Wow. 2017 . . . it’s been, well, let’s just say it’s been. But as the calendar turns to December, it’s time to start looking about again for gifts for family and friends, and to hoping that 2018 will break our trend of taking self-inflicted Ls.
As we have done in years past, many of the ProfHacker writers have gathered up a list of things that would make welcome gifts. This year, for novelty, we thought we’d offer the guide early enough for people to use it in an orderly “no, I don’t want to pay for last-minute shipping” sort of fashion. If you don’t see anything here that strikes your fancy, by all means have a look at the guides from 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010, and 2009. If you’ve got a great idea for a gift, please do share in comments or on Twitter!
Thanks for listening! Thanks for understanding!
Amy
- A VPN subscription. If you know anyone who frequently works out of coffee shops or public libraries or who travels a lot, a VPN’s really important for security. I ended up settling on TunnelBear, but as Ryan S. notes below, there are lots of possibilities.
- An Echo Dot from Amazon. At $50 (and quite often on sale for less), it’s an affordable way to get started with a voice-activated assistant. Pair it with a couple of WeMo Mini smart plugs, and it can control lamps in your house. If you have a remote control that uses the Harmony Hub, the Dot can control the devices connected to it.
- The Echo Dot can also play audio from TuneIn Radio or streaming music services such as Pandora, Spotify, or Amazon’s own music services, but it doesn’t have great sound, so a bluetooth speaker makes a great add-on. They can get really pricey, but there are also models that sound good while being wallet-friendly. Anker (the makers of the earbuds Ryan C. mentions) makes both the SoundCore (which I have and like) and the updated SoundCore 2.
- For the music lover on your list: a subscription to their favorite music streaming service. For the voracious reader in your life: a subscription to Scribd or Kindle Unlimited.
- I also have a couple of specific book recommendations. I’m currently really enjoying two series, one that’s been around a long time, and one that’s quite new. The older series is Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. The newer one is N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy: The Fifth Season, The Obelisk Gate, and The Stone Sky.
Anastasia
- Mostly, I buy people books so I can talk about my favorite recent reads. My science fiction-loving friends will be getting Naomi Alderman’s power-dynamic-flipping The Power as a perfect Atwood-esque alternate history, or Analee Newitz’s Autonomous for a vision of a future of intellectual property law and cyborg-esque modifications. Horror fans should enjoy Riley Sager’s Final Girls for its send-up of the genre. In young adult, if you know someone who hasn’t already picked up John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down I found it to be a compelling character portrait.
- It’s always difficult to pick games for other people, but introducing someone to indie games can be both fun for the holidays and a way to support less known digital artists. One of my personal favorites this year is surprise hit Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator, a visual novel with great dialogue and character development. Retro gamers or those nostalgic for ‘90s adventure games might enjoy Kathy Rain: A Detective is Born, while fans of quiet, contemplative, interactive fiction may enjoy Far From Noise. Check out featured games on Humble Bundle and Itch.io for more unusual choices. If you’re buying for someone who already has a favorite artist or designer, consider donating to that artist’s Patreon in their name.
- Board games are a great choice for families, particularly if you are getting a group gift. If you know a group of four that would enjoy an ongoing, strategy and narrative-driven engagement, Pandemic Legacy Season 2 is out and promises many nights of stressful play. For more casual gamers, consider a spin on a classic with Munchkin Shakespeare, a new twist on the Munchkin model of humorous competitive gameplay. The seasonally-appropriate Holiday Fluxx is a fun fast-playing card game, and there are tons of licensed versions to choose from if the holiday theme seems too short-lived.
- For crafters, supplies are always appropriate. A subscription box can be a particularly good way to infuse the post-holiday season with some incentives for making. For quilters, I myself like the Sew Sampler box, with monthly fabric, patterns, and notions. For fans of hand-lettering or journaling, the Inky Box is a nice choice -- particularly if you find selecting pens, etc, a bit overwhelming. There are lots of these models out there for basically anything your recipient is interested in, and this can be a simple way to support a hobby.
Ryan C.
- Books: Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec’s Dear Data (pair with the Dear Data Postcard Kit to start a fun experiment in visualization with a friend), Annette Vee’s Coding Literacy: How Computer Programming Is Changing Writing, Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist.
