2014 Holiday Gift Guide, Part III: Books & Snacks & More

Still shopping for holiday gifts? I am – but Hanukkah this year is as close to “on time” as a Jewish holiday can get. Instead of last year, when it started the night before Thanksgiving, this year we get to shop until the 16th of December. WOO! That’s positively luxurious compared to last year.

Are you ready for a few more ideas for gifting? Today we have books and snacks and other fun items. Next Wednesday, I’ll be back with more ideas, including gifts that aren’t physical items that possess mass and take up space, but are just as meaningful.

First, I was sent this book to review: Daily Zen Doodles: 365 Tangle Creations for Inspiration, Relaxation, and Mindfulness. I like drawing when I’m on the phone waiting for someone to pick up, or when I’m watching tv, and I thought this might be a great book to try. Then, when it arrived, Freebird, my 9 year old, wanted to try it first. He took the book to school because he thought it was PERFECT for him and for his friends, since they’d had a teacher last year who encouraged them to doodle as a meditation method when they were having trouble focusing on something.

Freebird gave me the copy back, along with pages of notebook paper. He and his friends wrote brief reviews of some of the pages:

Freebird: I thought that the meditation was really relaxing. It calmed me down. I liked the simple drawings best.

H: I liked the doodle I chose because it looked like a roller coaster.

C: I chose this doodle because it was a flame. 

So three nine year olds liked this book. The doodles range from very simple to more complicated images with dots and squiggles. Each page has a black and white line drawing, and a quote about meditation, mindfulness, or clarity from the Buddha, Walt Whitman, Thich Nhat Hanh, and others. This might be a good gift for someone who wants to try meditation and isn’t sure how to begin. Doodling and reading the quote beneath each picture, whether you copy the picture or not might be an accessible way for someone to experience meditation breaks throughout the day.

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I’ve tweeted about Graze before, but I don’t know if I’ve posted about it. Graze is a snack box subscription service that started in the UK and recently moved to the US, and I love it. LOVE it.

You can adjust how often you get snacks – once a week, twice a month, or once a month – and you rate the snacks you receive to help the folks at Graze better identify your tastes. Each box is $7, including shipping. The shipping box is paper, and therefore recyclable, as are the small plastic containers in which each snack is packaged.

My favorites are the flapjacks, which are like soft granola bars, the medley known as Hot Cross Yum, and the “Bonnie Wee Oatbakes” with carmelized onion jam. This week I have a new one: Billionaires’ Shortbread, which is a mix of Belgian chocolate, almonds, cranberries, and fudge. I like this billionaire. He can stay! The only things I haven’t liked are the things that have unsweetened coconut, but I think coconut generally tastes like old wax.

You can buy gift subscriptions for people, or buy someone an individual box of snacks from Graze.

Or, you can sign up using my link (this one right here) and get your 1st and 5th box free (If you use my link, I get $1 off a future box for each new registration, or I can donate that $1 to the Graze school of farming in Kabbubu, Uganda – usually, I do the latter).

I used to have a few subscription services, but this is the only service I’ve kept. With beauty products, too many of them made me break out or gave me a rash, and I ended up with half-used bottles and stuff cluttering the closet. Graze is awesome because I Eat All The Things, and they’re portable. I can put them in my bag or put them in the dudes’ lunches and they don’t crack or explode.

For those with allergies, Graze says it “is not suitable for those with allergies as all of our food is packed in the same place, and so cross-contamination is possible.” They have just added a dietary preference feature to let you identify and request snacks without gluten or dairy, that are vegan-suitable, or that are or are not spicy, among other things.

Now all this talking about Graze has made me hungry. I have to go eat one now. I think it’s Billionaire time.

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I have a coupon code for the Anne Taintor store online: 20% off orders of $60 or more, or a free gift for orders of $20 or more with code “laughter” at checkout.

The cocktail shakers, flasks, and the lip balm tins are particularly fun – to say nothing of the anniversary scarf.

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I saw this duvet cover in a catalog, and when I searched online, I found a whole set of products from Doodle by Stitch.

There’s the Doodle Bed, which is a notebook paper style duvet cover that comes with wash-off fabric markers so the cover can be drawn on, then washed to start over.

It’s expensive, though, for just a duvet cover, though the reviews state that the fabric washes completely clean so bedtime artists can start over after a laundry cycle.

There’s also the Doodle Pillowcase that also washes clean – and come with glow-in-the-dark markers that wash out completely. That is about $25.

I like the Doodle Tablecloth ($50), which is printed with 1cm graph paper, and the Doodle Child’s Apron ($20).

But if these aren’t practical gift prices for the young artist you know, the Doodle Pencil Case might be perfect – it also washes clean with one laundry cycle.

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Out of Print Clothing has been recommended to me by a few folks, and there’s good reason. If you’ve got bookish friends (who doesn’t?), there are many gift ideas here.

For example: the Composition Book Tote ($18) or the Library Card Pouch ($16).

And then there’s the Pride and Prejudice tee ($28), which is horribly tempting, too. Pretty much everything they make is tempting, I think.

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I love this idea: Art Fold books are hardcover editions of classic books that come with instructions so that, once you’re done reading them, you can fold the pages to create a three dimensional sculpture that appears when you next open the book.

Hans Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen and Other Tales becomes a snowflake:

Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen becomes the word “Love:”

And Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery becomes the word “Joy:”

 

Aren’t those cool? The description says about 150-200 pages need to be folded, and the instructions are detailed, too. There are other editions as well – Jane Eyre becomes “Read,” for example – and each book is between $15-20.

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 Via Jaye Wells on Twitter comes this most excellent phone case: Please Go Away. I’m Reading.

Available on Etsy for $15 plus shipping/tax.

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For the scarf-loving folks (I know you’re out there), Etsy also has many, many variations on literary scarves for you, or the scarf-loving readerly types you know.

Pick a classic book, and there’s probably a scarf for it.

There’s the Pride and Prejudice quote scarf (pictured right),  the Pride and Prejudice proposal (the first one) scarf, or the Pride and Prejudice printed page scarf.

Then there are the Storiarts Pride and Prejudice writing gloves, which are fingerless and printed with text from the book.

There are other fingerless gloves printed with books, too, should your fingerless glove needs remain unmet at this time.

So, what about you? What have you bought or gifted so far that you’re excited about?