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Christmas shopping VIII (and last): Gifts for the prepared

… or the hope-to-be prepared. If you have friends or relatives who talk about preparedness but who either don’t have the money or the oomph to move ahead, this is a good time to get them started.

It’s also not a bad time to gift yourself with some special item that you’ve been wanting.

So here are some preparedness favorites.

1. The Big Berkey water purification system. Which comes in several configurations. Yes, they’re pricy. Yes, people buy them regularly and love them despite that.

2. Boxes of MREs. Or those nice Mountain House freeze-dried foods, which come in a wide variety.

3. Hand warmers. Toe warmers. Or a box of assorted hand, toe, insole, and body warmers.

4. The Boys’ Book Of Survival (How To Survive Anything, Anywhere).

5. A good fisherman’s vest. Or a shooter’s vest. Both are the most handy-dandy things on earth for carrying a ton of gear while leaving hands free.

6. A ready-made grab-n-go kit. Sure, you and I know these aren’t ideal for serious preppers. But one may very well be ideal for that person who talks about prepping and doesn’t get around to it.

7. A first aid kit. Ditto.

8. A Steripen UV water purifier. More than just a “poor man’s Berkey.” A Steripen is a wonderful traveler’s companion and a fine emergency tool. Just be sure to stock lithium batteries in the right size. (Or choose a hand-cranked model.)

9. Or give a traditional gift that’s more subversive than most people know: fruitcake! (Those ones from the Collin Street Bakery are delicious. Yes, fruitcake that’s actually good! Which I know, thanks to that Texan friend who sent me several.) Why fruitcake on a preparedness gift list? Aside from the fact that the stuff does last pretty much forever, long-time readers of the Mental Militia Forums (formerly the Claire Files Forums) know why.

10. Finally, don’t forget that, this year, Amazon has special deals on gifts for the survivalist in its Tools and Hardware section.

There you go. That’s the last of the Amazon shopping lists for this year. If you hated them, thanks for your patience. If they helped you, then thanks again for using my Amazon links for your Christmas and year ’round shopping.

—–

And the earlier lists …

VII. Pets and animal lovers

VI. Cyber Monday Week Deals in electronics and related things (some of which are going on until the end of the year).

V. Tools and home improvement

IV. Gunstuff!

III. Maple bacon stuff! (Lots of good stocking stuffers.)

II. Warmth and light

I. Non-fiction books

6 Comments

  1. Pat
    Pat December 9, 2013 3:43 am

    Claire, is it possible to combine the lists together in one link for future buying throughout the year?

    (If that’s too complicated, I could copy the items from each list that I want to buy in the coming year.)

  2. Claire
    Claire December 9, 2013 5:54 am

    Pat, thanks for asking and for thinking about using the links all year. I think the post above is about the best I can do for putting everything in one place. A few of the Amazon links are to special holiday sections that wont exist after December, but I hope most items will still be available later on.

  3. Pat
    Pat December 9, 2013 7:11 am

    That’s OK — for B’day presents and my own wants/needs during the year, I’ve gone ahead and made out a list from the links and will keep it on hand.

  4. Mary Lou
    Mary Lou December 9, 2013 6:49 pm

    I hope you realize you’ll probably get a couple dozen fruitcakes for Xmas now?

  5. Debby Rich
    Debby Rich December 10, 2013 11:11 am

    Hey there isn’t much of a choice but Cosco where I live carry Mountain house
    dinners. There are I think like 10 dinners in a box for like 46 dollars. But you
    only at this time have dinners from Cosco and they are the samed 4 different
    dinners. But it would be a start
    Blessings
    Debby

  6. Debby Rich
    Debby Rich December 12, 2013 11:22 am

    Hey I went out to get my box of Montain house. It may be cheaper to get alot
    of Mt. House but most of us do not have I think $500-$2000? dollars for a whole case of Mt. House. And since I have not priced them years, My prices
    may be away off. But the box that I have has (3 chicken teriyaki, 2 beef stews,
    3 beef strogeanoff and 2 lasagna with meat sause, ranging from about4.30-5 ozs.) And I paid like I think $46 odd dollars for all of this. For breakfast both
    cosco and Sams club carry the big boxes of Indival pkgs of oatmeal. That could
    be serve for breakfast.And maybe as one can afford it, get some instant milk,etc.
    Any way I am not sure if any one can use these suggestions, so take care
    Blessings
    Debby

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