As you’ll soon see, this year’s Christmas Catalog is a lot bigger than our 2015 and 2014 editions.
Here’s the thing: We publish a new guide nearly every week for awesome stuff we think you should know about. Over the past year our guides have covered everything from various types of gear to books to podcasts to music albums to YouTube channels to apps to accessories and more. With such a repository of recommendations already in our archive, we wondered how we could make this year’s holiday gift guide stand out from the pack.
The answer came to us: We could take the entire year’s list of recommendations and compile the best of them into a handful of categories.
Knowing that such a long catalog could be hard to browse all at once, we’ve created a table of contents for the list of categories. Click through to any of those sections, and you’ll find that they each have miniature tables of contents for individual items. This way, you can quickly find something on the page based on whatever’s interesting to you, without having to scroll the entire thing each time.
We hope that out of this list, you can find a handful of items that would be useful for you or to your loved ones this holiday season.
Furthermore, we are continuing the tradition of highlighting three of our favorite non-profits. Here at Tools & Toys we have always given away 11-percent of our gross income to charity. And during the months of November and December, we’ll be donating 11% of our gross specifically to these three non-profits: App Camp for Girls, Operation Christmas Child, and St. Jude.
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As we’ve said in past years, thank you so much, dear reader, for your attention and your patronage. Tools & Toys is now over five years old — man, the time truly flies — and continues to be predominately supported by readers like you who purchase something on Amazon through one of our links.
If the items we’ve curated below don’t fit your needs or wants, ping us on Twitter and we will try to help.
Also, click this link before you do your shopping on Amazon, as it’s a way to support our work.
Thank you, and happy holidays!
— The Tools & Toys Staff
Table of Contents
Books & Novels
Toys, Games, & Kids
Food, Drink & Kitchen
Travel & Outdoors
Home, Office & Decor
Wallets & Attire
Gadgets & Accessories
Writing
Tools & Trinkets
Charities
Photo: Ginny Beck
Books / Novels
The Daily Stoic
Atlas Obscura
The Origin of (almost) Everything
The Elements of Eloquence
Uprooted
A New Way to Dinner
↑ Return to Table of Contents
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday. ($15 hardcover)
The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday »
The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living is the new book by Ryan Holiday — author of The Obstacle is the Way and Ego is the Enemy — that features all-new translations of the Stoics (such as Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca), as well as hundreds of new stories, anecdotes, and exercises to help readers live better. It’s a guide to modern living through the lens of ancient philosophy.
From the description:
Every day of the year you’ll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms.
By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you’ll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.
Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton. ($21 hardcover)
Atlas Obscura by Joshua Foer, Dylan Thuras, and Ella Morton »
Atlas Obscura: An Explorer’s Guide to the World’s Hidden Wonders, which was written by AtlasObscura.com founders Joshua Foer and Dylan Thuras — along with the site’s associate editor, Ella Morton — celebrates over 600 of the world’s strangest curiosities and marvels:
Here are natural wonders—the dazzling glowworm caves in New Zealand, or a baobob tree in South Africa that’s so large it has a pub inside where 15 people can drink comfortably. Architectural marvels, including the M.C. Escher-like stepwells in India. Mind-boggling events, like the Baby Jumping Festival in Spain, where men dressed as devils literally vault over rows of squirming infants. Not to mention the Great Stalacpipe Organ in Virginia, Turkmenistan’s 45-year hole of fire called the Gates of Hell, coffins hanging off a side of a cliff in the Philippines, eccentric bone museums in Italy, or a weather-forecasting invention that was powered by leeches, still on display in Devon, England.
Folks like Neil Gaiman and Guillermo del Toro have given this book their respective stamps of approval, so yeah: a no-brainer gift, this one.
The Origin of (almost) Everything by New Scientist. ($29 hardcover)
The Origin of (almost) Everything by Graham Lawton and Jennifer Daniel of New Scientist »
Just-released by the folks at New Scientist (with help from illustrator Jennifer Daniel), The Origin of (almost) Everything is for anyone who’s ever wondered where things in our world (and the wider universe) actually came from:
Did you know, for instance, that if you were to get too close to a black hole it would suck you up like a noodle (it’s called spaghettification), why your keyboard is laid out in QWERTY (it’s not to make it easier to type) or why animals never evolved wheels? New Scientist does.
And now they and award-winning illustrator Jennifer Daniel want to take you on a colorful, whistle-stop journey from the start of our universe (through the history of stars, galaxies, meteorites, the Moon and dark energy) to our planet (through oceans and weather and oil) and life (through dinosaurs to emotions and sex) to civilization (from cities to alcohol and cooking), knowledge (from alphabets to alchemy) ending up with technology (computers to rocket science).
Stephen Hawking wrote the foreword for this one, so you know that if your recipient is a science nerd even in the slightest, they’re in for a treat.
The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth. ($15 paperback)
The Elements of Eloquence by Mark Forsyth »
Mark Forsyth’s book, The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase — sometimes seen with the subtitle, …How to Turn the Perfect English Phrase — is an ode to the importance of linguistic style. The gist is that it doesn’t always matter what we say so much as how we say it, and Forsyth teaches the tricks to make anyone’s words sing. If you’ve got a loved one who says they’d like to be a more memorable writer or speaker, get them this book.
Here’s the excerpt that gained the book a lot of attention:
[…] adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before colour, green great dragons can’t exist.
Here’s another:
You can spend all day trying to think of some universal truth to set down on paper, and some poets try that. Shakespeare knew that it’s much easier to string together some words beginning with the same letter. It doesn’t matter what it’s about. It can be the exact depth in the sea to which a chap’s corpse has sunk; hardly a matter of universal interest, but if you say, “Full fathom five thy father lies,” you will be considered the greatest poet who ever lived. Express precisely the same thought any other way—e.g. “your father’s corpse is 9.1444 metres below sea level”—and you’re just a coastguard with some bad news.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik. ($10 paperback)
Uprooted by Naomi Novik »
Sometimes an out-and-out fantasy novel is what a person needs. The Nebula Award-winning Uprooted by Naomi Novik is what we recommend this holiday season.
