Author of Be Ready for Anything and Build a Better Pantry on a Budget online course
We all have them. Those people we care about who think we’re nuttier than a bag of pecans for our prepping endeavors.
Although they’re doubting Thomases, we still love them and want them to be safe in an emergency. I’ve put together a list of gifts with a survival twist that you can get for the folks you love. One day, they may look at that gift, think of you, and be extremely grateful. (Here’s an article about some gentle persuasion to get them on board.)
Below, you’ll find some kits that you can put together for a loved one, as well as some smaller, stocking-stuffer-type presents. If the gift recipients in your life are already preppers, here’s a list of gift ideas for them.
Survival Kits
An Emergency Food Kit
In the event of a power outage, people who are unprepared can quickly run out of things to eat or a way to cook them. Put together a kit that provides food sealed up for the long term, an emergency cooking method, and fuel for the cooking method. I recommend:
- https://amzn.to/4gh0E74A grab-and-go bucket of food
- A butane burner (This can be used indoors if you exercise caution)
- Butane fuel canisters
A Vehicle Emergency Kit
This kit won’t be as thorough as the prepper version, but if you put it in a handy bucket, they’ll probably stash it in their vehicle and forget it, and it will be there when they need it.
- Compact Thermal Sleeping Bag
- Extra socks
- Gloves and a hat
- Granola bars (Clif bars have a lot of caloric bang for the buck)
- Travel water filter (We use the Sawyer Mini)
- Waterproof matches
- Emergency signal (I like these 12-hour ultra-bright glow sticks)
- Emergency Survival Manual (This one belongs in every bug-out bag, purse, car, and home.)
A Home Security Kit
- Door Jammer: This gadget will add some extra security to your doors. You can use this on an inside solid core door to fortify a bedroom or safe room, and you can take it with you for hotel rooms, too. A wedge is a less expensive option.
- Window Alarms: Secure the windows with these wireless magnetic sensors.
- Security Camera: These cameras connect to wifi, so they’re perfect for having eyes on your driveway or gate. However, keep in mind that even a fake camera with a blinking light can serve as a deterrent.
- Pepper Gel: This stuff has an 18-foot range, and unlike an aerosol pepper spray, it won’t be as likely to affect everyone in the room. Warning: If you are a family member suffers from asthma, pepper products and Mace can be debilitating to you as well as the intruder.
- Solar Motion Lights: These guys are wireless, easy to install, and powered by the sun.
Power Outage Kit
You may need to vary this based on the climate of the recipient.
- Mr. Buddy Heater: This is one of the few off-grid heaters that can safely be used indoors. Be sure to add propane to the gift, so they have fuel to run it.
- Carbon Monoxide Detector: Make sure the one you get has battery back-up. These are especially important during a power outage when the person might be using off-grid heating methods.
- Candles: Add some long-burning candles.
- Rechargeable Flashlights: This one stays plugged in until you need it.
- Battery-Operated Fans: These will make life much more pleasant if the power outage takes place in hot weather.
Stocking Stuffers
- The SAS Survival Manual: This handy little classic has the necessary information you need to survive any situation in any climate. My girls both carry one, as do I. It’s tiny and fits easily in a purse.
- Self-Defense Key Chains: This little gadget goes on a key chain. Loop your fingers through the eye holes and the sharp “ears” can be used for self-defense. Be careful, when purchasing these, not to get something that is a concealed blade. Those are illegal in many states and can get a person into big trouble.
- Mini Water Filter: It even comes in multiple colors.
- Super-bright Mini Flashlight: This one is a long-lasting LED light, and it’s tiny enough to go in a purse or glove box easily.
- Pepper Gel: This stuff has an 18-foot range, and unlike an aerosol pepper spray, won’t be as likely to affect everyone in the room. Warning: If you are a family member suffers from asthma, pepper products and Mace can be debilitating to you as well as the intruder. (This is also included in one of the kits above.)
What If They Want to Prep But They’re Not Sure How to Get Started?
