Ready for our weekly gift guide installment?
This week, I’ve got some perennial ideas that are thoughtful, warm, comforting, and fun.
As usual: if you’ve got ideas or want to tell me about your nifty-keen gift idea, or about your personal Etsy Shop Of Wonderment, please email me! I love featuring all sorts of stores and researching different ideas for book lovers always yields some very fun holiday giving.
NB: most of the links in the Holiday Gift Guide posts are affiliate-coded, which means a portion of the purchase price is sent back to us as a commission, at no extra cost to you. If you do some of your shopping through our links, you help keep the site running! Plus, there are links over in the left sidebar in the “Welcome” section should you need them. Thank you much!
Our first gift idea comes with an endorsement from Madame, the cat who deigns to live with RedHeadedGirl. We sent RedHeadedGirl a wearable blanket as a birthday gift. Well, we thought we did.
Madame: “I am Madame. The Bitchy Ladies were nice enough to send this blanket to my RedHeaded human servant for me. They had to say it was for her birthday for tax purposes or whatever, but we all know it was for me. I love this blanket. I have made batches and batches of biscuits on this blanket. I have spent literal days snoozing on this blanket. If one of the human servants sits on my blanket, I get very put out. Once I let RedHeaded Human Servant use the blanket as a blanket because she was protesting in the cold and needed to warm up. I am VERY GENEROUS. This is the best blanket. The Bitchy Ladies made a very good choice of color to show me off to my advantage. Aren’t I pretty. That was not a question.”
So, of course, you’re curious about this blanket, yes?
Catalonia Wearable Blanket with Sleeves and Pocket, $23
Madame’s excellent reference aside, I think this is an ideal reading blanket: it has sleeves and a pocket, and is long enough to tuck beneath your feet. It comes in several colors, including brown, blue, green, cream, and if you’re feeling really festive, cheetah. Thanks, Madame!
And if you need electricity to get involved to keep you or someone you love warm, here’s another option:
Sunbeam Plush Electric Blanket, $34
This blanket comes in a variety of sizes and colors, and has three heat settings, too.
For more specific and targeted heat application, I feature one of these every year, and every year I hear from one or more of you who say it’s the greatest thing ever.
Microplush Neck and Shoulder Heating Wrap, $31
This wrap has a magnetic closure so it sits behind your neck and over your shoulders, and features four heat levels. So you can put it on and prepare to fight crime – at least, that what I think this lady is going to do. It’s her super hero cape, right?
We’ve got warmth, so how about good smells?
I know everyone on the internet and elsewhere has lots to say about the Instant Pot, and…yeah, I like mine a lot, too.
First, these go on sale all the time leading up to the holidays, so you might want to set up an alert for the price drop, or drop some major hints to someone who wants to buy you gifts.
Instant Pot DUO 6QT Pressure Cooker/Multicooker, $90
I use mine all the time and have a few favorite recipes. But suppose you don’t want the Instant Pot, but would like to explore pressure cooking? A stovetop model works just as well:
Presto Stainless Steel Pressure Cooker, $45
I bought a stovetop model first to see if I liked the pressure cooker recipes I’d found (I did!) and if I liked pressure cooking (I do!). The electric models like the Instant Pot have additional features and auto-shutoff capabilities, but if you want to try without the larger investment, stovetop models absolutely work. There are a few recipes I make in the stovetop one I have because they contain a little too much liquid for the Instant Pot.
And speaking of recipes, these two cookbooks have been working very well for me and my pressure cooker adventures:
America’s Test Kitchen: Multicooker Perfection, $11 for Kindle, $17 Print
I have Great Food Fast digitally, but I can’t locate the digital version at the moment. I borrowed Multicooker Perfection from my library and used it so much during my four-week borrow that I bought my own copy. The recipe for flan is terrific – I’ve made it twice now – and the recipes for risotto are excellent, too. Both are great for beginner pressure cooker or multicooker folks.
Now you’re warm and cozy, and the house smells good because you’re cooking all the good things. What next? LEFTOVERS!
Every year I feature some food storage containers that are making my life easier, and this year I just purchased another set of these:
Rubbermaid Brilliance 10pc food storage set, $19.
With all the recipes and guides that advise you to bring your lunch, meal plan for a week, and make large amounts to freeze some for later, good containers are a great thing to have – and a fun thing to gift someone who appreciates useful items. There is also a 22-piece set for $50, though I’ve seen it for less at Costco. These are leakproof, and nest inside one another neatly so there aren’t lids and containers falling all over the place.
