I love buying gifts for my boys. There are so many options for inexpensive items that they love. And there are also tons of secretly practical options—the kids think they’re receiving exciting toys, but secretly they serve a down-to-earth purpose. If you haven’t noticed, I’m big on practical, useful gear. It’s way harder to buy a simultaneously cheap AND fun AND practical sort of gift for an adult, but with kids it’s totally doable. Below are our recommendations. And to be clear, we own and use almost all of these products. If we don’t own it, it’s on this list because we covet it ourselves (and we’ll be sure to mention it).
I tried to put all these items into an Amazon list (the ones that are available on amazon at least).
Fire Necklace $12-24
I bought one of these for each of my boys, some friends, and one for myself. Wearing the same necklace helps it to feel like a family bond, to be a shared experience. I also made up some vaseline-soaked cotton ball fire-starters and we practiced starting a fire with our equipment, thereby turning it into an educational opportunity as well. The boys feel empowered, to be able to start their own fire with tools of their own.
The Bushcraft version from Wazoo is the most rustic and stylish, with the nicely knotted leather cord and white ceramic chip. It might seem silly to pay attention to style when choosing such a practical item, but I freely admit that I am more likely to wear it when it also looks good.
The option from Uberleben has a metal striker, which honestly seems like it is more robust and easy to use than the Wazoo ceramic one, and still gets high marks (from me) for looking cool. (I don’t own this one, but if I was going for pure-practical without any nod to good-looks, I would choose this).
A useful accessory for any of these necklaces is some of the paracord with a tinder core. Speaking from personal experience of getting fires from the necklace, the most important factor is the tinder into which you’re throwing the spark. It’s all well and good if you have some vaseline-soaked cottonballs handy, but if all you have is the necklace, the biggest challenge will be with your tinder selection.
Finally, don’t worry too much about your kids using the necklace to burn your house down–it’s self-limiting in a way. It’s not overly easy to start a fire with it–my 5 and 3 year-old can’t do it without help, and it’s still quite challenging for my 7 year old. In my opinion, 5 to 7 is right about the time that you can start teaching them to start fires (outdoors) responsibly anyway, so the timing works out well. Personally, I apply much more oversight to their use of the mini butane lighters from which I deliberately removed the kid-proof spring piece…
First Knife $20-30
This is a tricky one. Sometime between age 0 and age 12, you’ll want your child to start learning how to use a knife properly. No matter when that age arrives, it can be a stressful process. When the time comes, using a friendly learning knife is a small balm to a parent’s worry. Mora Knives designed a starter knife specifically for kids, and they even made an educational write-up to go along with it. The knife is legitimate, though, even for teenagers, as it is decent sized, and definitely not dull. The safety features include a slightly blunted tip that eliminates the stabbing danger, and a crossguard to prevent the hand from slipping up the blade (even writing about that possibility is cringe-worthy for me). Bodie and Jasper have both started using it, with supervision. I’ll have to do a separate dedicated blog post about that process…
Headlamp $20
It’s never too early to receive your first headlamp…
Every outdoors-person needs a headlamp for hands-free adventuring in the dark, period. Boys love flashlights no matter what. What is it, anyway, that’s so compelling about playing in the closet in the dark in the middle of the day? And if your child grows tired of the headlamp and forgets about it, you get to “store” it in the middle console in the car in case of an emergency. I have one in my car, and in my backpack, and hanging on the wall downstairs next to the back door, and hanging on a hook next to the bed… (in some ways, still a boy).
Compass $10
Compass skills get less attention, in this day of GPS (for understandable reasons, I’ll be the first to admit). But a compass can connect a kid to the outdoors in ways otherwise unachievable. After all, it provides a direct visual measurement of the magnetic field that permeates everything and is unique to the geography of our planet. Long after humans are gone from this plane, there will still be a magnetic field and a north pole (though it will undoubtedly move and flip). Not to mention the compasses basic purpose for outdoor navigation, and staying found. It’s a quintessential adventuring tool, even if it’s been largely supplanted by battery-powered electronic GPS devices.
Karen is teaching Bodie multiplication and division, and various other math skills, and learning how to use a compass is a valuable supplement. I assembled a little scavenger hunt for the two older boys last weekend, involving following a course on different headings, and taking bearings to different landmarks, and then having to add them up to obtain the bearing to the small treasure that I buried (a lego kit). It was a great outdoor activity, I’ll have to do a write-up about it.