Sometimes it isn’t that they don’t want to prep – they just don’t know how to get started. Beginners always have a lot of questions about prepping. If you want to point them in the right direction, I have a few suggestions.
Books
Below, you’ll find some of my favorite books for people who are new to preparedness. (Yes, I’m shamelessly self-promoting my own books too.)
- Be Ready for Anything
- Prepper’s Pantry
- The Prepper’s Water Survival Guide
- Prepper’s Natural Medicine
- Prepper’s Survival Hacks
- The Prepper’s Longterm Survival Guide
What are your favorite stealth survivalist gifts?
Have you snuck some preps into the homes or cars of your loved ones in the form of gifts? What did you get them? Share your ideas in the comments.
Read reviews on Amazon o the door block. You might want to read the reviews and decide if you want to continue to recommend it.
I was just going to comment the same thing. Many poor reviews of the door jammer breaking. I am not buying.
I make a candle kit. I put candles & matches in a jar or can that had a lid. When they need it they just light a candle & drip some wax in the lid this will hold the candle & the lip of the top will keep the wax from running all over the place
The other thing I get are solar lamps or flash lights with a radio in it. They can also charge their cell phone with it.
Awesome article. I got my husband a stocking with all sorts of preppers items in it. Also got him a lighter that will light 1,000 on a single charge.
Our kids don’t want to hear about prepping, but love the gifts we give them. This year will be fruit trees and steaks for the freezers we bought them a couple of years ago. Not big and expensive and all of them have birthdays near Christmas so I can combine gifts. I get them things for camping that double as prepping like nice lanterns with extra batteries or cooking utensils for over the fire. Birthday gifts one year were Colman stoves for camping.
If I gave them a book on prepping they would roll their eyes and hand it back but they don’t realize how much more prepared they have become. All have gardens, one has chickens, and all are starting to take power outages a little more seriously since our area’s infrastructure has been getting older and we lose power more frequently.
Sometimes you have to use the stealth method to get your kids to listen. Just talk about your garden and how much you’ve saved by using your wood stove. Use words like homesteading and natural foods. Anything to get them to listen!
Foraging!????
Another idea, either by retail or DIY: The Copenhagen design solar panel cooker.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Camping-Oven-Stove-Solar-Cooker-Hot-Dogs-Hamburgers-Chicken-Bread-AM-PM-All-Year/352375119744?hash=item520b319f80:g:OZYAAOSw~oFXIYj~:rk:3:pf:0
From the California inventor, Sharon Clausson, whose ebay seller ID is booksclaustoys
Her current retail price on eBay is $48 including shipping. However, for DIY enthusiasts she also has posted how-to plans for dirt cheap construction (under $5 in materials, roughly), called the Purple Fig design, linked inside this article all about her Copenhagen solar cooker design:
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Copenhagen_Solar_Cooker_Light
The wikia article also links to several YouTube how-to make and use videos on her cooker.
The last time I made one on a DIY basis, I found four already aluminized poster board sheets at Hobby Lobby for $1.20 each. Those plus a couple of scrap pieces of coroplast (a plastic version of thick cardboard from Home Depot), one piece of velcro slit lengthwise into four strips (instead of the shoe laces Sharon uses), and four large size paper clasps, saves you from having to spray-glue aluminum foil onto poster board. For such a solar cooker that’s usable during the roughly 2/3rds of the year there’s good sunshine, and that can be aimed at, and adjusted for, the sun from basically sunrise until sundown — and that’s compact, take-apart easily, and lightweight enough to be backpackable, it’s an excellent design.
Not a bad Christmas idea, whether retail or DIY. Take your pick.
–Lewis
EEK! I’ve bought as Christmas gifts two necklaces that conceal a small blade! How do I check whether they are legal in the states where my recipients live? (Florida and Virginia) I don’t want to give a gift that will get these ladies in trouble!
Many thanks for any help!
