Supporting The Troops This Holiday
It’s crunch time for anyone still buying Christmas gifts. The stores are running their best sales. The television is bombarding you with ads. Your relatives are making panicky phone calls to ask if you have any idea what your spouse wants for Christmas. The anxiety of those phone calls is making you forget everything you know about your spouse. It’s the most wonderful time of the year. And if you’re planning a gift for the servicemember in your life, you might want just a little bit of help to know what to send. Here is some wisdom to get you started.
Location, Location, Location
If you want to know what to buy a soldier, the first question to ask is where that soldier is stationed. A soldier who is deployed, or a sailor who is at sea, will likely be desperate for things that remind them of home. Things like their favorite candies, or their favorite soda are sure to be a hit. If they’re stationed in a stateside base, however, they’re likely able to just go buy their own. Likewise, to someone stationed in Alaska, snow supplies would be great. To someone in the Mojave desert, they probably just need a normal coat. Know where you’re sending gifts too.
Expect Delays
Breaking the fourth wall for a minute: I served six years in the military. In that time frame, I received mail at six bases spread across three continents with entirely different postal services and mail delivery processes. And in six years, I didn’t ever send or receive a package that wasn’t delayed, and I never heard of anyone who didn’t have the exact same experience. I don’t know why military delivery is delayed so often. It probably has something to do with security. But I can tell you as a fact that your expectation should be that your care package will get there when it gets there.
Service Members Are Still People
This one is the kind of thing that is something that most people know intellectually but tend to forget about when they’re actually planning a care package for a soldier. Most soldiers are men and women in their early twenties. It’s perfectly fine, useful even, to shop for them as such. For example, buying a 19-year-old boy the hottest video game is likely to be a huge hit. The military demands a different style than the civilian world, but not so terribly different that 19-year-olds aren’t fundamentally children who pay their own taxes.
You Can Never Go Wrong With Snacks
This bit of advice is useful, no matter who you’re shopping for. Everyone loves snacks. Everyone. Sending a servicemember a care package full of their favorite snacks, for example, My Hero Crate’s Military Snack Care Package, are guaranteed to be a hit. When all else fails, go with snacks.
Give Them A Break
If a service member can’t come home for the holidays, it’s almost certainly because they haven’t had time to take a break. So if they don’t have time to take a break, send the break to them. My Hero Crat5e has care packages tailored to both men and women to help them take a little time for themselves. Knowing that the people back home care about their well-being when they can’t make it home will mean the world to them.
And from all of us here at My Hero Crate, have a very Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year.