Another perennial gift I send to friends, family, and everyone in my household is a portable charger. I love the lipstick sized one:
Anker lipstick sized charger $19-23
And I don’t travel without the larger capacity battery option, either:
Anker Portable Battery 20100mAH, $50
Now you’re warm, fed, charged up, and relaxed – what will you do next?
I’ll be back next week with more gift guide ideas. As always, please let me know what you’re hoping to receive or shopping for this year!
Forget electric blankets- electric mattress pads are where it’s at. We’ve given them to almost everyone in our families now and everyone loves them.
@Rebecca
Can you recommend a specific brand and model for a good mattress pad? I have one, it’s OK, but I’d love to get a better one.
thanks
I have two fleece blankets that belong to my dog. If we are on the couch, she only snuggles with me if I put the blanket over myself. If it falls on the floor she jumps off the couch to lay on it. She agrees with Madame that humans are silly for trying to take the animals blankets even when they are cold.
the sunbeam electric mattress pads are very good, but there’s a new type that is circulated warm water that is supposed to be better – aka no wires under you. YMMV. I’ve had the sunbeam mattress pad until I got a down comforter.
**I had
The wearable blanket would warm my heart as a gift. However, the Poodle who is the reason we can’t have nice things would love that prime piece of fleece as a chew toy. It’s like Fort Knox for fleece around here. 🙁
I buy extension cords that have both electric and USB ports at Target. The cord has been an appreciated addition to our guest room and as an off-to-college gift.
The Sunbeam microfleece sheets are great too. They keep you warm, and it feels like you are sleeping in a cloud of softness.
@LauraL Every year expect the last two I have asked for a new cozy blanket for Christmas. Every year I got one and by the next year it had holes chewed into them. Luckily, once my dog hit ten he slowed down some and I can usually intervene before my blankets are destroyed.
The Anker chargers are great. Our neighborhood loses power in high winds and/or exceptionally heavy rains (and we’re on the Florida coast, so that’s pretty common even not counting hurricanes), & having several of these chargers on hand has kept the peace in our household. I also strongly recommend carrying one if you’re flying anywhere, because there is nothing worse than having a stack of books on your iPad, a dead battery, & a four-hour layover where everyone’s fighting for outlets.
Thanks!
That wearable blanket is just what my sister in Mass needs! I got the one in a very vibrant shade of blue. They have 5 or 6 color choices!
THANK YOU for the inspiration! The travel charger and portable battery are ideal for my hard-to-buy-for son, currently traveling back and forth to Japan.
@ CelineB – So there is hope for a fleece blanket in my future!
My father, who is always complaining about the cold, may get a wearable blanket for Christmas. I’ll just keep The Poodle away.
The Anker batteries saved us in Europe! I have a lipstick one in my purse and a bigger one for travel.
The big question is, do I buy myself (and by “myself” I mean, of course, “the cat”) the cheetah print blanket (because he’s 7.5 pounds of fury), or do I get the white one (so he’ll be almost perfectly camoflauged when on the sofa)?
For people thinking about getting the Instant Pot: I love mine. I mainly use it for chicken and rice, but I’ve made soups and pulled pork (in less than an hour! for 5 pounds!) and spaghetti squash and potatoes and stuff too. It’s all the ease of a crock pot where you just dump stuff in, but you don’t have to plan things 4-12 hours in advance. For stuff like rice and sometimes chicken it’s not that it’s faster, it just means that I can toss ingredients in and do something else and whenever I get back to it food is in there and cooked perfectly. It’ll likely be on sale on Black Friday too, I got mine on Prime day 2 years ago for I think $70 and it’s still working great, even though it bumped around in my car and got a dent in the exterior.
Also, for the useful/fun category, my uncle brought some JBL waterproof, rechargeable speakers to our family reunion a couple months ago and they were awesome! I love the Alexa, but it was nice having something portable that didn’t need a cord. My uncle said something about syncing them for more of a surround sound experience, so I’m guessing that’s a capability they have, but I haven’t owned any so I haven’t experimented with them. They are going on my list of ideas for my brother and sister in law since they camp a lot though, so I figured someone else might want to know about them!
With the external batteries, I love buying the really short charging cords from amazon (I have the amazon store brand, which I’ve been happy with, but there’s a wide range of brands and colors). You can buy one that’s a few inches long for not very much, and it takes up less room/tangles less in a bag than a normal length cord. I have one that I keep with my battery, and one that I keep with my computer so I can connect my phone to my laptop to charge if that’s easier. You can get several of these for under $10 depending on your brand and color preference.
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