A guest post from my friend Melanie at Plan for Awesome!

A great gift idea to take to a friend in the hospital. Also a great get well gift idea to take to a kid who is recovering from surgery or from being sick.

We have had a few young friends over the years who have had surgery for one reason or another, my daughter included.

One thing we have enjoyed doing is putting together a little basket of goodies and activities to let them know we are thinking of them.

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We usually go to the Dollar Store first and then to Target to supplement our Dollar Store finds. We like to include a couple of “bigger” items to give the gift some variety (not necessarily in size, but in price) depending on the age of the kid.

When we know of a surgery coming up, we make a list of things we want to include and check on Amazon to see if we can get the ball rolling by ordering online also. My favorite find is a mini handheld arcade game like this Pac-Man game or this baseball game. While I have seen these at Target and a couple of random stores, Amazon is the same price, or even cheaper than what I have seen out and about.

The nature of the recovery also plays into the items. For instance, if the child is recovering from shoulder surgery, a football isn’t high on the priority list. We try to look for things they can do during recovery to keep them from going crazy.

Some Get Well Gift Basket Ideas

• Coloring book
• Crayons/Markers/Colored pencils
• Painting supplies/Canvas
• Movie
• Video game
• Mini Handheld Arcade Game (Amazon is the best deal I have found)
• Silly glasses
• Small pinata (Dollar Store has sunshine ones and emoji ones)
• Play-doh
• Dice and Yahtzee Scorecards
• Slime
• A book
• Battery-operated candle for the hospital room at night
• Candy (huge lollipops are a total hit from Dollar Store)
• Gum
• Snacks (one of our favorites is Scrabble)
• Homemade cookies/bread
• Jokes (I love this website for silly little kid jokes – they are free printables designed to be lunchbox notes, but I like to print out a few different sets and stick them in an envelope in a Get Well Basket!)
• And of course, the FREE PRINTABLE TAGS (explained below)

The Printable Tags

I spent way too much time scouring Pinterest for a cute little printable tag to go with these little baskets to finish them off right. When I couldn’t find exactly what I was looking for, I decided to make some myself!

If you are wondering why I left a large blank space at the bottom of the second tag, it’s to allow you space to write a little note or at least sign your name. It totally bugs me when I download a cute printable tag from Pinterest that looks really perfect and centered, and then I mess it all up when I try to squeeze a name or two around the edges. So although this may seem a little wonkily (is that a word? My spellcheck seems to think it is not, but I totally think it should be) spaced, I did that for a reason. Just keepin’ it real…

If you don’t like the idea of two separate tags, you could also cut out both the circles and glue them back-to-back. I just liked the look of two separate circles on this particular basket. Feel free to mix it up though!!

After making the main tags, I just couldn’t stop there. So I made a little coordinating tag to stick on an envelope with the jokes inside to lift the sicky’s spirits (another word my spellcheck is saying isn’t a word. Sheesh!)

Like this idea? Remember to pin this for later – you never know when you’ll be looking for an idea for a pick-me-up gift to take to a friend who is in the hospital, or who is recovering at home!