Ready for more fun and gifting ideas? This round is all about useful things, fun and silly things, and ways to help people out.
First, certificates! Each year we offer gift certificates for reading time, and this year is no different.(Please right-click and download, k? This is a PDF file.)
Each certificate offers reading time in 30, 60, or 90 minute increments, and is backed by the full faith and incredulous malarkey of everyone at Smart Bitches. Print them out, sign them, and hand them to everyone who should go read more often. They pair excellently with bookstore gift cards, tea, chocolate, warm socks, flannel blankets, what have you.
But you can also make certificates for people for time, outings, future dates, babysitting – giving someone a gift of time and help is always appreciated.
I use LastPass to store passwords on my computer and my phone – and you can gift someone a subscription if you’d like. LastPass is a storage vault for your passwords, and depending on your settings, will either autofill username and password options when you visit a site, or log in for you. You can have LastPass create passwords for new registrations (so you don’t use the same credentials everywhere) so you keep one master password for your account and let it fill in the rest.
When I signed up for a free account, I didn’t think I’d use it that often, but wow, was I wrong. I found it so useful that I signed up for a Premium account, which allows me to keep LastPass on my phone. And because my phone has fingerprint reading technology, my account is protected on my phone by said fingerprint. I also really like that it has options to create difficult passwords, and I’ve learned a lot about making my own passwords more difficult to crack. Important note: if you use LastPass on your computer, log out at the end of each day. You can read more about LastPass security and take a deep dive into the intermediate level features at Lifehacker.
There are other password vault apps and programs as well, and if you have another to recommend, please feel free to share. I know LogMeIn acquired LastPass recently, so I imagine there’s going to be a bunch of new features announced in the coming months.
If you know a person who likes decadent scents for soaps and lotions, a gift basket from LUSH would be a terrific present – and you can search by “vegan” gifts, too. Carrie, who buys a particular soap for her daughter’s sensitive skin, says, she looks “at their bath bombs the way other women look at jewelry.” Amanda concurs, saying, “Rub Rub Rub is an amazing shower scrub and I love it so much. Highly recommend it.”
Via Carrie comes this link and I think I need to apologize to everyone: EveryCloud Productions has an entire line of gift items and gifts for yourself (you have been very, very good after all) from and inspired by Miss Fisher’s Mysteries.
There’s a Phryne collection, and a Jack Robinson collection, and…
I have never covered an umbrella so fiercely in my life. What is happening to me?!
I am betting you can think of three people very quickly who would be charmed immediately by the WTF OMG LOL 16oz. wineglass.
The stemmed version is $16US and holds 16oz, but there is also a stemless version for $15.
Or, maybe you know someone who would love a silver handcuff necklace? It’s $35 at eBags right now.
This is the kind of gift where I think 85% of the time, the recipient will think, Wait, why does this exist and why do I have it?
Then they’ll use it a few times and think, This is awesome! It’s the type of thing that hollers, I AM THE PERFECT GRAB BAG GIFT!
The SoundBot SB510 HD Water Resistant Bluetooth 3.0 Shower Speaker is $20 – currently at 60% off. It has a rechargeable battery and uses a suction cup to stick the wall.
Why would you use this? Radio in the morning? Sure – or Pandora or Spotify in the morning. Kids in the bathtub? Turn on some kids music, or Disney movie soundtracks.
Bluetooth speakers in general make good gifts. I used to teach arts and crafts at a summer camp, and during the younger camper’s pottery time, we’d put on the soundtrack to The Little Mermaid or Beauty and the Beast and they’d play with the clay and sing for over an hour. This was long before Bluetooth, so we’d crank the volume up on an old stereo system. I now have a Bluetooth speaker in the kitchen that I move around for homework music, listening to podcasts while I cook, or whatever.
Amanda loves hers, the JBL Flip 2, which is about $95 US. It comes in a few different colors, and she says the battery life is excellent: “I haven’t had to charge it in about a month or so, and I maybe use it once a week for about an hour.”
Mine is a lower-end speaker but I love it – and I’ve mentioned it here before if you’re feeling a little deja-vu. The Oontz Curve is $25, and in my opinion has terrific sound for such a small device.
