Searching for a gift that’s both useful and thoughtful? This year-round gift guide offers practical ideas for the prepared individual in your life. Whether it’s a birthday, holiday, or just a simple gesture of appreciation, these gifts are sure to resonate.
From tools to tech, these items can help them build a more resilient and secure future.
Bookmark this list for future gift-giving inspiration!
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In this post
A gift to help you prep a little bit every day
The 2026 Survival Mom Life Calendar
This list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the Survival Mom Life Calendar. People begin contacting us in July and August wanting to know about next year’s calendar! Yes, it’s very popular!
Each month you get 15-20 prepping tips and easy To Do tasks to help you prep a little bit more in areas like food storage, organization, stocking emergency kits, family activities, and even a Book of the Month.
Available immediately in a downloadable digital format for just ten bucks. Print it out or email it to a printing store like Office Depot, and you’ll have a calendar you can post and use anywhere.
For its full effect, though, I opt for the wall calendar itself printed on heavy-duty cardstock. It’s gorgeous in full color with beautiful photographs, space for notes, and more. It makes a fantastic gift.
Fun and Games
It’s all fun and games until the power goes out, the kids are bored, [fill in the blank]. But it’s okay, because you gifted them these:
Stay Warm and Keep Cool
Preppers understand the importance of alternative sources of heating and cooling. Here are a couple of great options I use and recommend.
Electronic, Rechargeable Hand Warmers
If you know a prepper who experiences Raynauds Phenomenon, then you’ve just found the perfect gift. Keeping a stock of chemical hand warmers available is great but rarely does a person with Raynauds use them until the energy is spent. While necessary, it’s also wasteful.
With electronic, rechargeable hand warmers, there is warmth when it’s wanted and an off button when it’s not. One member of my Survival Mom team love, love, loves hers. It’s part of her everyday Carry three seasons of the year. Did I mention she loves it?
Since it charges up via a USB connection, you can easily get it powered up from any USB port, including one on a solar device like this one on a Luci solar lantern.
Even if your prepper doesn’t have Raynaud’s, this hand heater is the bomb.
Treva 10-Inch Portable Desktop Air Circulation Battery Fan
These desktop battery fans are big enough to cool a single person, yet small enough to be portable. As long as you don’t expect it to move the volume of air that say, a box fan, moves, these cool quite satisfactorily. Two people sitting close together could use one, but I think they’re better suited to one per person.
Besides being a handy source of moving, cool air, they are perfect for hot flashes and a quick cool-down after a workout.
Fleece Lined Tights
Getting ready for Iceland, I was terrified that we wouldn’t be warmly dressed. This comes from a long-time resident of Phoenix and now Texas. I heard about fleece lined tights through the grapevine, and let me tell you, when I put them on for the first time, I was in cozy-cuddle heaven! If you live in cold weather or will be spending time in frigid temperatures this winter, YOU NEED THESE!! My husband wouldn’t admit it, but I think he was jealous!! They’re a very thoughtful gift, too.
Caring for Health and Well-being
A little bit of self-care and a little bit of health care. Here are prepper gift ideas for both.
WAPI
WAPI stands for Water Pasteurization Indicator. This neat little reusable thermometer is tiny, effective, and a great addition to your water purification preps. It allows the user to know for sure when the water has reached a high enough temperature to be safe to drink.
The WAPI makes a great addition to any emergency kit, and therefore a great gift for preppers, and it’s a must if you live in an area with frequent boil notices. Hikers and campers will love it if they ever rely on purifying water from natural sources.
G95 Gear
Built-in air filtration protection that melds function and fashion AND is washable and reusable? Yes, please! They offer gaiters, scarves, zippered hoodies, and pullovers. Read about their filtration tech and view their product line here. This is a handy item to keep in the car if you live in wildfire country as well as to have on hand whenever a face mask is required, or you’re just taking precautions.
If you never wear a face mask, the G95 products are still very useful on winter days when there is a lot of air pollution.
All-purpose Peppermint Soap
Dr. Bronner’s is always a great choice! This brand has the advantage of being useful for multiple purposes. Mix it at different concentrations, and you can use it for things like shampoo, laundry, all-purpose cleaning, and dishes. That’s in addition to hand soap and facial cleanser!
Gift a bottle of this soap with a pretty dispenser for the kitchen or bathroom for a practical gift that will be used year-round.
Dryer Balls
Fed up with the offending scent of even unscented dryer sheets, one Survival Mom team member hunted for an alternative. When she found these, she swore she’d never go back to dryer sheets. Ever. She even converted her husband and son and gifts them to preppers and non-preppers alike. These are the ones she uses and says they’ll have to pry them out of her cold, dead hands.
Soapnuts
Dryer balls last for years. Once you have a set, you don’t need to buy dryer sheets again. Soapnuts don’t last nearly that long, but they are an all-natural, easily portable alternative to “regular” laundry detergent. Both the soapnuts and dryer balls are perfect for someone who wants to live a more natural, chemical-free lifestyle.
Lume Deodarant, Body Care, and Laundry Products
Okay, I have to admit that I wouldn’t be exactly thrilled to open a beautifully wrapped box to find deodorant, but if you’re thinking of putting together a gift of toiletry items (bath bombs, oils, etc.), Lume Deodorant is a great fit. Why? Because it’s truly an all-natural product, containing no aluminum and is water-based. Perfect for the natural-living person on your gift list. Plus, they’ve expanded their product line to body care and laundry products!
Lume comes in plenty of fragrances and forms, including individual packets so you can smell awesome no matter what — and what could possibly be a more apocalypse-ready gift than that??
