WildKind Holiday Guide: Best Gifts for Outdoor Families
Here at WildKind, we have strong opinions about the gear our families use when we adventure outdoors. What parent doesn’t?
Regardless of whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa, chances are good that you’re looking to purchase a few gifts before the end of the year.
If you’re searching for a special gift for the outdoor family in your life, we’ve got you covered. The gifts listed below are time-tested by our team of adventurous parents and their gaggle of kids, so you know they’ll be worth your hard-earned cash this holiday season.
We can’t wait to see you all on the trail!
Safe, Smart, & Sustainable: Stocking Stuffers for Outdoor Families
Adventure Medical Kits: Family First Aid Kit
$30
No way around it, outdoor adventure comes with inherent risk. It’s important for parents to always mitigate the consequences by carrying a first-aid kit, and we think those by Adventure Medical Kits are the best ones out there.
Adventure Medical Kits come in all shapes and sizes to fit your adventure needs, including ultralight, watertight, and contents appropriate for kids and pets, making them great gifts for outdoor families.
Adventure Medical Kits makes kits for everyone from day hikes, to multi-day backpacking trips to expeditions.
The Family Kit includes various bandages, tools, and medications. The highlight for us is the guide to Caring for Children in the Outdoors, which covers how to handle things like sprains, dislocations, and dressing wounds in the wild.
Our take: don’t leave home without this kit. In fact, it’s a great companion to the free American Red Cross First Aid app and other apps we recommend for adventuring outside with your family. The kit’s written guide especially comes in handy when you don’t have service.
Bee’s Wrap® Wraps
Starting at $11
We avoid single-use plastic whenever possible, but that’s tricky with younger children.
Enter: Bee’s Wrap®. Coated in sustainably-sourced beeswax, jojoba oil, and tree resin, you don’t have to worry about any chemicals or parabens touching your food when you use these certified organic cotton wraps.
Bee’s Wrap® has created great sustainable food storage options for your family’s next adventure - to the park or in the backcountry.
The best part: wash them when you’re done and use them again. These are totally reusable, compostable, and will last for up to a year.
Besides offering excellent products, the Bee’s Wrap® is a Certified B Corp, certified Green America company, and a member of 1% For the Planet.
Sign up for their emails and receive 15% off your order.
Platypus GravityWorks™ 4.0L Water Filter System
$110
Parents are the ultimate multitaskers, so it’s often helpful to unload something in the backcountry. The Platypus GravityWorks™ filter does just that by taking the physical labor out of filtering water.
Trying to treat water and supervise toddlers near moving water is always a challenge. Gift your favorite adventurous family a Platypus Gravity™ filtration system to keep their stress levels down in the wild.
Instead of sitting at the lake or stream to hand-pump the water for an eternity, families just need to fill up one bladder with “dirty” water and then hang it from a tree or tent. Gravity does the rest, pulling the water through the microfilter and into the second (included) reservoir. It’s fast, too: the filter processes 1.75 liters per minute.
Subscribe to their newsletter and receive 10% off your order.
Cuddles & Comfort: Gifts to Keep Families Cozy Outdoors
Kelty Loveseat
$109
Nothing tells your kids you love them like a snuggle session in the middle of the wilderness!
Give the gift of spacious, comfortable campfire cuddles with a Kelty Loveseat.
A first-of-its-kind camp chair, the Kelty Loveseat combines at-home loveseat cuddles with outdoor construction. A durable steel frame and adjustable arm rests mean the Loveseat can withstand anything your kid (literally) throws at it. Parents will also love the roll-tote storage that makes packing up take less than one minute.
Sign up for their emails and receive 15% off your order.
The snow-loving parents on our team frequently argue over which Reima snowsuit is the best, but the bottom line remains the same: if the children in your life play in the snow, gift them a Reima snowsuit!
Give the gift of warm, dry winter adventures this holiday season by gifting a Reima snowsuit.
This European brand has been in the industry for nearly 80 years so they know a few things about kids and their movement. And it shows in features like the insulated butt, and the silicone-straps that keep pant legs pulled over the top of snow boots. We also appreciate their deep roots in sustainability: the company’s initial products from 1944 were based on recycled materials. You can also read up on Reima’s current sustainability efforts and future plans.
Subscribe to their newsletter and receive 10% off your order.
Glerups Slippers
$135
Slippers? Camp shoes? Either way your feet will thank you.
Glerups offers warm and comfy camp shoes for the entire family.
Based in northern Denmark, Glerups knows a thing or two about wool and uses that knowledge to create the coziest and most versatile slippers out there. The 100% natural wool upper combines with a pure rubber outsole to create a flexible shoe so comfortable that we’ve accidentally worn them to the ski hill without realizing it.
Pro tip: Glerups makes slippers for babies and kids, too!
Big Ticket Gifts for Your Family’s Big Adventures
Hiking Backpacks: Osprey Poco & Deuter Kid Comfort
$290
Deuter’s Kid Comfort child carrier is all about safety and comfort on trail for both the adult and the child.
We’ve got some good news and some bad news. The bad news: outdoor adventure with the littles often means the adult has to do some heavy lifting. The good news: technology has caught up, and there is a solution for that!
Kid carriers are one of the most requested gifts for families, and for good reason. These fully-suspended backpacks can carry up to 50 pounds of weight (gear + child) in a relatively comfortable fashion, making it easier to enjoy a day of hiking with the kiddos.
From a removable drool pad to a built-in sunshade, the folks at Osprey know what families need with their Osprey Poco child carrier.
There are a few options on the market, but we have two favorites at WildKind: the Osprey Poco and the Deuter Kid Comfort. Our recommendation: head into a store and try both of them on to determine which feels the best on your body.
Thule Chariot Cross
$1,080
We know, we know. The Thule Chariot Cross is certainly an investment, but if your family plans on a lot of year-round outdoor time, it could be worth the price of admission.
The Thule Chariot comes in a single and a double version to help you get all your littles outside year-round.
The trailer starts out as a walking stroller and easily converts to a running stroller, a tow-behind biking trailer, or a tow-behind skiing trailer. If you also nab the (not included) infant sling, you can begin using the trailer with your baby and continue with it well into the kindergarten years.