And, if you’re like me and you don’t have an AUX port in your car, you can drop the speaker in the cup holder and listen to audio streaming from your phone while you drive.
Romance board game? Yes! Romance board game! I haven’t played this, but I’m seriously tempted: Love Letter – Boxed Edition is a card game that’s also available without the box for $9.
Both editions have 4.5+ stars, and reviews say the games take about 15-20 minutes each, and are easy but very fun. The description has me seriously tempted:
In the wake of the queen’s arrest, all the eligible young men of Tempest (and many not so young) seek to woo Princess Aneette. Unfortunately, she has locked herself in the palace, and everyone must rely on those within the palace to bring their romantic letters to her. Will yours reached her first?
Love Letter is a game of risk, deduction, and luck, for 2-4 players. Get your love letter into Princess Annette’s hands while keeping other players’ letters away. Powerful cards lead to early gains, but make you a target. Rely on weaker cards for too long and your letter may be tossed in the fire! Japanese game designer Seiji Kanai features only 16 cards but hours of fun!
Some reviews recommend buying sleeves to protect the cards so they won’t be marked by specific wear, since you shuffle them a lot.
Ready for knitting gifts? Elyse is on the job with an assortment of crafty gifts! KnitPicks has a few gift sets for those who wish to learn to knit. The Learn to Knit Club Level 1: Dishcloth kit comes with everything you need to learn to knit dishcloths, including yarn, needles, and instructions, plus there are online tutorials, too. It’s $17 plus shipping. There is also a Learn to Knit Level 2: Scarf kit for $22.
And if you really want to splurge, you can get the 150 Palette Sampler, which comes with 150 different balls of yarn for $420.
What about you? What are you giving, or wishing for this year?
Okay! I’m super excited about some of the gifts I picked out this year! My favorite finds:
For my mom (who’s doing some big time traveling next year) – Therma-Rest Trail Seat (perfect for flights, packs small), a waterproof notebook with a Fisher All-Weather Pen, and a set of 3 eBags packing cubes (which I use whenever I travel and they are honestly the best)
And, for my brother – a spice rub gift set (he loves to grill things, sooo)
I want a Furminator Deshedding Tool for Short-Haired Cats. I don’t care if that’s the cat lady-est sentence I’ve ever typed, my cat has a ridiculously thick undercoat for a short-haired cat and she sheds a ton!
Yeah…. my mom isn’t *time* traveling, that’s a typo…
Love Letter sounds fabulous
Love Letter is indeed a fabulous and quick game. There are also half a dozen different re-themings if that visual style doesn’t appeal.
For my dad, I chipped in for a gift card to a local tour company that has tours he likes. I also got him some “mark anything” markers by Milwaukee Tools. Supposedly they really do write on ANYTHING. Amazon and (I believe) Home Depot have them.
For my mom and bff, I got some shinies from Wyrding Studios. Kythrynne is an independent artist and has verrrry awesome jewelry, including an earring club.
For The Man and The Toddler, I got fleece socks from Polar Feet (polarfeet.com). LL Bean also has fleece socks, and these make a good gift for people in the frozen northern wasteland who have cold feet.
For myselllllf, part of my gift was a print from another local artist, Anne Nydam (nydamprints.com). She does prints of fairy tale and fantastical creatures, children’s books, and more. I have a print of a fantastic little steampunk-y bat and I love it.
Love Letter is a great game. In my board gaming group it’s the most often played short game, even amongst the preteen boys.
I will add my recommendation on Love Letter as well. My middle school boy gamer (both board and video) bought it to play with the family and we love it. Most games are about 15-20 as stated, though sometimes shorter. The regular non-boxed edition is small enough that it can go in a jacket pocket or purse (slightly larger than a deck of cards). It is is portable enough and quick enough to play we often take it with us if we know we might have a wait somewhere. We play it sometimes when we are waiting on food at a restaurant. The rules are also pretty simple, which I like (I have a hard time with complicated rule sets), and if I forget the rules, they are written on the cards. As Rhiannon D said there are other editions as well. We have the original and Batman versions.