Amy
Hi Amy. For Florida the concealed blade must be less than 4 inches long
While it’s nice to give Christmas gifts I usually give presents throughout the year knowing that the person really wants that item. Then I don’t feel rushed to get anything during the holidays.
I have doubts if the person is going to use a practical prepper gift especially if they’re expecting a fun gift.
And if you’re a budget prepper spent the present on yourself since you will use it. You’ll can help people during SHTF. They’ll appreciate it then.
Might want to check-up on the Buddy Heater being used indoors.
Cody Lundin’s are good. He has a way to explain things.
Thanks to Lewis for the solar oven link.
And of course on the first day of Christmas give MoraKniv knifes. They’re cheap and good quality for the price range of twelve to twenty dollars. Get one with a handle hand guard for novices. The knife will more likely be used everyday.
John, my Mother and I used 2 Mr. Heater Big Buddy propane heaters indoors for 3 days during and immediately after the first of the “Snowmageddon” blizzards that hit our area several years ago. We had great results with them and feel they literally saved our lives in that power outage. We made sure to keep a window cracked open a bit in the room where the heaters were being used and also had a battery-operated Carbon monoxide detector running in that room the whole time.
One year I put together car emergency kits for several people. They included a bottle of water, pair of gloves, sock hat, Mylar blanket, candles and matches. I told them to just put it in the trunk of their car in case they brake down or have an accident. I hope they never need them but it’s there if they do.
I understand why candles are often recommended but I have to suggest 12 hour glow sticks instead. (Yellow – just for the cheeriness of it.) Safe in the house with pets, even if you fall asleep. Safe in the car if you’re stuck by the side of the road. Easy to keep handy and they won’t melt in the glove box. 🙂
I like glowsticks fine, and keep them around because they are handy, but I will continue to keep candles and lighters around because they work as a weak heat source. Not amazing, but broke down in a car in blizzard, some heat source beats no heat source.
Some great ideas! I went with a more low budget option and put together a winter survival kit for a friend. Bottled water, assorted snacks (including chocolate ????), chemical hand warmers, a hat and pair of gloves, a couple of space blankets, a flashlight, a scraper/brush, a can of stuff that would fit in her purse to unfreeze the locks, a crossword puzzle book and a pen, a treated cloth to wipe down the windshield so it wouldn’t fog up and a set of jumper cables.
She wound up using it, too! It was a bad winter that year and she got stuck when her battery died. Took the tow truck three hours to get there, so she wrapped herself in the blankets, ate her snacks and did puzzles while she waited.
Magnesium fire starters, water proof matches, glow sticks, polar fleece bivy bags, LED flashlights, Luci lanterns, Mylar blankets, leather work gloves, watch caps, Sierra cups, and that’s all I can specifically remember.
I love hearing my loved one’s experience after using a Kelly Kettle for the first time. The ultimate Scout Kit fits the bill for friends and family, allows them to boil water quickly, grill, and cook virtually anything with the hobo stove. The best part is that they don’t have to buy, carry, or even store fuel, and it packs up so small that storage is never an issue. This is one of my favorite gifts to give, and it has never not been very much appreciated.
i give fire blankets
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B46PNV4V?maas=maas_adg_api_585536984559586880_static_9_129&ref_=aa_maas&tag=bestprodtagw4361-20&aa_campaignid=lv_WZnil7Muicb2QkkB8z&aa_adgroupid=lv_c7YK3s73MAZopi7HkE&aa_creativeid=lv_aDCApULnqw1TapVyTI&m=A25XYDKD3RWS07
they will save a life or home.
I love your book How to Prep When You’re Broke! I bought a copy for myself and then one for my daughter for Christmas!
One year I did fire blankets
Another one was the duct tape/mylar blanket/life gear glow stick style flashlight for glove compartment of car
This year as stocking stuffer it was those curad travel bandage kit for $1.25 at dollar tree / hand warmers and single packet of aleve/tylenol/allergy pill/mini hand sanitizer
I also threw in packet of aqua tab and P&G water purifier packets for a traveling family member since last time the sawyer mini was a step too far🫤