Preparedness Christmas: Stocking Stuffer Ideas

This will be the first of a couple themed posts around having a “Preparedness Christmas”. With world and U.S. conditions being what they are, if you’re like me the last thing you can stomach right now is the idea of spending a bunch of money on silly toys and other frivolous items that will be either lost or destroyed (and somewhat unappreciated) within a week or so of Christmas. Christmas gift giving is a great time to think about sharing the security and comfort of being prepared with the rest of your family. Stocking Stuffers We Americans have this bizarre tradition of filling a once a year used sock with candy, junk, and usually one valuable gift as if “Santa” left it all there. For this first installment of a Preparedness Christmas, we talk about filling those stockings with prep related items. I’m sure everyone could easily sit down and make a list of things, but it’s the kind of thing that it helps to have a brain jolt to get started. So, here’s a quick list of preparedness related things that you could use as stocking stuffers.

1. Backpack (If you don’t have 72 hour kits yet, you could fill the sock with tons of stuff needed for it, the backpack would be to hold it all)
2. Flashlight (those $12 16 LED Tactical lights they have at the gas station would be great for this)
3. Manual Can Opener - If you have a grocery store’s worth of cans in your storage room, manual can openers are critical!)
4. Multi-Purpose Tool - These can be picked up at Wal-Mart for as little as $14.00
5. Pocket Knife - a cheap one for kids can be as cheap as $5.00 - adults should always have a good$50.00 or so knife in their kit
6. Compass - a functional cheap one will run about $8.00 and up
7. Small First Aid Kit - can be found for $15 -$30 bucks
8. Small Sewing Kit - A simple one can be bought or put together for around $10.00
9. Toothbrush
10. Floss
11. Fishing Gear
12. Mylar Blanket
13. Toilet Paper - the small pack size ones
14. Small toys for small kids - got to keep them entertained for 72 hours!
15. pens/pencils/small notebook
16. Metal cup (I recommend a Sierra Cup)
17. Sturdy plastic ware - there is a great product that has a fork on one end and a spoon on the other that you can get for about $2.00
18. Rope
19. Extra light bulbs and batteries for the flashlight
20. Hiking Socks
21. Stocking Hat
22. Mittens or Gloves
23. Nail Clippers
24. Strike Anywhere matches with a waterproof holder
25. Light Sticks
26. Handwarmers
27. Hard Candy
28. Miniature set of scriptures
29. Water Filtration set
30. MREs

There are lots of other things you could put in there, hopefully this quick list will get you thinking! One of the great advantages of having a Preparedness Christmas is that you won’t be fighting all the lines at the “regular people” stores.