The 2014 kottke.org Holiday Gift Guide
Last year, I did a meta holiday gift guide where I picked some of the best items off of the best gift guides out there. Since we’re getting down to the wire here on shopping time (not that you should buy anything for anyone this holiday season or any other time of the year), let’s crank up this year’s version.
Consider giving to charity this year. If you can’t spare the time to volunteer (look here or Google for specific opportunities in your area), go on Charity Navigator or Give Well to find an organization worth your attention. Or go on Kiva and give small loans to dozens of families around the world.
For their list this year, The Wirecutter did a list of The Things We Want to Give. Items include The Neat Ice Kit, Benton’s ham, and The Flavor Thesaurus. Hmm, I picked all food stuff there. I must be hungry.
I recommend these every year: the Tovolo King Cube Ice Tray and the KitchenAid Professional 600 Series 6-Quart Stand Mixer.
From Boing Boing’s Happy Mutant’s Gift Guide 2014, the excellent Eyes on the Prize documentary on DVD, the LifeSpan TR1200-DT5 Treadmill Desk, a Lodge 10.5-inch round skillet (can personally vouch for this), and perhaps my favorite Amazon item of all time, the 55-gallon drum of personal lubricant. Don’t worry, the latter item includes a lube pump so you don’t need to buy it separately.
For the sports fan in your life, SB Nation’s 2014 Holiday Gift Guide includes Zubaz pants (!!), Big League Chew, the Bluetooth Gramophone, and a home beer brewing kit. Throwback-errific!
Among the items on the Tools & Toys Christmas Catalog, Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations and the Bellroy Slim Sleeve Wallet (which is my own personal wallet).
Nothing on Mat Honan’s 8 Perfect Gift Ideas for ‘Twitter Dads’ really grabbed me (even though I am an official Twitter Dad), except for the Bugaboo Bee. We had the first iteration of that stroller and it was the absolute best thing. We wore out two sets of wheels strollering Ollie and Minna around the city in that thing.
But I’ll take one of everything off of The Kid Should See This Gift Guide. Especially Animalium, the Crosley portable turntable, My Neighbor Totoro on Blu-ray, and a vintage typewriter. [Update: My friend Dan says to avoid Crosley turntables: “They use ceramic cartridges that track 3x as heavy as standard carts, permanently damaging records.” I have no idea what that means, but Dan knows things about turntables so you might want to make another choice.]
Good year for science-ish nonfiction books: How We Got to Now by Steven Johnson, What If? by Randall Munroe, Being Mortal by Atul Gawande, Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom, and Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull.
And cookbooks: Plenty More from Yotam Ottolenghi, MEAT by Pat LaFrieda, Tartine Bread by Chad Robertson, Michael Ruhlman’s Egg, Death & Co: Modern Classic Cocktails, My Paris Kitchen from David Lebovitz (whose Paris dining recommendations are top notch), and Jeffrey Morgenthaler’s The Bar Book.
The Brooklyn Holiday Gift Guide features products made locally in Brooklyn, including bracelets with subways maps and kottke.org favorite, Tattly.
Tom Bihn’s What We’re Giving list includes Fairbault wool blankets and their own Shop Bag. (via @widepipe)
One of many holiday lists from Food52, the Under $25 Gift Guide features Heirloom Seed Art Packets and this Water Bottle with Charcoal Filter.
The Continuous Lean went on a serious listing bender with The Epic ACL Holiday Gift Guide 2014. The stylish selections include the Whiskey Wedge, the Jaguar F-Type Project 7, and the Lego Architecture Fallingwater set.
Josh Rives made a list of gifts that don’t suck. Among the non-suckage is The Dangerous Book for Boys, Coudal and Draplin’s excellent Field Notes, and Cards Against Humanity.
Many many things on the NY Times Holiday Gift Guide, including Julia, Child these awesome cement stair planters, and History of the World in 1,000 Objects.
Since their acquisition by Vox, Eater has been better than ever. Their Holiday Gift Ideas 2014 package is overflowing with good choices, among them are sausages from Butcher & the Boar (smoooooked cheddarwurst!!!) and Fictitious Dishes.
Speaking of Vox, The Verge has a load of tech-oriented picks, including a selection under . They recommend MUJI notebooks and David Mitchell’s The Bone Clocks. One of The Verge’s more baller picks is the Nintendo Wii U Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Set. Which, droooooool. Santa, you got me covered on this?
Misc: the Good Web Bundle gives you subscriptions to five indie services/sites for one low price. You can get 8GB flash drives in necklace form now. From Haruki Murakami, a recently released short novel about “a boy imprisoned in a nightmarish library”. I have no idea if they are actually vintage or just made to look so, but you can find several vintage Soviet chess sets on Etsy (like this one); I bought one recently and if someone faked it, they did a good job. (Even if it’s fake, it’s real, etc.) You can buy Post-It Notes that are almost two-feet across.
Update: Added the guide from Tools & Toys and added a warning about the portable turntable. Added giant Post-It Notes. Added The Brooklyn Holiday Gift Guide. Added Tom Bihn’s list. Added Food52 list. Added The Continuous Lean set. Added a list of gifts that don’t suck. Added lists from the NY Times, Eater, and The Verge.
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