I am so excited to share this with you all today! I stumbled across The Six Box on Instagram one day and I knew that I absolutely had to see what it is all about. A care package for military spouses. I love it!! The ladies over at The Six Box sent me their August box and I’m in love. This box is adorable and fun and I can see myself absolutely sending this box out to girlfriends that need a little pick me up for whatever reason – deployment, TDY, or just regular military life craziness. Founded by military spouses and made with them in mind, make this a wonderful business to support. Megan and Alana are two amazing women that have worked hard for this and Cammo Style Love is proud to support them!!
10 Awesome Holiday Carepackage Ideas {Sponsored Post}
It’s about that time to start putting together your Holiday/Christmas themed care packages for your deployed or TDY service members. I love putting them together because it helps send a little bit of home to them. You get to feel a little more connected with them when they are gone. I know that if you aren’t a regular with the care-packages it can feel a little daunting starting the process. What to put in, what not to put in, themed and all that fun little stuff. But never fear, Cammo Style Love is here. If you aren’t like me and just enjoying going out and staring at the aisles in the store to make it up as I go along, then maybe Pinterest is your friend. Make sure you’re following my Military Tips and Fun board on Pinterest. Planning ahead and preparation are good things sometimes. So, with that in mind, here are some of my favorite holiday care package ideas!
1. ELF themed carepackage – I’m not sure what else feels more like Christmas than the movie Elf. So much fun right? This care-package calls for easy to ship gingerbread cookies and some other fun things you see in the movie. Watch the movie with your kids while you’re putting this together. It will surely get you in the holiday spirit.
2. Deployment Stocking Stuffers – This amazing post is by another military spouse blogger, whom I’m super blessed to call friend. Jo has an amazing blog in general and has tons of care-package ideas on her blog {so make sure you bookmark it!}. From the practical to the fun, these ideas are sure to make for one awesome care-package.
3. Handprint Art! – I love love love handprint/fingerprint art, and my kids love making it. When Mr. Air Force is deployed we are constantly including art for him and he loves it. It ends up all over his room, and taped to the understand of his bunk {or on the ceiling above}. Plus, these ideas make great Christmas presents for your family. My go to place for all my fingerprint/handprint art needs is the Fun Handprint Art blog!
4. Decorating the box – Check out my Halloween Care Package post for how we decorated the inside of the box. It’s a super easy way and can be customized for any occasion. If you want to use wrapping paper that’s a breeze as well. The way that I do it is by simply take the box apart, lay it flat, (I order the package of USPS priority mail boxes and those come apart easy) wrap it and then put it back together. Easy breezy!!
5. Dollar Store!! Dollar Store!! Dollar Store!!!! – The Dollar Store, or whatever you have that is similar to you, is my first stop when putting together a care-package. I go there for my wrapping paper, stickers, little decorations to fit the holiday and cheap necessities.
7. cake in a jar – This is my go to for deployment treats! You can buy cake mix or make from scratch any kind you want. Grab yourself some of the small mason jars with lid and seal. Prep them as you would cupcakes – preheat oven as directed and spray glass jars. Fill them like you would a cupcake tin, about 1/3 full. After you pull them out of the oven, trim any excess that has started to come out and immediately seal. The heat causes the jars to self-seal (you’ll hear the pop!). Include some frosting and you’re good to go!
8. Letters – Especially during holidays and birthdays I collect letters, and extra Christmas cards, from myself, the kids, our friends and families and include them in the box. They can take their time opening them or open them all at once. Depending on their living situation, including some twine or ribbon for them to hang the cards from in their quarters is a fun idea as well.
9. Snow in a Can – there’s a couple different types you can find on amazon. It’s just plain fun right?
Instant Snow in a Can
Instant Magic Snow in Can
10. Don’t Forget New Year’s! – Its right after your winter season holidays, whatever you celebrate, so don’t forget it! This simple pin I found is probably the easiest and sweetest thing I’ve ever seen! It’s just too cute so click the link.
Halloween Care Package with Kids
Holidays are always a fun time to make care packages, its easy to find stuff to put in it and to decorate with. This time we are discussing Halloween because its just about that time. You’ve still got time to get those packages put together and sent out to your service member. Our first stop was Dollar Tree because, why not!!!?
First thing is you have to have some fluff for the package so things don’t get jostled around. We picked up some orange shredded paper and some scary Halloween fabric. It is surprisingly big and thick! It was perfect for packing some of the more delicate things I had going in this time around.
Picking up a few whimsical things for a good laugh was also important to me. It’s Halloween, a fun holiday to be like a kid. And if they hubby has to miss all the silly fun I’m going to bring as much fun to him and his pals over there as I can. So, I picked up a few plastic halloween cups with funny sayings on them. I snagged four for a dollar.
Next the kids picked out a package of pirate patches! It will be perfect for an awesome deployment picture. There is a whole row of Trick-Or-Treat alternatives or Halloween Party Favors right now at Dollar Tree and they are just the right amount of silly fun. Pack it up with hard candy that won’t melt everywhere (even though its starting to get cold here its still 90 to 110 degrees over there) and toss in a few eyeballs and you’re good to go.
Decorating a box can be tricky…so you’ve got to be creative. I cut up paper that could be taped to the flaps and let the kids draw and decorate them. They are cut out perfectly to fit over the boring brown box flaps. Other options would be colored paper or themed wrapping paper.
Make sure to decorate the outside of the box too!! It’s so much fun for the kids and it just builds up that anticipation for your service member as they are opening it!