I exchange “homemade” gifts with one of my friends and my goddaughter. This year I am putting together winter warm-up jars … packed with fleecy socks, stretchy gloves, premium hot chocolate mix, and candy the kids won’t like. The two elderly ladies on my list are getting pretty pashmina wraps to wear while watching their Hallmark movies. I had a boatload of good steaks shipped to my Dad who will otherwise buy questionable beef at the discount grocery. Two-three beef packages a year and I don’t have to worry about him getting Mad Cow disease or something.
My kids also LOVE Love Letter — both the 10-year-old and the 14-year-old who is scornful of the Romance genre (I’m working on this, believe me).
Kate, I freaking LOVE my Furminator and I SUPPORT YOU.
I got my mom beach-plum gin, got the teen a Mansfield Park book purse, got the 10-year-old ALL the My Little Pony novels (which she knows I’m not a fan of, so it’s a gift that says I ACCEPT YOU, TINY FREAK), got the husband a couple of Robert Graham shirts from Nordstrom Rack. i want Fresh soaps (particularly Hesperides) but didn’t get any…but my birthday is next month, familial assholes.
It’s worth noting that there are several versions of LOVE LETTER that are different genres but follow the same rules. These include Adventure Time, Batman, Legend of the Five Rings, the Hobbit, and Star Wars. So if someone isn’t into romance, there may still be a version they’ll love.
Kate, the furminator was possibly the best thing I’ve ever purchased for myself (in that now I don’t have to worry about petting my cat and coming away with a Pigpen-like cloud of hair).
I bought my mother a kindle and cover for Christmas as she broke hers a little while ago. My father gets a knit hat every year and a Cabela’s gift card. My brother is getting a TMNT mug, a subversive cross-stitch, and a homemade batch of Gingersnaps from a recipe he found on Serious Eats (and requested someone make for him because ‘they go great with coffee). http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2015/12/the-best-gingersnap-cookie-recipe.html
As to what I’m getting for Christmas, I know I’m receiving Christmas blend from Sbux, a Smart Drip drip coffee maker, and a Gleaner. HIGHLY recommend the gleaner, it’s a sweater-saving tool that comes with three heads that do different things. Two are different level of de-piller and one is an animal hair remover. I really need that right about now.
My sister and I are chipping in on bigger gifts for the parents this year – we got my mom a spot in the Miss Babs Knitting Tour for 2016 – on alternating months you get yarn for a shawl or other accessory, exclusive pattern and other goodies. I think she’ll love it! And dad is getting a gift card for a new gas grill, since the current one is mostly rust and hope at this point.
For myself I’ve been hinting broadly that I want the Sphero BB-8 toy. We’ll see – maybe that’ll be an after-Christmas treat to myself. I’m also hoping for a tea kettle in a cute color so I can spend some afternoons with hot cocoa and a book.
Gah, did you see the jewelry in the Miss Fisher collection?! I want some of those earrings so badly, I’d be willing to dress up more just to wear them! And I think everyone needs a Jack bookmark to lay between their pages.
I have only one person to buy for this year – my son. He’s a clothes horse so I charged through the Ralph Lauren boutique last week and did it all in about twenty minutes. I picked up a bunch of odds and ends for his stocking, including, as always, some pretty dopey items. This year he’s getting a chocolate Darth Vader, a Slinky and some Silly Putty. Last year, he freaked out over a tub of Play-Doh I gave him. I should add that he is thirty-two.
My husband and I don’t exchange gifts. Last year we got a Lego Millenium Falcon and built it together, but we usually operate on the principle that if either of us wants something, we just get it.
I’d love to get an Amazon gift card. Love the wineglass you featured ! Thanks for the fun suggestion.
My kids get three gifts apiece (one toy, one book, one outfit). Keeps life simple.
Daughter — Monster High doll (her MH collection is fearsome), Inside Out Driven By Emotions, pretty outfit featuring her favorite animal (that would be a horse).
Son — Knex set where he builds the Lowes car (NASCAR aficionado, Jimmie Johnson fanboy), Big Nate book (a series he recently discovered he likes), boy outfit with a Star Wars shirt (he’s particularly fond of Star Wars clothing).
