Some people are highly organized about the holidays. They make precise lists. They do careful research. They comparison shop. They are able to confidently click “ground shipping” as an option.
This list is for the rest of us. The ones who, like me, have waited until the last minute, and who right now are quietly scrambling to find something good and useful for a kid, a parent, a teacher, or a coach. In that spirit, here are a seven things that caught our eye this year.
1. Gibbon Slackline ($79)
Our 12-year-old daughter went on a backpacking trip last summer and came back all hyped on slacklining — which is basically a combination of tightrope walking and trampoline. For those of you not familiar, you stretch a piece of webbing between two fixed points, and start walking/bouncing. So simple, so great for balance, and so fun in the purest sense of the word.
2. Electronic Rock Guitar Shirt ($19)
Yes, you read that correctly. It is a T-shirt, and it is also a musical instrument. To play, you place your fingers on the “neck” of the guitar and “strum” using a magnetic pick. The chords (recorded from a real guitar) are surprisingly authentic, thanks to the amp that clips to your belt. Question: is this crazy thing a “gateway” to playing an actual instrument? In our family, the answer is a definite yes. Perhaps because the amp, in fact, goes to 11.
3. My Ideal Bookshelf ($17)
Science tells us that creativity is all about creating a “windshield” of people you admire, observe, and emulate — which makes this book worth celebrating, since it’s a compendium of windshields. Author Thessaly La Force approached more than 100 creative types (Dave Eggers, Tony Hawk, David Chang, Chuck Klosterman, Judd Apatow) and asked them what books mattered most to them, giving the rest of us a nice X-ray into the craft of creativity.
4. Burton Sleeper Travel Hoodie ($95)
My brother, a tech-savvy guy who’s famously difficult to buy for, got this a while back and loved it. It looks like a regular hoodie, but it’s built for the art of napping: an integrated neck pillow, earplugs, and sleep visor, along with a passport pocket and yes, a toothbrush. Sort of like a Swiss Army knife for catching Z’s.
5. LikeaBike ($289)
Whoever invented the phrase “as easy as riding a bike” clearly never taught a kid to ride one. As you parents know, the process is a reliably painful thrash of pedals, tears, and endless stretches of running-alongside-the-bike-while-crouched-over. This little fella works because it takes the pedals out of the equation and puts the kid in charge. They scoot along, Flintstone style, and their brains get the hang of balance and turning without any parental help whatsoever. In other words, it’s perfect.
6. Ruhlman’s Twenty ($25)
Growing up, I thought cooking well was like writing romantic poetry: a talent reserved for the chosen few, plus some French. Since then, we’ve seen a quiet revolution in which cooking has become seen as it truly is: a skill that is learned, over time and through practice, with the help of good coaches. And if you want to learn to cook, there’s no more masterful coach than my neighbor and friend Michael Ruhlman, author of Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking and The Making of a Chef, among others. Twenty is a great starting place: a tour of 20 fundamental techniques, along with a hundred good recipes. Pro tip: start with the roast chicken.
7. Moleskine pocket notebook ($10)
In our smartphone-driven world, it seems strange that a humble notebook from the steam-engine age could be a useful tool. But that’s exactly what this is: a supremely well-made, portable device that needs no batteries and does what you need it to do: provide a space to capture thoughts, to make plans, to sketch ideas. In fact, as this new book shows, these notebooks are making somewhat of a renaissance: proof that if it’s anything is enough for Ernest Hemingway and Spike Jonze, it’s good enough for the rest of us.
Have you come across any useful gifts? Feel free to share — after all, we need all the help we can get!