic ingredients and sweetened with coconut sugar, which makes up 47.1% of it. With 61 g of sugars per 100 g it remains a classic sweet, and what sets it apart is that it contains no milk.

Bob Snail chocolate-covered fruit crush Apple & Raspberry (30 g) has no added sugar and contains naturally occurring sugars (32 g per 100 g), and with 19 g of fibre per 100 g it is high in fibre. Its dark chocolate has at least 70% cocoa and is sweetened with steviol glycosides, but the snack contains milk, so keep it for someone who eats dairy.

Healthy Christmas stocking fillers for adults

An adult's stocking can take stronger flavours and bigger pieces, so healthy Christmas stocking fillers for grown-ups lean towards dark chocolate, prunes in chocolate and nuts.

Dark chocolate and chocolate-covered prunes

A product can be sold as chocolate only with at least 35% total dry cocoa solids. The percentage on a dark bar shows how much cocoa the bar contains. Compare the bars in our dark chocolate range, from Cocoa's 70% bar with pecans to its 40 g 99% bar, with Meybona 72% and 85% and Torras 72% in between.

Cocoa's prunes in dark chocolate (70 g) suit someone who likes fruit with chocolate: they combine 45% Californian prunes with 55% chocolate made from unroasted cocoa beans, coconut sugar and cocoa butter. The ingredients are certified organic. The product has 11 g of fibre per 100 g, which makes it high in fibre, and 38 g of sugars per 100 g.

Nuts and nut butters

Bio Planet cashew butter (250 g) is made of 100% roasted organic cashews with no added sugar, salt or oils, and it is a source of protein. OstroVit 100% peanut butter contains only roasted peanuts and is also a source of protein.

A jar with a small bag of plain nuts beside it is enough for an adult's stocking.

How do you fill a healthy advent calendar?

Split the 24 windows between a few kinds of treat, so a healthy advent calendar stays varied until 24 December. Put one small portion behind each door. The fillers for children and adults above also work in a family calendar.

24 healthy advent calendar treats: a simple split

For a family calendar, you could divide the windows like this:

• 8 fruit snacks: rolls or bars without added sugar, which still bring the natural sugars of fruit.
• 6 pieces of dark chocolate: single squares for adults, or chocolate-covered fruit for children.
• 6 vegan toffee fudge sweets: a classic sweet made with coconut sugar.
• 4 xylitol lollipops: spaced a few days apart across the month.

If someone in the family avoids milk or nuts, swap the chocolate windows for more fruit snacks and check each pack for allergens.

Sugar-free advent calendar for children

A child's calendar built without sugar takes only treats that meet the legal sugar-free threshold, so fruit rolls, chocolate-covered fruit and coconut-sugar fudge stay out. You can find suitable sweets in the sugar-free sweets category and check the sugars on each pack before one goes behind a window.

In a sugar-free advent calendar you can alternate sweeteners, for example xylitol one day and steviol glycosides the next, so polyols come only every other day.

St Nicholas Day parcel with sugar-free sweets

On 6 December, St Nicholas visits Polish homes and leaves small sweets in a shoe, a sock or under the pillow, almost three weeks before the British Christmas stocking. A family that keeps both traditions in the UK therefore packs two parcels in one month.

The shoe does not need much: a lollipop from the Mniam-Mniam set next to a fruit roll already fills it, and the rest of the set can wait for the stocking or the advent calendar. Saving the fudge and the chocolate-covered fruit for the stocking means the second parcel still brings something new.

Sugar-free sweets vs no added sugar: reading the label

A sweet can be labelled sugar-free only with no more than 0.5 g of sugars per 100 g, while „no added sugars” means no added sugars and no other food used for its sweetness, such as honey, syrup or fruit juice concentrate, although the product can still have sugars of its own. In that case the label has to add „contains naturally occurring sugars”. A product with no added sugar can therefore sit far above the sugar-free threshold.

The nutrition table gives sugars per 100 g, and the ingredients list names the sweetener, whether xylitol, erythritol, maltitol or steviol glycosides. Reading both shows whether a sweet fits a sugar-free advent calendar or belongs with the other stocking treats.

Healthy stocking fillers: our five picks

Five fillers for both ages and both dates:

• Mniam-Mniam lollipops: the set holds seven flavours (mango, pineapple, fizzy cherry, orange, raspberry, strawberry and lemon) at 6 g per lollipop, so a single one also fits an advent window.
• Bob Snail Apple-Strawberry rolls: a 30 g roll for the St Nicholas shoe of a child who prefers fruit to sweets.
• Super Krowka toffee: 150 g to share between several stockings, including one that has to be milk-free.
• Cocoa's prunes in dark chocolate: 70 g for an adult's stocking; the product may contain nuts, so check before giving it to someone who avoids them.
• Cocoa 80% dark chocolate: made from unroasted cocoa beans, coconut sugar and cocoa butter, with 19 g of sugars per 100 g, for an adult who likes a darker bar.

One shopping list can cover both the St Nicholas shoe and the Christmas stocking: choose treats by the person, small pieces for a child and whole bars of dark chocolate or a jar of nut butter for an adult, and use the date only to split the amount, a piece or two for the shoe and the rest for the stocking. Fill both the shoe and the stocking from our kids' sweets and snacks, dark chocolate and sugar-free sweets at 4ecoshop!

Frequently asked questions about healthy stocking fillers

What healthy stocking fillers can replace chocolate?

Fruit rolls, lollipops sweetened with xylitol and a jar of nut butter give something sweet and something creamy with no chocolate at all.

Are sugar-free sweets suitable for young children?

For a young child, look at the ingredients list, because the sugars figure in the nutrition table does not include polyols. A sweet described as sugar-free can still contain xylitol, erythritol or maltitol.

When do Polish children get St Nicholas presents?

On 6 December, St Nicholas Day, they get small presents such as sweets, while the bigger gifts wait for Christmas Eve, called Wigilia, on 24 December.

What does „no added sugar” mean on a label?

It means no sugars and no other food were added for sweetness, and fruit juice concentrate counts as such food when it is used to sweeten, so a fruit snack sweetened with apple juice concentrate cannot carry the claim.

How long do healthy advent calendar treats keep?

Each treat keeps until the best-before date on its own pack, provided it is stored somewhere cool and dry, with chocolate kept away from heat.