8 Easy Hanukkah Gifts or Stocking Stuffers for Your Camper

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Hanukkah starts tomorrow night; Christmas is just two weeks away; and you could still use a few small ideas for your summer camper, right?

Any of these eight small gifts are perfect for stuffing into stockings or wrapping up one each night of lights.

1. Water bottle— hot summer days may seems ages away right now, but water bottles are well-used at summer camps to keep active campers hydrated.  


2. Stickers— often these are freebies from your favorite haunts.  Campers personalize water bottles and trunks with stickers and can never have too many.


3. Note cards— while this one may be somewhat self-serving, if you would like to receive letters from camp, you can still find (or make!) fun cards or a letter writing kit to pack in your child’s trunk.


4. Photo in a plexiglass frame— enjoy the photo now and pack it up come summer to place on a cubby by your camper’s bunk.


5. Head lamp— a head lamp is a necessity at camp for reading after taps or seeing the sink while simultaneously putting toothpaste on a toothbrush.  


6. Toothbrush case— speaking of brushing teeth, find a few colorful toothbrush cases and a soap case to keep bristles pine-needle free.


7. Shower caddy— as you’re out shopping keep your eyes open for a small plastic “bucket” that can hold shampoo and soap and sit on a shower floor in the woods.


8. Playing cards— campers can never have too many decks of cards!

Tips for Terrific Off-Season Visits

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Before the holidays fill your weekends, and before snowstorms limit your long distance driving, November is a great month to visit a camp friend.

While staying in touch online has its merits, there’s nothing like visiting in person to rekindle summer memories from tipping a canoe to catching a frog to the prank you played on your counselor.

A few tips for a great visit:

• Share the driving. Find a mall or restaurant where you can meet halfway between your hometowns so neither driver has two full round-trips to manage.


• If you have an older sibling ready to visit colleges, see if a camp friend may live nearby or on the way.


• Send a photo to camp for their Facebook page, newsletter or Instagram stream.


• Take along photos from the summer or other objects to get past the awkwardness of reuniting away from a cabin on a lake.

Northern Lights, Camp Skies

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Picnic, check. Beach blanket, check. Forecast for clear skies and northern lights, check, check! Having read about the fickleness of clear skies and northern lights even when they are predicted, we headed to the beach early to enjoy the rippled sand and sunset. Any northern lights sighting would be considered a bonus.

The textures of the dune grass, sand flats and mottled western sky all beckoned to me and my camera saying, “hey, no need to wait for some elusive northern lights, look at our show.” 

What a show indeed. The deep oranges of the setting sun reflected off every surface and reminded me of one of the pleasures of summer camp— lake sunsets that never grow old.

Every evening campers and counselors drift to the water’s edge in ones or twos or threes to watch the sun’s departing show. While artificial lights creep across our cities and suburbs,

camp life celebrates natural darkness where only the occasional flashlight interrupts the moonlight dancing across the lake.  Looking up into a star-studded sky and seeing a satellite slowing arcing past or spotting a shooting star or recognizing a constellation by name are gifts campers receive each summer.

These were the memories that flitted through my mind as I sat on the beach gazing north over the dark ocean, waiting expectantly for the northern lights.  Was there a green glow above the horizon?  Possibly.  Was it the aurora borealis?  Possibly, or possibly my imagination.

We looked up at the Big Dipper and Cassiopeia, enjoying the darkness and quiet.  We may or may not have seen an the northern lights, but like a summer night at camp, we thoroughly enjoyed the delights of the night sky.

Welcome Home Gifts

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Summer camps are finishing up their fun-filled summers. How do you welcome your camper home? Here are a few gifts you can give to help him or her readjust to non-camp living.

1. Space 

Sure they have been living cot to cot, maybe 50 campers sharing one bathroom and well over a hundred in the dining hall, yet somehow close quarters doesn’t translate well to family living.

