Holiday Gift Guide 2025

Games, puzzles, books, food, and geriatric supplies

The image comes from this embroidery kit, which looks so cool! I got there from Erin Boyle’s lovely gift guide.

Hiiiiiii! 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.

• The year before that are here. And that 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.

And remember, as always, that there’s a big list of games on my old blog, here.

These gift guides involve various revenue-earning affiliate links (the Amazon and bookshop.org ones and, randomly, Fishwife). I’m not adding new Amazon links anymore because JEFF BEZOS jezos krist—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!)

I always start with games, even though I recommend fewer and fewer new games. (Sob!) But don’t forget there are so many in years past! I’m taking this opportunity to recommend Upwords again because it is just so much fun. Like Scrabble, but somehow both more distilled and more complex? Ha ha ha. I sound like a hipster tobacco merchant. There are TONS of used copies of this game out there, and some of them are very retro and fun. (Like ours, which came from Savers obvs.)

I believe I have never recommended Stone Age, and it only occurred to me because I was looking for some holiday photos, and there are so many pictures of us playing it!

It’s a big, expensive, complicated strategy game, yes. And, yes, someone will need to digest the rules and regurgitate them for everyone sitting with their lazy little baby beaks open. But it’s not as stressful or complicated as some of the other games in that class of games, and we think of it as a kind of all-purpose fun game that takes maybe an hour, yes, but not half the day. (That beautiful wooden object is a dice roller made for us by our engineer nephew, and we treasure it. Please excuse the distractingly plump and glistening Castelvetrano olives.) Also, do not try to teach, learn, or play this game while anybody at the table is stoned. I am not really selling it very hard, ha ha ha. But we love it.

I am interested in playing both of these how-well-do-you-know-people party games because they sound like the sadly discontinued Whoonu? which we love. I will get one of them, but I’m not sure which, so I’m recommending both, which have both been recommended to me!

This one, First to Worst.

And this one, Priorities.

We love to give people puzzles because then there’s something fun to do! My favorite puzzle brands include the classic and always excellent eeboo

I don’t have this puzzle? But it’s very appealing to me.

the strange and wonderful Piecework

I just gave this puzzle as a thank-you gift.

the lovely Ordinary Habits

I’m showing this one because I sent it to a friend last week—but they also have some truly lovely, cozy, enchanting holiday and winter puzzles that I have my eye on!

And the very expensive, heirloom, collectible, and exquisite Liberty.

My mom and I were working on a Liberty puzzle last month? And there were all these weird pieces in it? And they turned out to make THIS, and we redeemed it for a gift certificate for a free puzzle! How fun is that?

I am giving Ben and Birdy these retractable marker pens this year. I feel like one of the hard things about moving out on your own is that you don’t have any art supplies. I’ve been slowly replacing them over the years. (There are lots of links in past gift guides.)

and this chunky sketch pad. (If you want a chunky sketch pad but don’t want to spend nearly so much on it, there is also this one.)

Probably they’re going to be drawing lots of pictures and mailing them to friends and family, so go ahead and get them some stamps too! I got my kids these (obviously):

but I also stocked up on a ton of 1-, 2-, and 3-cent stamps because it’s fun to add them to your envelope for no reason, and they only cost 1, 2, or 3 cents!

Is weird that I kind of want to give everyone this Brutalist architecture calendar? I don’t know anything about architecture, I just think it’s kind of funny? But maybe a little pricy for the bit.

Okay, here come the book recs! But first! A bag to put them in. I got Birdy this classic monogrammed tote from LL Bean just to make her laugh. Well, that, and it will be actually useful. (A friend I saw last week had one monogrammed with the word yikes, which I also loved.)

Do you have a small somebody in your life? You really won’t do better than a lovely, dreamy, whimsical, and perfect Sophie Blackall book. These feel like old-fashioned kids’ books—not silly or grave or pandering, but somehow just imaginative and exciting and beautiful. I gave my little nephews this book two years ago, and this year I’m giving them this book, If We Were Dogs. I can’t wait to read it 7000 times in 2 days!

