Our friends at Sealed With A Kiss were kind enough to send us a sample of one their care packages to review.
When people think of care packages, they often think of brownies or other goodies, but many camps don't allow food or discourage it because of the critters and bugs it attracts. As a former counselor, believe me when I say that it's not a lot of fun to find a home-made jelly roll covered with ants under a camper’s bunk. That's why we at the Summer Camp Handbook have always advocated non-food care packages. Which brings us to Sealed With a Kiss.
What I really like about eswak.com is that for nearly 30 years they've built their camp business on non-food care packages. Sealed with A Kiss gives you the choice of sending a pre-designed, themed package ("Boys Greatest Hits" or "Diva's Delight" for example) or a custom package made up of a variety of items. If you choose the custom option, they ask you if your child has already received one this summer. If so, they mix the items so no two packages are the same. They claim an inventory of 800 items and the choices seem to be well balanced between individual items and things to share with a whole cabin. I also like the fact that some of the packages are sizable so you can send enough for a whole cabin. You can even design your own package from the ground up.
The care package sent for review was the ready-to-go package called the “Teen Spa Party”. It’s marketed at teen girls so they can have a cabin party to do everyone’s nails. It came with several nail brushes, seven colors of nail polish, nail lacquer, polish remover, colorful emery boards, nail stickers, hand cream, and six sets of slippers with toe separators. Despite being delivered on a rainy day, the contents were well protected and arrived safely and quickly. The contents were packaged with colorful confetti instead of foam peanuts. Overall, for the right girl, I think this would be a fun gift appreciated by a whole cabin and is certainly worth a parent’s money in terms of quick delivery, quality of contents, and presentation.
We take pride here at SCH to give honest, camp-oriented reviews, so I do have a couple minor concerns. First, while the confetti packing is colorful, I worry that it’ll end up all over a cabin and will annoy some counselors. I found it almost impossible to remove the items from the package without scattering the confetti around the room. Second, because this package has nail polish and remover, it's certainly only for teens who are mature enough to handle such items. Because Sealed With A Kiss has items for both children and teens, use good discretion when choosing a package. But overall, we think Sealed With A Kiss is a great option for parents.