- As I wrote last month, I’m a big fan of Anker’s Soundbuds for wireless music or podcasts while exercising. Depending on your budget, they may be affordable enough to be stocking stuffers.
- A few holidays ago we got this little, cheaper-than-$5 battery tester, and it may be the single most-used device in our house. Find yourself digging out random batteries from the junk drawer when you need to replace the remote batteries? This little device will tell you immediately which ones will help and which ones won’t (may prove particularly useful on Christmas Eve/morning).
- Literally all the men have been raving of late about the Philips Norelco Oneblade trimmer and shaver. I recently got one and man, it’s pretty darn fantastic. I have sensitive skin that doesn’t usually like electric shavers, but I can use this one sans water or shaving cream without any problems. There’s also a pro model if you’re feeling fancy.
- A few years ago, a group of SMU English Professor Tim Cassedy’s students created a fun card game for their final project in a class on Herman Melville’s novel, Moby Dick. Dick: A Card Game Based on the Novel by Herman Melville is also based on the hit—and Open Access—game, Cards Against Humanity, and is lots of fun for those who love the novel and those who don’t (or, as Buzzfeed recently had it, for pretentious people). Plus you get to support some brilliant students whose class project became an actual game in the world! Along similar lines, there’s a new game (I haven’t yet tried this one) called Ex Libris that challenges players to build the most stunning library so they can be named Grand Librarian. I want this game.
- Y’all, I was skeptical reading the articles declaring American Giant’s the “greatest hoodie ever made” and so forth. But I got one and y’all—I wear this thing every. single. day. It may be the best made article of clothing I own (which says...something), it’s ridiculously comfortable, and it’s really warm, even during a chilly New England November. Seriously, I love mine and my wife loves hers—so, so much.
Ryan S.
- It’s the simple things: a mug warmer for my desk was an incredible gift I received a few years ago. Anyone that drinks a lot of warm beverages and sits down while doing it will love you for this. Available as USB or just a regular plug (although the wall charger versions always work better).
- Echoing Amy, definitely a VPN subscription. I’m a big fan of PrivateInternetAccess for its ease of use, device ubiquity, and price point. For the monthly cost of a cup of coffee you’re warming with the gift above you can feel and be much safer online. Beyond that, you can even give the gift of password management or malware protection with services like LastPass and MalwareBytes.
- The new waterproof (IPX8) Kindle Oasis. Yes, it’s a tad expensive for an e-Reader but… it’s waterproof, which is really all that was holding you back from finally taking that beachside vacation, right? Right?
- And because I’m apparently incapable of being original this year, I’ll now echo Anastasia: subscription boxes! I always look forward to my monthly SprezzaBox (though, now I have way more socks and ties than I know what to do with, but who doesn’t love quirky tie clips?). My partner Adriana gives thumbs-up to the Ipsy “Glam Bag” (monthly cosmetics samples) and ArtSnacks (art supplies and a piece of candy, unsurprisingly).
Finally, look for a local place of interest that allows for purchasing memberships for others. State parks, botanical gardens, art museums, that kind of thing. It’s usually pretty cheap but can turn into a tradition for the whole family.
Lee
- Did you know you could build your own R2D2? Well, you can. Wait, this is for kids? Sure, whatever. I’m sure your “kids” will love it as will mine.
- I’ll admit to not reading nearly as much as I should, but Hunger by Roxane Gay rocked my world. It’s worth buying, reading, sharing, re-reading. It will stay with you for a long time.
- I’ve wasted a lot of money over the years on clothes that almost-kinda fit and almost-kinda looked good on me. No more. Universal Standard is a new brand specifically for plus-sized women. One of my biggest struggles was trying to find a white blouse that fit me properly and made me feel good in it. The Ebro is that shirt for me. I hate that they have to call themselves “plus-sized” because honestly, it starts just a touch below the average and then covers the sizing of a lot of women. And the clothes are really well-made and look good.
- This has always been on my wish-list: a signed print from Ben Folds of The Luckiest.
Erin
- At the top of my list this year is the latest cooking gadget that my friends are all raving about, an Instant Pot. As far as I can tell, this is the ultimate set-it and forget-it kitchen appliance that allows users to throw a bunch of ingredients in the mix, program it, and leave it alone for hours at a time. For someone like me who wants to eat real food but also isn’t fond of cooking, it sounds like perfection. There are also several dedicated cookbooks available: The Instant Pot® Electric Pressure Cooker Cookbook and Instant Pot Obsession are just two of many, many examples.