Next up: Mary Roach, whose books are loved by young and old alike—or have been in my house. Side note: When the kids where younger (maybe 10 and 13), Mary Roach audiobooks were everyone’s favorite thing to listen to in the car! Full of her inimitable mischief and humor and infectious delight over people and oddities. Find me a more curious person on the planet! (She should team up with David Attenborough.)

Michael and I listened to Replaceable You on a recent road trip, read by Mary herself, and it was just as fascinating and funny as we knew it would be. Also, this made me chuckle. (It is also a New York Times bestseller, fwiw.)

I am always waffling on about Kate Baer because I love her so much, and I cannot think of a sister, friend, mother, or aunt I wouldn’t give this book of poems to. It’s just exactly the right amount of [sharp astonished inhalation] and [deep sighing exhalation]. It’s someone saying “same” to you a hundred times, but in a lyric format.

Best Offer Wins by Marisa Kashino is so funny and readable and delicious—perfect for so many of the people you’re buying books for. It’s a thriller and kind of nasty in the best way, like if House Hunters were hosted by a stylish and charming sociopath. Also it’s comically relatable if you’ve ever tried to buy a house. Michael laughed out loud while he was reading it, which is really all you need to know.

Okay, yes, I am a Miriam Toews FANATIC. When I am asked to pick a favorite book I often refuse in a panic, but I just as often say All My Puny Sorrows. Her latest book A Truce that Is Not Peace is strange and deeply sorrowful and funny and philosophical. I would give this book to a college student or to a person who loved to laugh and cry and think. I got to blurb it, and I said, “This small book is bursting with hilariousness and suffering and rage and also so much tenderness that the pages are practically flying off like paper-airplane love letters. I would have read another thousand chapters.”

And Wreck, obviously, since nothing says holiday spirit quite like a peculiar, spreading rash. Also, while I’m tooting my own horn, can I just plug Stitch Camp again, because these are evergreen skills, and this book with some crafty supplies always makes a great gift for a child or tween.

What about a cookbook? I have two new ones to mention, although I did just recommended my friend Jenny Rosenstrach’s book The Weekday Vegetarians to another friend who wanted to buy a cookbook for a newly cooking adult because it really is the best: unfussy, reliable, and delicious. (Also, Jenny’s own 2025 Cookbook Gift Guide is an invaluable resource.)

Heartland Masala by Jyoti and Auyon Mukharji is so good. The bean chapter alone is intoxicating—I’m not joking! (I would never joke about beans.) But also the book is so beautiful and stylish and the recipe for chai is simply the best I’ve ever tried. Full disclosure: Auyon Mukharji is in the band Darlingside, which my family has been obsessed with forever, so I preordered his and his mom’s book in a kind of weird fan way, but I’m really glad I did.

Good Things by Samin Nosrat is another book I’d give a newish cook or anyone else. I love her and her generous vibe and the way you can read one of her recipes and just know it’s going to be perfect.

While we’re on cooking! I love my Gir spatulas because they’re one-piece and indestructible, and I would buy them again but don’t need to because INDESTRUCTIBLE! I gave Birdy one.

These glasses are our all-time favorites, and they’re on sale right now: $9 for 6! They’re thin and light but sturdy, and we use them every day. Ben has them too.

Birdy and I are obsessed with small spoons. I was lucky enough to find a $2.99 stapled hodgepodge baggie of tiny espresso spoons at a thrift store in Montreal—all different brands, the best—but Birdy lives with my parents now and they have NO SMALL SPOONS so I got her some for a present! I bought them at Marshall’s, but there are tons around. I love these, below.

Confusingly, I’m switching back to putting the photo first! Okay, I know I’ve recommended them before, but I love everything Fishwife makes. Their trout and salmon and sardines and mackerel and tuna—they’re all just so meaty and delicious and they ruin you for other canned fish. So go ahead and give it as a gift (the gift packs are decadent) and ruin someone for supermarket tuna! Life is so short, right?

