Christmas Gift Ideas
Here's a couple of ideas for Christmas. They include luxury items. Some are geared toward little gear kits for camping. Other are home-made device.
Most people have a passion of one kind or another. Don't give people prepper things, unless they are a prepper. Give people practical gifts that will help them live easier instead. It's the same thing, but the latter will be more welcomed.
Delicious gifts
Biscotti is a wonderful cookie that is sweet and fulfilling and stores well. It's not difficult to make. It does seem more fancy since it's purchased in specialty stores with European goods.
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link to allrecipes.com]
Every year people get chocolate truffles. They're delicious and fast to make(about an hour actual preparation time). Dark chocolate in moderation, is good for the heart due to antioxidants.
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Tea kits. Purchase a small French press. They make ones for camping. Then buy 2-3 boxes of high quality tea for healing from Traditional Medicinals. Their products are quite extraordinary. I have many many of their teas since I've consistently have had good luck with their blends for various illnesses.
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link to www.traditionalmedicinals.com] Other kinds of teas can be purchased like a good Sri Lankan tea, or an excellent smoky tasting tea like Lapsang souchong, or something simple like mint.
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link to en.wikipedia.org] Put in there that black teas can have just as much caffeine if allowed to steep, something most people don't know. That's helpful since many people have leftover tea in their homes because it's not as popular, but don't realize that in an emergency they can deal with a caffeine headache with tea.
You can do the same for unroasted coffee beans with the French press. The kit will include how to roast the beans and illustrate how the beans will stay fresh (2-10 years) versus ground coffee. Get them a hand mechanical grinder, not electric.
Practical gifts
Make a rocket stove of small and medium sizes with used up cans. Very simple. You can do this.
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It produces very intense heat with minimal seasoned wood. It's ideal for camping because big fires are not good for cooking in camping situation. It's a great emergency use stove.
Make a very quickly constructed book safe. This is an inexpensive and useful gift. Find an old book at the Salvation Army store with an interesting cover.
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A Brita filter w/Pitcher makes a good gift that purifies water all in one for someone that drinks a lot of bottled water.
Nalgene bottles for water/food storage
A stainless steel camping pot. Many are included in camping cooking kits.
Purchase a picnic basket and a Coleman enamelware set (about $30). Very practical, helpful to reduce breakage, easy to clean, durable, facilitates family closeness, etc.
A Coleman camp stove and fuel.
A tarp and a blanket. The tarp has a gazillion uses like catching rainwater or being the groundcover for a tent, but illustrate them putting it down and then placing the blanket for sitting outside picnicking or outdoor concerts.
Woven reed beach mats are sooooo practical. They're light; they repel becoming dirty; simple to carry. One of very best things for camping but most people don't use them. Very good kid item for use playing outside.
Kid items
Fresnel lens and case for examining Nature close up and starting fires. Demonstrate how hot it can get. It's way better than a magnifying lens. For people afraid they will start fires....ummm why? It's not like matches. I doubt they'll start and accidental fire this way. Children need to learn how to start a fire and this is a good skill and the easiest means of teaching them.
A blank journal and a kid friendly book on it. It should talk about creating short term practical goals and reading those goals every day in order to work toward achieving them.
A good durable portable chess set and a teaching book. Learning the art of war and strategy is immensely useful.
A good lockblade to prevent the knife from folding back on the user's fingers.
