Holiday Gift Guide 2024

Puzzles, games, books, food, and vaginal estrogen

We saw this in a store window in NYC last year, and I loved it so much.

If you are new here—well, welcome, for one thing! But also? I’ve been doing a holiday gift guide for a long time, and here’s some of the history:

Last year’s gift ideas are here. And last year’s homemade game idea is here.

• The year before that are here.

• The year before that are here.

• The year before that are here.

• The year before that are here.

• The year before are here—and also there is a list there of links to the homemade gifts we've posted over the years. I'll add Our Fudge of Perpetual Sorrows because it is a perfect recipe and would make a great present for a sweet-toothed kind of person.

• The year before that are here.

• The year before, here.

• The year before, here.

• The year before that, here.

• The year before that, here.

• And the year before that, here.

• Some long ago thoughts (i.e. for little kids) are here.

These gift guides involve various revenue-earning affiliate links (the Amazon and bookshop.org ones). I’m not adding new Amazon links this year because I just CANNOT—but I don’t have the bandwidth to redo all the old ones. Anything you see here? Try to buy it locally—especially if you have a local game and/or book store.

Also? This is going to be too long for an email, so you might want to switch to the web view or the app.

What an unfestive opener to a holiday gift guide! Ha ha ha! What is wrong with me? (Plenty!)

Don’t sleep on your local Goodwill as a gift-finding venue! For example, I was lucky enough to find this single. . . menorah. . . salad fork?

Let’s start with the games! (And remember, as always, that there’s a big list of games on my old blog, here.)

I bought the lovely-looking Ouisi to play at the holidays, because we’ll have a range of ages from true teeny-tinies to my parents, who are as old as time itself. Here’s the description from the website: “OuiSi Photo Cards ‘Visually Connect’ based on shared patterns, shapes and colors. It's accessible yet fun and challenging for kids (4+) and adults alike.” (Also, it’s kind of like a visual version of the NYT Connections, which we’re all obsessed with.) I will report back, but I think it’s going to be a winner.

Just One is another game with a connections theme. Here, we’re all trying to get the guesser to guess the word “bar.” It’s semi-cooperative, takes approximately 5 minutes to learn, and is so much fun as an after-dinner group activity. (Don’t forget the free game Fish Bowl as another group favorite!)

When I posted my thumbprint card last week, my friend Ann said it reminded her of Ed Emberley’s Great Thumbprint Drawing Book, and WOW did that send me down memory lane! Of course that’s where the idea must have come from! We checked all of his drawing books out of the library so much when the kids were little that I’m surprised they didn’t just let us keep them. This, plus an ink pad, would be a can’t-miss gift for kids. Honestly even for teens. Or adults.

The excellent Time of the Child by Niall Williams is kind of gently holiday-themed and would make a wonderful gift for, say, one’s parents. I loved it so much (as did my parents). This was my blurb: “Oh, the utter goosebumpy pleasure of reading this book! The experience will fill you up, even if you didn't know there was an emptiness there to begin with. Niall Williams reminds us again and again that the small and the ordinary are married to amazement, that dailiness and miracles walk hand in hand, and that other people are a mystery: Approach with curiosity! Approach with grace.” Ann Patchett said, more succinctly, “I am such a fan of Niall Williams,” and it was Ann who introduced him to me to begin with by recommending his utterly extraordinary book This Is Happiness, which I also loved (as did my parents).

Speaking of Ann Patchett, this annotated giftable edition of Bel Canto is so delightful and would be a wonderful gift for any writers or Ann Patchett nerds in your life. It’s such an exquisite glimpse into her process, and her notes are filled with humor and insight and admiration and criticism. A treasure, despite the fact that Jellyfish already bit the corners up. And if you’ve never read Bel Canto? My god. Do.

Jigsaw puzzles, always and forever. This 1000-piece lounging cats jigsaw puzzle is what I got for Thanksgiving this year. I’m also eyeballing this festive furballs jigsaw puzzle, which is only 500 pieces (I consistently love Galison puzzles), and this big Italian sub puzzle, which I just saw on

Emma Straub

’s list!