If you need some education yourself, before teaching the kids, look no farther than this book: The Sierra Club Land Navigation Handbook.
The compass I recommend above is not just for kids, it’s as much compass as you’ll ever need for the rest of your adult life, unless you decide to get into hardcore orienteering. As a gift for kids, it’s almost bombproof, and the ones I gave my boys have survived considerable abuse (what is it about boys wanting to swing everything on a string to smack each other?).
Down Jacket (a Proper Puffy) $100
We have only one recommendation in this category. Molehill. Patagonia puffies are super cute and stylish, and not even close to warm enough for my kids on their hardcore adventures. The key to loving the cold weather… is to NEVER GET COLD. It feels fantastic to be warm and cozy in the freezing cold. If you want your kids to really genuinely like being out in the cold, get them legitimate puffies. A legitimate puffy is SUPER puffy.
The Molehill kids puffies fulfill the criterion. I challenge you to find a puffier option for kids. None of this “we only need a quarter inch of thickness to keep you warm with these magical stylish jackets”. No, you want the puffiest puffy you can find, for yourself and for your kids.
Massively puffy puffies are not easy to find; they are not fashionable these days. And, as far as the clothing company is concerned, the more goose down, the more it costs to make. We don’t wear the puffy for casual warmth, we don’t wear it for rainy conditions; we wear it over top of the fleece as the ultimate, never-be-cold gear solution.
My boys told me just last night that they want to go camp in the snow tonight and then wake up in the dark to hike the ski hill before dawn—one of the reasons that seems appealing to them is because they are used to being warm in their sleeping bags in the tent, and warm in their puffies no matter how cold it gets. If anyone out there has a puffy recommendation that is as puffy as the Molehill ones are, please please share it with me in a comment.
Easy Mittens $15
I hate the process of putting on kids gloves/mittens, over and over and over again. It is one of the most annoying things about dealing with kids in the snow. I recommend the Head mittens with a side zip. Bodie (7) and Jasper (5) have the same size, and they can put them on and off quickly by themselves, and it keeps their hands plenty warm. Forget gloves. Getting their fingers in all the right spots takes TOO LONG for an impatient child, and they’re not as warm anyway. With mittens that they can manage themselves, they’ll just pull them off briefly if they need the dexterity of fingers. We have used these gloves for a few years now with good success. On super cold days on the ski hill, I will put a hand-warmer in each one, and then you may even have to deal with complaints that their hands are TOO warm. As for mittens for younger kids, there are no satisfactory options. Their hands are too small to retain any ability to grab anything (even snow), so the kids get frustrated and pull the gloves off, but then complain that their hands are too cold. if you just need to keep their hands warm for a short outing, put their gloves on before you put on their jacket. Initially harder to push the hands through, but helps keep the gloves from falling off.
Balaclava $25
This item is on the list because my boys still like to pretend to be ninjas. It is also practical for the coldest adventures. I’ll be honest, you’ll have to be pretty hardcore about getting your kids outside in the cold weather before this is a truly useful accessory, but until then it can augment their play time.
Sleeping Bag (for REAL camping) $145
It is pretty hard to find a legitimate youth sleeping bag, in my opinion. “Legitimate” according to my standards, means one rated 20˚F or lower, so that it actually keeps your kid warm when it gets cold (which is the real purpose of the product, after all). And don’t even talk to me about anything other than a mummy bag… if you’re taking it outside for real, a mummy bag is the only choice. We use the North Face Young Aleutian, which is rated to 20˚C and uses synthetic insulation. North Face used to make a down version, which was even better, but I don’t think there was enough market for it. So Bodie has the down version, and Jasper and Emerson have the synthetic version. I can verify that those bags can keep your kids cozy warm down below 20˚F, as we have used them in those conditions (on those nights, I put the boys in two layers of pajamas also—a thin underlayer and then a pair of fleece footies—and honestly they can verge on too-warm that way, even with the ambient temps well below freezing). To make such a practical gift extra fun, let your kids open it christmas eve and then tell them they can sleep under the christmas tree in their new sleeping bag or have a family movie night with everyone hanging out on their bag.
Also, here’s an expert tip: cinch off the bag below where their feet reach. This accomplishes two things: 1) they don’t disappear down into the depths of their bag and get freaked out about it 2) there is less volume for their little body to heat, so they stay warmer.