Power Outages and Off-Grid Uses
It’s when the power goes out or when we’re off-grid that we realize how much we take for granted. These gifts for preppers help prepare for those times. Add a super-soft fleece blanket to any of these gifts for an even prettier and more festive presentation.
Heat Powered Stove Fan
This gadget is especially handy when the power goes out if you use a wood stove or fireplace for heat. If your wood stove doesn’t have a blower, then it’s equally useful to improve heat circulation efficiency any other day.
If your woodstove does have an electric-powered built-in fan, include this heat-powered stove fan as part of your cold-weather power outage kit. It’s also useful if your blower unexpectedly stops working, says one Survival Mom reader.
UVPaqlite
Rechargeable glow sticks. Do I have your attention? These glow sticks recharge by absorbing any light, including sunlight, ambient light, flashlight, etc. The brighter the light is, the faster they recharge. They’re not meant to replace flashlights or lanterns, though, so don’t expect that. They provide more of an ambient light. It’s a great stocking stuffer and gift for kids.
The Luci Light
This little, lightweight, inflatable solar lantern stores flat in a bug-out bag or emergency kit and takes just a few seconds to inflate and use. I used these during Hurricane Harvey as reading lights on a couple of dark mornings. These collapsible solar lanterns are beloved by so many Survival Mom readers, and it would be hard to have too many!
I put one of these in a vacuum sealed emergency pouch with a few other survival items, so my kids could have a compact survival kit in their backpacks. This article details all the different and creative ways the Luci light can be used.
Emergency Light Bulbs
These self-charging emergency light bulbs automatically turn on when the power fails. They make a handy handheld flashlight or a 24-hour guide light that’s always charged. They may not be the most glamorous gift you could ever give, but just one nighttime power outage and everyone will be grateful!
Kaito Emergency Radio
This is my favorite all-around emergency radio, and I prefer it over my other Red Cross radio because this one has the capability of picking up shortwave bands. It is powered by batteries (not included), a hand crank, a small solar panel, or a wall plug-in adapter. For the price, this is hard to beat and a good choice for any home or emergency kit.
For the Cook, the Foodie, and the Person Who Just Likes to Eat
Well, that includes just about everyone, doesn’t it?
AeroGarden Black Harvest Indoor Hydroponic Garden
Is any list of gifts for preppers complete without a method to grow some kind of food? This indoor hydroponic garden kit includes seeds for Genovese basil, Thai basil, parsley, dill, thyme, and mint.
I received this as a gift last year and for a few months it just sat on my counter. I was skeptical of the whole thing. The garden is tiny and I’m into big hauls of produce! What use could this possibly be?
Well, my intrepid daughter set up the garden on my kitchen counter, and now I love it. Fresh herbs are a part of most of my recipes, and with this handy little garden, I haven’t had to buy basil, parsley, dill, or oregano in ages. We planted herbs almost 5 months ago, and its still going strong. My daughter calls it, “My little baby.” However, you can grow veggies, too.
Not to worry if your prepper doesn’t have a green thumb. The control panel alerts you to water and feeding conditions. It even controls the lights!
After giving this as a gift and owning one myself, they definitely work and can produce massive amounts of herbs, in particular. Plus, it’s just very pretty to have a flourishing garden growing inside your home! TIP: This product is very often on sale throughout the year, including Black Friday sales.
Knork Flatware
It may sound strange to recommend as a gift forks, knives, and spoons, but if you’ve ever used Knork flatware, you know it’s not ordinary flatware. I love the very solid, quality feel of Knork. My family and I family have used them for several years. In fact, both of my kids now have complete sets in their “hope chests”, waiting for the time they finally move out!
Bonus: the design of the fork allows it to be used as a knife as well.
Give A New Hobby
It’s a hobby and a skill all rolled into one, and every prepper understands the importance of skills.
- Beekeeping Starter Kit – Just add bees.
- Canning Starter Kit – Just add a large canning pot and Survival Mom’s class, Introduction to Food Preservation & Canning, for simple, foundational information to help them get started.
- Beer Making Starter Kit
- Basic Flint Napping Kit
- Lock Pick Set with instructions — Adventurous kids will love this one!
- Paracord book with paracord
Some Handy Tools
Preppers love tools. They love multi-purpose tools even more.
HEROCLIP Carabiner Clip and Hook
This carabiner clip and hook can hang all kinds of stuff in all kinds of places. Different sizes hold different weights. I can think of a dozen uses for these without breaking a sweat, and since they come in different colors, you can find ways to use a color-coding system for their uses. They’re also on my wish list.
Pet Lovers
We can’t forget about our furry friends. If you’re searching for gifts for preppers who are also pet lovers, consider these ideas.
Ultimate Cat Pak Pet Emergency Kit & Carrier
It’s an emergency kit and carrier for your feline friends that you carry like a duffel or wear like a backpack, making it hands-free. This kit includes food and water with collapsible bowls, litter, and scoop with waste disposal bags and a collapsible litterbox, a slip lead, and a first aid kit. A cat toy is even included for good measure.
Dog Pak Pet Emergency Kit
And for dog lovers, there’s also a canine version. Unlike the cat kit above, this backpack only carries the supplies, not the dog. There’s one for big dogs and small dogs.
Related Gift Ideas Content
- Recommended Survival Books
- Clever Gifts for Your Non-Prepper Loved Ones
- Budget Friendly Prepper Gifts
- Great Gifts for the Prepper-Minded Men in Your Life
- Gift Guide for Kids
- Adventure & Survival Books for Kids
What are some of your ideas for gifts for preppers? Share in the comments!
Last updated on November 20, 2024.