My husband and I compiled our Christmas and in my case, birthday money (my birthday is the 29th) and I will be hunched over Ticketmaster Thursday morning doing my level best to acquire Adele tickets.
Love Letter is great as a warm-up game (before the three hour session of “Chaos in the Old World” or “Study in Emerald”. (Our family are mad game-players). But the thing I love about Love Letter is its simplicity.
There are cards ranked 1-9. 1 is the guard, which allows you to try and guess what someone else has. 9 is the Princess. You lose if you have to discard her for any reason. Other cards have abilities like letting you see one opponent’s hand, or make someone discard their hand. One mystery card is put aside every hand.
You hold one card. You draw another card. You must decide which of the two cards to play. And the logic will go “I need to compare my other card, which is a 6, with someone else, or I use the 6 to make someone discard theirs. David just compared his card to Joe, and Joe discarded a 5, so David’s must be higher. But he also played a 5 the previous turn, which I suppose means he hasn’t got an 8. David! Discard your card! Oh – you’d picked up a 1. Blast. Which means someone else has the high ranking card and I won’t win. BLAST” And spend the next few minutes madly trying to work out who has what.
My favorite new holiday item is MUNCHKIN CHRISTMAS LITE. This 112-card release works equally well as a stand-alone introduction to the MUNCHKIN game, a nice expansion for the standard game (the cards are either new or original cards with new holiday art), and since it’s fully compatible with every other MUNCHKIN game, an expansion for weird and wonderful combinations from any other version. (Hit a Cultist with Year-Round Caroling! Have your half-breed Mutant Cyborg fight the Gnome in the Home! Equip your Mystic superhero with the Licorice Whip or (eew) Yellow Snowball.) And if you mix MUNCHKIN CHRISTMAS LITE with other Christmas-themed releases (NAUGHTY & NICE, HOLIDAY SURPRISE) you can make an all-holiday game with plenty of cards! Check out http://www.worldofmunchkin.com/games/ to enter the world of MUNCHKIN. (And no, I don’t work for Steve Jackson Games; if I did, they wouldn’t have so much of my money…)
I use 1password and love it! I think it is free for phones but costs for desktops. You want at least 1 desktop version because there are plugins for the browsers that will capture your accounts as you log in. I also am loving how it is more integrated in my apps so I can use the touch option to read my fingerprint to get my passwords.
Well, I know I’m getting the Love Letter game because I handed it to my husband when we were at a store right before Thanksgiving. (This is assuming he remembers he has it.)
By the way the hot dog holder for cooking in the microwave, finally found out what it was called! Hot Doglicious, unfortunately I did place an order, but I guess it’s one of those if enough people don’t buy it, we’re not making more. They had sold out of their inventory and were discontinuing it.
Although their website is still up, so I might try again.
Question to those of you with Bluetooth speakers: do any of them come with AC adapter cords to plug them in?
I have loads of music on my laptop that I’d love to hear more of, but charging/recharging speakers constantly isn’t something I wish to do when I listen to music nonstop when I’m home.
Oh, and I’m loving both the gift suggestions and the descriptions of presents given & received (or at least anticipated). Happy holidays to everyone!
@kk9k:
Mine has a USB but I plug that into an A/C outlet adaptor in the kitchen so it can charge while I’m using it. Does that help?
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My husband has been casting envious eyes at my PacSafe Metrosafe 200 shoulder bag, so instead of getting my battered old 6-year-old model as a hand-me-down, he’s going to receive the latest version with the RFIDsafe blocking pocket and other cool features. (Plus a pair of Sony MDR7506 headphones, because enough already with the cheap cans 🙂
I just wish I could come up with more stocking stuffers he’d really like. About the only bright idea I had was the Original Dog Tarot (he loves dogs) – more for fun than for fortune-reading – and a set of bicycle clips.
@Julia:
That bag is seriously cool – and you’re a great gift-giver. I hope he likes it!
I have been using LastPass (premium) for years and love it. I’m curious why you say to log out every night. Is that in case it is stolen overnight, or some other reason?