2. Time 

You may have been anxiously waiting 7 weeks for their return, but your camper may well be on a totally different time scale. Don’t expect instant re-engagement in family life—give him time. Going from 24 hour camp interaction to hanging out with mom and dad and little brother is abrupt.

3. Unfettered Internet Access 

“What?!” you may be thinking, “she just spent the better part of a summer separated from technology and you’re advocating that she plug right back in?!” If she had access prior to camp she’s going to want to post her camp photos and yes, check in with the camp friends she just said good-bye to all of two hours ago.

 4. Movie Out 

Most campers don’t get out to movies during the summer, so there are likely several showing that he would like to see before school is back in session. Let him pick what to see for a family night out.

5. Chauffeur 

 An alternative to heading to a movie as a family, you can offer to drive her with friends to a movie, the beach or an amusement park. Many of the other parents may be chauffeured out by August, so step up and stay quiet behind the steering wheel.

6. Magazine 

Pick up a copy of People or Us or some other weekly magazine for your camper to flip through without too much thought. Potentially gives you a visual on your camper as he may sit nearby as he mindlessly flips pages. Gives your camper both time and space, see above.

7. Book 

For more avid readers have a new book waiting as an option to give her both time and space.

8. Favorite Dinner or Dessert 

While the food at camp may have been delicious, it’s unlikely the cook knew exactly how to prepare her favorite pasta, brownie raspberry sundaes or peach pancakes. Now is a great time to cook up a few favorites.

9. Frame 

Most photos are retained digitally these days, but it can be fun to have a favorite summer memory on her dresser or bedside table. Find a summer or friend-themed frame to have waiting for her and then let her chose a summer photo for you to print.

Connecting with Camp as the Days Shorten

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October is here and the long lazy days of both last and next summer seem ages away. Yet out of sight doesn’t need to be out of mind for summer camp. Especially for kids who are making a transition to a new home or a new school, maintaining connections with summer camp friends can offer comfort and confidence.

The following are a few ways your child may want to maintain his or her summer camp connections.

Camp websites: Many summer camps keep photos posted from previous summers. Sit with your camper and go through the photos, allowing her to tell you the stories the pictures invoke.

Camp gatherings: Find out if your camp hosts local reunions or visits camp fairs in the fall or winter.

Visit a camp friend: While it may seem like camp friends are scattered far and wide, many may be living in the same state—perhaps only an hour drive away. Help your camper plan a visit for a weekend with a camp friend.

School assignments: Innumerable school assignments are ideal for a camper to reminisce about summer camp. Whether writing a third grade poem on riflery at the camp range or composing a personal essay for a college application, summer camp offers a plethora of topics for completing assignments.

On-line: If your child is old enough to use a facebook account, keeping up with camp friends is easy and immediate. Or simply sending emails can keep a friendship current.

Postal Mail: And every camper is versed in writing letters and sending them via the post office. There’s nothing like finding a personal letter from a camp friend in the mailbox!

How do you keep in touch with camp friends after camp has closed?

Camp Themed Halloween Costumes

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Sure you see it as just the camp uniform—but to your child’s classmates and neighbors it’s an exceptional Halloween costume and exceptionally easy for you.

Simply add a few elements to your child’s camp uniform for a quick, inexpensive and easy to move around in Halloween costume. Shorts may be chilly for trick or treat in northern climes, so start with jeans, camp shirt, ideally with a logo, and a camp jacket or sweatshirt. Add hiking boots and hiking socks for footwear, put on a headlamp (handy when trick or treating in any case) or wear a camp logo cap and carry something that represents your camper’s favorite activity. Your camper can carry a tennis racquet, wear a hiking back pack, hold a length of rope in a coil if she sails, take along a wood craft if he’s a shop fanatic, put on a life jacket, or make other personalizations.

Perhaps your camper’s costume will interest neighbors in considering summer camp for their children. Regardless, the price is right, just open up the trunk and get out what is needed, dress up and head out.

How do you take advantage of the investment you have made in camp uniforms in the off-season?