The stocking stuffers that get used all year.

Victorinox makes this paring knife in Switzerland, with a thin stamped blade of about 3 inches and a textured polypropylene handle that stays put in a wet hand. It is light, sharp out of the box, and it goes in the dishwasher, which is where most good knives go to die and this one does not mind.

It is the knife for hulling strawberries, trimming shallots and cutting a lemon for a drink. Owners tend to buy a second one once they realize how often they reach for it, which makes it an easy gift to repeat.

Skip it for someone who already keeps a drawer of them, which is more common than you might think. For them, the shears are the better small gift.

Kuhn Rikon makes its Original Swiss Peeler in Rikon, Switzerland, and it has become the peeler many cooks recommend before anything else. The blade is carbon steel, straight and very sharp, so it takes a thin skin off a carrot or an apple with little waste, and the Y shape works for left and right hands alike. There is a potato eye remover on the side.

Three in one pack means one for the stocking and two to hand around the family, or one for the kitchen, one for the bar where it cuts a clean strip of citrus peel for a drink, and one spare.

The handles are plastic and light enough to feel almost like a toy. Anyone who wants a heavy, metal peeler should look elsewhere.

Bee's Wrap is cotton coated in beeswax, organic plant oils and tree resin, made in the United States. The warmth of a hand softens it enough to press around a half lemon, the cut end of a cheese or the top of a bowl, and it holds its shape as it cools.

The assorted pack has a small, a medium and a large. Owners report the medium is the one that gets used most, usually on a wedge of cheese, which keeps better in a wrap that breathes than sealed in plastic.

It is not for raw meat, and it will not survive hot water or the dishwasher. Wash it cool with a little soap and hang it to dry. Skip it for a household that wants something they never have to think about.

Most kitchens are one good pair of scissors short. These 7 inch shears from Zwilling have stainless steel blades and light, shaped handles, and there is a rotary opener built into the handle for stiff jar lids.

They are the tool for snipping herbs, opening packaging, trimming the fat from a chop and cutting pizza at the table. Keep them in the kitchen and they stop disappearing to the desk drawer.

They do not come apart for cleaning, so anyone who wants to break down a chicken regularly should spend a little more on a pair that does.

Earlywood makes its flat sauté by hand in Red Lodge, Montana. It is a single piece of hardwood, 13 inches long and thin at the working edge, finished with food-safe oil and no stain. This one is jatoba, a dense reddish-brown wood.

The flat edge is the point. It scrapes the bottom of a pot cleanly, turns an egg, stirs a risotto and pushes chopped onions off a board. Two of them make a pair of salad servers. It is safe on nonstick and enameled cast iron.

It is not dishwasher safe, and it wants a rub of oil now and then. Skip it for a kitchen where everything goes into the machine.

The mini cocotte is Le Creuset's Dutch oven shape shrunk to 8 ounces and made in stoneware rather than cast iron. It is sized for a single serving of French onion soup, a baked egg, a pot of butter or a little dish of olives, and the lid keeps things warm between kitchen and table.

Le Creuset rates its stoneware from minus 9 to 500 degrees Fahrenheit and says it is safe in the freezer, oven, microwave, broiler and dishwasher. The glaze resists stains and flavors, and it does not craze easily.

One is a charming stocking gift. Anyone who serves individual portions will want four, and at this price that is a larger present than it first seems.