- For the last two years or so, I have been obsessed with audiobooks, so an Audible subscription is a great choice. Some of my favorite audiobooks have included Night Film (Marisha Pessl), the Red Rising trilogy (Pierce Brown) and I Am Pilgrim (Terry Hayes).
- If there’s a coffee (or tea) lover on your list this holiday season, you can’t go wrong with a Contigo Autoseal Travel mug. Available in a wide variety of colors and three different sizes (16, 20, and 24 oz), this mug is spill-proof. Even when if flies off the roof of a moving vehicle.
- Finally, winter for me means break out the warm socks. I’m a huge fan of Smartwool socks. The Margaritas (women) and the Saturnspheres (men’s) are a bit pricey, but I’m not exaggerating when I tell you that I have pairs that are 10 years old and only now showing their age. There are also ski and snowboarding versions that are both warmer and have more padding underfoot.
Natalie
- Jill Miller’s Yoga Tune-Up balls are absolutely amazing for releasing stiffness and pain in your body. Her beautifully illustrated and very detailed book The Role Model: A Step-by-Step Guide to Erase Pain, Improve Mobility, and Live Better in Your Body gives you everything you need to know about how to use the balls to release trigger points of tension. Perfect for active people, especially those who are recovering from injuries or, ahem, getting a little older and feeling a few aches and pains.
- I’ve been very happy with this simple Euro Cuisine YM80 electric yogurt maker. I use it with soy milk and vegan Belle and Bella Yogostarter but of course you could use it with dairy milk.
- Want to level up your data analysis skills? Know someone who’s learning to code? A year’s subscription to DataCamp gives you access to a wide range of courses on Python and R from beginner to advanced levels. (If you act quickly, they are having a 50% sale on the yearly memberships until December 3, 2017)
- I’ll second the recommendations for The Fifth Season (and its sequels) and Autonomous. I also enjoyed M. R. Carey’s The Boy on the Bridge (a kind of sequel to The Girl with All the Gifts), Becky Chambers’s A Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, and Mishell Baker’s Borderline. Outside of speculative fiction, I enjoyed Amor Towles’s A Gentleman in Moscow and Jason Rekulak’s The Impossible Fortress.
Jason
- Books: A couple of years back in this guide, Brian recommended the budgeting web app YNAB: You Need a Budget, which was a great shout. This year, Jesse Mecham, the founder of YNAB, has a book: You Need a Budget, which looks good, although surely they’ve missed a trick by not having it come out until 12/26. A couple of folks mentioned Analee Newitz’s Autonomous, which is great, so here’s a book I learned about from Newitz: Maggie Shen King’s An Excess Male, a dark speculative fiction playing out the consequences of the One Child Policy in a near-future China. It’s getting a huge marketing push, but that doesn’t mean someone who liked The Martian won’t like Andy Weir’s new novel, Artemis. If somehow you haven’t heard about Emily Wilson’s new translation of The Odyssey, consider that corrected. Stephen Fry has an entertaining new retelling of Greek myths, Mythos. I’m pretty sure that the book I enjoyed the most this year was Elif Batuman’s The Idiot, a hilarious, intelligent going-to-college novel. Michael Cox’s The Mixer: The Story of Premier League Tactics, from Route One to False Nines is a good one for your local soccer fan.
- If you are buying clothing for an athletic Young Person, I’ve been advised that BALR. (the stop at the end is very much required) is the place to start.
- At the minute, we have a very complex domestic situation, which mostly involves driving 2hrs each way 4x/week for the soccer. If you know someone who drives more than they should, consider a few things to make their lives easier: a decent smartphone mount to keep the Waze gods happy and everyone safer; this Anker charger is super-handy; and a super-long cable, such as this one, to reach into the back seat from that charger.
One of the things Craig Finn (of The Hold Steady) talks about a lot is how easy it is to just stay home and slide through an impersonal, mediated entertainment universe. So by all means by a subscription to a streaming service, but also consider tickets to a show!
Photo by Me, en route to a Hold Steady show.