15 Care Package Ideas That Will Banish the Winter Blahs

The Super Bowl is always a fun way to celebrate January– a kind of blah month once you get past New Year’s Day. Some say that the Super Bowl is really America’s national holiday and that football is really our national sport. No matter who is playing– if you love football or hate it, have a team, or don’t car eat all– you can’t deny how much fun it is to have an excuse to make a bunch of delicious (but usually unhealthy) food and hang out with friends for a few hours.

Honestly, I created this care package simply because I had that alphabet scrapbook paper and thought it would be fun. John loved getting single-serving tuna packets and dried fruit that he could easily snack on or supplement his dinners with, so an “F” words package was a no-brainer. (And it is fun and cheeky in a totally nerdy way.)

The best kind of care package is a useful care package. I have found that foods that your loved one can’t get are the best things to send. They’re consumable which means that they don’t take up a lot of space for a long time. They’re sharable, which means that your loved one gets to be the cool guy or gal in the group. And many times, you can send foods that are healthier than what they have access to.

Love is in the air. And in a care package. Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to suck (completely) during deployment. Here’s one creative way to feel a little closer to your loved one, even though you might be thousands of miles apart.

To make a story short, John didn’t have access to the DFAC (dining facility) for every meal because of some budgetary issues and his weird schedule for part of the time he was deployed. Because of that, he asked me to send him veggies and fruits in care packages.  I found single-serving peas and carrots that were perfect for him and sent… a lot. I might have gone overboard (but I ain’t sorry).

I did the same thing for his request for fruit, raiding Trader Joe’s like there was a coming apocalypse. I ended up sending a mix of freeze-dried fruit, regular ol’ dried fruit, healthy fruit leather, and fruit cups to give him a variety of options.

Sending homemade goodies–if you can– is always a nice touch for a care package. John requested homemade granola and granola bars often enough that I literally shipped him a large USPS box filled to the brim with just those things.

There was nothing special about this box. And that’s okay. Care packages don’t have to always be insane. Just sending something is enough.

Oh man, so edgy and clever! I added a ton of homemade baked goods to this box, perfect for breakfast. Granola, granola bars, and breakfast cookies were some of the items that John found when he opened this goofy box up.

For many service members, deployment is an opportunity to get into really, really great shape. This box was full of goodies to fuel John’s addiction to running.

Complete with golden snitches, house emblems, and a bunch of other fun nods to Harry Potter, this care package is perfect for the Potthead in your life. Too bad you can’t apparate them right to you.

Yes, that is candy sushi. And yes, it is delicious and fun to send.

Care packages don’t have to be gigantic. This little weekly countdown is an easy and fun way to send a little something to your sweetie without breaking the bank.

You can, in fact, send pretty much anything through the mail, including messages in bottles. Seriously.