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

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!
