We’re over a month in, and that’s when I usually notice things getting a little rocky at school.
There are more Sunday scary calls, and they sometimes even happen on a weekday. They open with a question about what we’re making for dinner — to see if it’s one of their favorites — and who’s coming over, and then you realize someone is getting a little homesick. Not the crazy kind. He’s loving the freedom, but he may be starting to miss the comforts of home.
You can’t fully fix that over the phone. But here are some ideas for what you can send in the mail to perk him up.
Nothing here is an affiliate link. These are the ones I’ve sent that the kids have loved.
Start with the container
I found this idea years ago on Pinterest and I’ve sent one every freshman year since: a Tide Pods container, washed out and turned into a pumpkin. Not a box with a pumpkin on it. An actual orange pumpkin, with a face, going through the postal system with a shipping label slapped on the side.
Who knew the post office would send any shape package?
Here’s how it works:
Empty it and wash it well. Tip the pods into a ziplock bag and let the container soak in hot soapy water. Most people like the smell of clean laundry, but nobody wants their candy and chocolate to taste like it.
Get the labels off. On my old container they soaked off and scraped away cleanly. Last year’s wouldn’t budge, so I printed the jack-o’-lantern face onto large shipping labels and stuck them straight over the top. Honestly, that version looked better.
Fill it with your kid’s favorite Halloween treats.
Tape the lid. The lid is genuinely secure — these things are built to survive a laundry room — but run shipping tape across the top anyway, in case a postal employee gets hungry.
Mail it by October 20th. Halloween lands on a Saturday this year, and campus mailrooms are notoriously slow.
The part that makes it work
I always told my kids they had to save the pumpkin freshman year and bring it home if they wanted it again. And here we are, years later, and I just filled it again to mail in a few weeks.
Their friends are jealous, every time. There’s a walk across campus from the mailroom back to the dorm carrying an enormous plastic pumpkin, and the face they make doing it is a little embarrassed and a lot pleased.
I take my job of lovingly embarrassing my kids very seriously.
More ideas that will last the whole season
In general, I love sending personalized care packages specific to my kids and their interests. Here are some more ideas of things I’ve sent over the years — in a regular cardboard box this time.
A quick disclaimer that most dorms do not allow candles. Only send to apartments where you know it is safe to use.
For the iced coffee drinker
Pumpkin drinking glasses and some pumpkin-flavored syrup or extract. Throw in some coffee k-cups and you’re helping them save a few bucks every morning instead of hitting up their local coffee shop.
For the tea drinker
A mug and Barry’s, which is the only tea in this house and what they want to drink when they’re homesick.
The Peanuts mug — for the kid who still wants to be a kid
The Sweet Water Decor stoneware mug — for the one who has decided they’re an adult now
For my Gilmore Girl
My daughter and I used to watch Gilmore Girls together, so I may have bought myself the same candle, to think of her in the fall too.
Dragonfly Inn keychain — for her apartment keys
For the one who loves office supplies
I sent an entirely orange package once — face spray, a notebook, markers — to the organized one. A single color turns a few unrelated objects into a present.
For the one in an off-campus apartment
A fall candle and cozy socks — and the candle is the reason this is its own category.
Sweet Water Decor candle — I love their fall candles. Pumpkin Spice and Hello Fall are my faves.
More cozy fall socks for your daughter or cozy socks for your son — because cozy socks are always a good idea
What they’ll remember is that you were thinking of them
The first few months are genuinely hard, and our kids don’t always verbalize that. A package doesn’t fix it. But there is something about a box — or a plastic pumpkin — that obviously took an afternoon to assemble and mail, that says the thing a phone call can’t quite manage.
If you’re getting ready to send yours off to school next year, the dorm room post has what I’d have in the room before I’d worry about what’s in the package. You can pin both so you’re ready to go next year.
I am always looking for new ideas for what to send the kids. What’s worked for you?
Pull up a chair. I’ll put the kettle on.