NanaGram is probably my very best most helpful recommendation this year. It’s a service where you upload some number of photos every month (you can pick your plan) and then they print them and mail them to your recipient. Birdy got it for my mom last year, and she and Ben and their cousins all upload photos, and then my mom gets them and puts them in a little album. It’s her favorite thing. Birdy tells me that the website prompts you every month, which is very helpful.

Yes, I’m obsessed with Rancho Gordo beans. Someone sent me The Rancho Gordo Vegan Gift Box (not what’s pictured here) and it’s a fantastic assortment of some of their very best tender, creamy, amazing, delicious beans. If there’s a person who’s the kind of person you’d consider buying beans for, then this is a slam dunk.

The Fishwife Ultimate Tinned Fish Gift Pack okay, this is utter decadence, but this tinned fish is so extraordinarily good, it will ruin whoever you send it to. All the fish is so—sorry, there’s no other way to say it—firm. Dense and smoky and perfectly delicious. And the packaging is gorgeous.

Stocking stuffer alert! Ben gave us Mama Teav’s Hot Garlic last year, and we’ve been wedded to ever since. It’s basically a kind of very garlicky chili crisp and it is our very favorite in the genre.

MALIN+GOETZ rum hand and body wash. I got this for the kids this year so I can’t report back, but they’re both mildly obsessed with this brand of bodycare products, so I have a good feeling it will be a hit.

A Janie Stick. This is such a useful little old-fashioned stain remover: it’s basically chalk, and if you get a greasy splotch on your clothes, you rub it in and then use the little brush to rub it back off, taking most of the oil with it—then you can just Shout the rest out (AAAAAGGGHHHH!!!!) and launder as usual. I feel like if you had chalk and an old toothbrush, that would work just as well, honestly, but that wouldn’t be a very festive stocking stuffer. Unlike the actual Janie Stick, ha ha ha, which is a VERY FESTIVE STOCKING STUFFER.

The Nest Grapefruit Candle. I’ve written about this before, but we’re in love with the smell of this candle. They’re pricey, but this smallish one throws off a big and delicious scent.

I’m wild about these Sticker the Rainbow stickers by Pipsticks, which is a woman-owned business, and which makes so many truly lovely stickers, all perfect for stocking stuffers or any of the lesser nights of Hanukkah.

As always, Redbubble has every niche obsession you could possibly want—stickers and t-shirts and hats and mousepads with All of a Kind Family or nutritional yeast or any other thing you could imagine. I just picked a Chappell Roan reference, an angry feminist slogan, and a happy pinto bean for the sake of example.

If you’re a splurge-on-an-experience kind of gift giver, allow me to recommend tickets to Alicia Keys’s Broadway musical Hell’s Kitchen. It is so unbelievably good—one of the very best things we’ve ever seen in any genre. Listen to the soundtrack on Spotify and prepare to be blown away.

Okay, are you ready for something so special? It’s that the amazing illustrator Julia Rothman (of Nature Anatomy and How We Got By fame, as well as the long-running NYT column Scratch and the current NY Historical Society exhibit Pets and the City) is selling her diner guest check print, which she will CUSTOMIZE FOR YOU with your favorite breakfast order or a poem or anything else you want her to write. How amazing is that! Move fast on this if you’re interested—it’s a limited run.

And finally? My menopausal crones: give yourself the gift of vaginal estrogen. I mean, the gift will have to come from some combination of your healthcare and insurance providers? But wow is it a game changer. Picture a prune turning back into a plum. Picture no longer getting a UTI every time your even think about sex. Picture using your front hole with happy, healthy, plump and moisturized abandon. (The tablet inserts are by far my favorite format, although there is a frustrating amount of plastic involved. But the cream is so icky.) You use it every day for two weeks and then twice a week for. . . well, the lifespan of your vag. Merry Christmas.

With love from me, Kzteryn.

xo