I was recently given a pair of spices from the lovely Curio, and one of them is this Rose Harissa, which I’m a little obsessed with. I’ve been swapping it in for the za’atar on the fried chickpeas in the salad here. It’s fresh and fruitily spicy and just the tiniest almost imperceptible bit floral, in a good way. I also have the Molasses Cookie Sugar, which is a collab with Sofra (one of my favorite restaurants), and which means I will get to make these. Furthermore, Curio is “a small, woman-owned B Corp working to disrupt the world of commodity spices and bring fair trade, equity, and female empowerment to small farmer communities around globe.” So look around and see what catches your eye! I’m so obsessed with chaat masala that I will probably have to try their version too. Oooh, there’s also a spice subscription! How fun would that be?

Oh, chocolates! I have a hard time sending gifts that aren’t boxes of chocolate. In fact, I recently had occasion to thank a lot of people, and I sent three different kinds! Always, always Burdick’s, which are appealingly small and delicious and some of them are shaped like animals and they’re festively crammed into a box (also, if you’re ever in Cambridge, go and get a cup of hot chocolate there zomg). And then my friend Joanna Goddard recommended these to me, and they were delightfully well received! (You can find her original rec on this amazing Cup of Jo gift guide.) And, finally, I have become obsessed with these, first gifted to us a month ago by my wonderful and generous friend Laura.

The flavors are CRAAAZY and they come in tiny little boxes and Ben was home with a friend and we cut them all into a million pieces so everyone could try everything.

While we’re talking about edible things, ha ha ha, here’s my weed recs: These exact delicious gummies (I take 1/4 of one to sleep, 1/2 of one to feel happily stoned during sex or a movie, and 3/4 of one to laugh until I am obliterated by laughing. I have literally never taken a whole one.) These exact seltzers, (I get the 3 mg), which are utterly delicious and don’t taste at all like La Croix drunk from a tall Grateful-Dead-stickered bong, and I can drink one and feel the edges smoothed off and still be more or less social and functioning. (I understand if your own personal sobriety journey doesn’t include THC.) Stocking suffer for yourself!

These continue to be my favorite candles ever—clean, pure, perfect evergreen smell—and I just sent one to someone very special. (I buy the smaller one for myself because I’m a martyr.)

Speaking of candles: I buy the warmly amber and wonderful-smelling beeswax tapers from these folks (they sometimes have “oops” sales on IRREGULARS, which I snap up, because irregular), and I see they also have Hannukah candles, which would be lovely.

I am obsessed with these, and have lately taken to embroidering handkerchiefs as custom presents: the person’s name or a line of poetry or a special phrase, say, for a friend who interviewed 5 times for a job they ended up giving to someone different (younger).

I also buy and embroider these, shown above, which are much cheaper, but just make sure you wash and iron them first. (Yes, I hire an archaeological dig crew to locate and excavate my iron for this one task.)

Okay, maybe this is just a You Present (almost as festive as the rash!), but I started wearing compression socks on the advice of one of my doctors (cough *stroke risk* cough), and I just completely love them. They are the only socks I wear anymore, and I love this brand Wellow, in spite of myself, even though the socks are very expensive and wear out? But they’re unbelievably comfortable and they will replace them if you send a picture of the hole that developed within one year of buying them. Get them when they’re on sale (often) and note that, at least for me, they run a little big so consider sizing down.

Here’s a recommendation for underpants that would make a great stocking stuffer for the kind of person (e.g. not my daughter) who wouldn’t be irritated that you were buying them underpants. But really I’m just using this gift guide as an excuse to mention them because they’re the most comfortable underpants I’ve ever worn: nice and high-waisted and soft and snug and stretchy. (I’m sure some or other Instagram ad targeted me, and I know nothing about this company, but I have been wearing them for a while now and they hold up.) Please note that at this link, they are “on sale” at 2 pairs for $25.99, which is still really expensive for underpants, but I think they’re either always or at least usually on sale.

Ending on the underpants. Happy everything, beloveds.

How lucky I feel to share the planet with you.

xoxo