Altoid Survival Kit $32 (for the commercial one)
Boys love having their own adult stuff. The Altoid Survival kit is one of those things that is equally fun for adults and kids—which makes the boys super excited to be trusted with their own. And it’s quite affordable. You can make your own kit, as I described in detail in this post, which then turns the gift into a fun family activity as well. Or you can buy one of the commercial ready-made ones.
Paracord bracelet (ROPE) $10
My boys have not yet tired of messing about with rope, and judging from my proclivities (i.e. rock climbing and sailing), I doubt they ever will. Every few weeks, they’ll have some need to tie one thing to another thing, sometimes inexplicably (“boys, why is the chair tied to the stool?”…”just playing, dad”).
It might seem inadequate as a gift, though, to just give them a 100ft hank of paracord. Maybe. I’d still do it. But if you need a bit more substance to the gift, get them the paracord with the buckles and a bit of instruction on weaving a simple paracord bracelet. It’s an outdoor survival tool, and a craft project, all in one. You can get as simple or complicated as you want with colors and weave patterns, depending on their age and ability to concentrate. My mom did this as a project with the boys during one of her visits, and Emerson wore his continuously for six months afterwards, including in bed and baths.
There are lots of awesome paracord options, here are some of my preferences:
- Bracelet Kits
- sweet kit with a jig (the jig really helps)
- glow-in-the-dark kids kit
- accessories (buckles, firestarter bits)
- Cord alone
- With integrated tinder strand, for firestarting
- With a retro-reflective strand, which lights up when you shine the headlamp on it, which makes for great tent guylines when kids are around. I use this for all our tentcords.
Backpack $40
This backpack will serve them well from age 3 to 7, and beyond (how far beyond, I can’t rightly say, as we haven’t reached that point yet… but I’m estimating age 10). It’s a bit large on our 3 year-old (see image below), but he still wears it with enthusiasm (just like his older brothers!). It will double as a super-cool school backpack as well, even though it’s overkill for that purpose.
Bodie and Jasper wore theirs to the top of Humboldt peak and back.
Bodie and Jasper have the previous incarnation of the same model; Emerson’s new model is as-good or better, not significantly different.
Indestructible Water Bottle $9-12
Never too young to introduce them to the timeless, classic, incomparable, never equaled NALGENE bottle. Ubiquitous and without equal, throughout the outdoor world, it always comes back to the nalgene.
There are two versions we recommend. The kids-looking one is good as a sippy-cup style, with a valve in it to prevent leaks. It works. We used those for the boys until ~4-5 years old, especially for in the car, and for hot chocolate I pull the valve to avoid annoying spurts. These are not your standard grocery-store/Target style sippy cup.
The 16oz adult-looking one is exactly that–just a scaled down version of the timeless 32oz original size. Unless you lose this water bottle, I guarantee it will survive them to adulthood. It’s never too early to get them started. Just provide some stickers for them to use for identification, just like we’ve been doing for decades.
Shovel $27
Kids love to dig, but kids’ shovels SUCK. Usually. They are small and weak, and usually plastic, and usually break before lifting a useful load. Just because they can wield a full-sized adult shovel doesn’t mean the kids are happy about wasting their digging time with a dumb shovel. This shovel is real, just sized down for kids. My 5 year-old and 7 year-old wield it with aplomb. We take it with us when we camp at the Great Sand Dunes up in Colorado, but it sees the most action in our backyard. I have a full-sized adult-boy shovel strapped to the side of the Xterra rack for camping, so they love having their own version. As for mine, I periodically rub down the shaft with linseed oil. That way, I don’t have to feel guilty about them leaving it laying around in the weather, because it will be fine. Also, I wrapped their handle with hockey tape which is kind of nice, though it needs to periodically be re-done.
It might not be clean and pretty in the picture below, but the Holmes boys don’t roll clean OR pretty.
Books
Magic Tree House Survival Guide $13
The Boys Book of Adventure $11
These books are somewhat hokey and lack rigor by my standards for outdoor skills, but I think my standard might be a tad bit high for this age. These are kids books, after all. In this case, what I think isn’t relevant; Jasper carries these two books around like some sort of adventure bible for kids. They come camping with us; they make the cut for what comes into the tent with him for the night. He annotates them too, with his notes and drawings. I think our Jasper is a special one, but maybe they will be compelling for your child as well.
