Holiday Stockings
Year after year we dig into our holiday stockings with feigned wonder and joy—only to find the same disappointing edibles inevitably inside: Candy canes. Hershey kisses. Peppermint bark. A tangerine.
Thanks for the big surprise, Santa. We totally didn’t see that coming. Imagine if his pint-size minions up north actually put some thought into stuffing our stockings rather than mindlessly filling them with the same old boring candy. Picture yourself discovering clam-flavored canes and Harry Potter chocolate wands rather than red-and-green M&Ms.
This year in Boise, that holiday wish has come true.
In nothing short of a Christmas miracle, novelty stores across town are, ahem, stocking their shelves with wacky sweets, intriguing edibles and other curios.
Re-POP Gifts at 210 N. 10th St. in Boise, for example, is loaded with eyebrow-raising edibles for the nerds (but not Nerds). In stock are Harry Potter candies ranging from chocolate wands to gummies to Harry Potter Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans; and items inspired by the cult-favorite TV program “Rick and Morty”: Plumbus, a gummy candy; Strawberry Smiggles, a crunchy candy; and Mr. Meeseeks, blue raspberry sours that come in tin boxes.
Re-POP also has white-chocolate-covered Oreos made by Sweet Valley Cookie, and a variety of holiday-themed mints and sodas.
“I don’t know if anyone would put sodas or energy drinks in a stocking, but we’ve got them,” Re-POP co-owner Millie Hilgert said.
Santa, the gauntlet has been thrown.
Meanwhile, Flying M’s small-but-always-packed gift shop at 5th and Idaho has caramel cubes from Spokandy, a candy company based in Spokane. The shop carries four to five flavors, with the Huckleberry Vanilla Dulce De Leche Caramel standing as the most popular. Flying M also sells the ubiquitous but hard-to-pronounce Christmas cookie Stroopwafels, which look like small waffles. The sweet wafer, a traditional Dutch snack, can be placed on top of a coffee mug, with the coffee’s heat melting its caramel center.
And finally, Mixed Greens at 213 N. 9th St. is offering an array of sea salt caramels and a blend of holiday-themed teas while Record Exchange’s gift shop at 1105 W. Idaho St. carries pizza- and clam-flavored candy canes (you read that right), rubber chicken and Bigfoot mints, and lobster candy from Archie McPhee.
With all these innovative stocking-stuffer options available, Santa should sleigh Boise this year.
Re-POP Gifts | @repopgifts
Sweet Valley Cookie
Flying M Coffee | @flyingmcoffee
Mixed Greens
Record Exchange