It’s about a young and troublesome girl named Agnieszka, who lives in a small village at the edge of a sinister forest called the Wood. The townfolk rely on a local wizard known as the Dragon to keep them safe from the Wood’s horrors. He’s not much of a nice guy though, and his price for the town’s protection is that every ten years, they must send a young woman to live in his tower and serve him until the next maiden is chosen.
As you can guess, Agnieszka’s the one who gets picked in this story. And as it turns out, she has some latent magical ability of her own.
A New Way to Dinner by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. ($21 hardcover)
A New Way to Dinner by Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs of Food52 »
A New Way to Dinner: A Playbook of Recipes and Strategies for the Week Ahead is a new cookbook by Food52 founders Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs. Designed around weekly and seasonal grocery shopping, this book is an indispensable guide to advance meal preparation — that is, cooking a few base dishes on the weekend and using them in dishes throughout the next week (mostly dinners, with a few lunches and desserts thrown in for good measure).
If you know a friend or loved one who’s been struggling to find the balance between a busy life and eating well, A New Way to Dinner will help them master make-ahead meal planning so they can stop stressing out about cooking every night and just enjoy the food.
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Food / Drink / Kitchen
Cutting board
Stand mixer
Himalayan salt block for grilling
Kitchen dish towels
3-in-1 trivet set
3-in-1 burger press
Bento box for kids
6.5″ vegetable cleaver
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Larch Wood’s end-grain cutting board. ($140–$320, depending on size)
Larch Wood’s End-Grain Cutting Board »
Larch Wood’s end-grain cutting boards fit very well with our philosophy of buying quality items that last. In a way, they’re like a well-maintained piece of cast iron: If you take care of them (more info here), they can last a lifetime or longer. This is a gift that will surely be passed down to grandchildren someday.
Here’s a video of the manufacturing process:
The boards are available in a number of shapes and sizes:
Small ($160)
Medium ($220)
Large ($270)
End curve ($140)
14″ square ($210)
Carver’s board w/ juice moat ($320)
KitchenAid’s Artisan stand mixer. (Price varies based on color)
KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer »
If there’s one stand mixer anyone should have in their home kitchen, it’s the KitchenAid Artisan. It can produce awesome cake batters, cookies, frostings, egg whites, cream, and even bread or pizza dough from time to time.
Available in a wide variety of colors, the tilt-head Artisan mixer comes with a few attachments:
Nylon-coated flat beater (which can be replaced with a metal one if you’re concerned with the nylon flaking off)
Nylon-coated dough hook
-Wire whip
Pouring shield (which can be easily removed during operation)
The front-facing power hub at the top of the unit lets the Artisan expand what it can do via attachments like the pasta roller/cutter ($142) for spaghettic and fettuccine, or the meat grinder ($37), which happens to be useful for grating cheese.
Charcoal Companion’s Himalayan salt block for grilling. ($31, includes holder)
Charcoal Companion Himalayan Salt Block for Grilling »
Grilling food on a Himalayan salt block like this one is a clever idea few people seem to know about.
Place the block on a grill opposite from the charcoal or otherwise on low heat, let it slowly and evenly heat up for 30–45 minutes — to the point where drops of water instantly sizzle away on it, a temperature it will maintain for a while — then cook on it any food you’d like to impart a delicate but complex salty flavor to. Steak, chicken, pork loin, fish, shrimp, veggies, et al are all perfect candidates for this method. Once the food’s cooked, use the included porcelain-coated steel holder to transfer the salt block — food and all — to the table and serve guests right from the cooking surface.
It doesn’t only have to be used for grilling, though. Mark Bitterman of Portland, OR specialty shop The Meadow offers a bunch of handy tips for cooking and serving on a salt block:
Serve moist food on it, such as mozzarella and sliced apples, and the food will pick up a delicate saltiness that sets it off perfectly.
He also talks about freezing the block for other uses:
Freeze a Himalayan salt plate for two hours. Scoop cream or sorbet atop.
More fun yet, freeze a Himalayan salt plate for two hours. Then, over medium heat, warm lightly whipped sweet heavy cream, egg, honey, and aged bitters, and refrigerate. Remove the salt slab from freezer, pour mixture on it, slowly lufting with spatula, for a salt-tinged ice custard you will not soon forget.
As it happens, Mark wrote a whole cookbook on salt block cooking, which you could include with the block itself as an additional gift.
Fecido’s classic kitchen towels. ($16 per two-pack)
Fecido Classic Kitchen Dish Towels »
Fecido’s classic kitchen/tea towels are SUPER thick and absorbent. Kid made a mess? Dinner pot boiled over? These bad boys soak it all up and then some. They almost don’t even feel like something you’d use in a kitchen, but more like a cotton blanket. They also look great and won’t leave lint all over the dishes.
The towels come in a variety of colors (as pictured above) and in packs of twos. We’re partial to the red ones ourselves.
OXO Good Grips 3-in-1 trivet set. ($10)
OXO Good Grips 3-in-1 Trivet Set »
OXO Good Grips’ 3-in-1 trivet set is, well, a set of trivets that protect a table (or other surface) while serving food in hot cookware.
They can snap together into one uber-trivet, or they can be used separately — whether it’s for different dishes, or placed side-by-side to accomodate a particularly large dish. They’re made of durable silicone that’s heat-safe up to 600°F, and underneath each ring are raised, non-slip feet to keep the dishes from moving around, meanwhile keeping the hot surface even further from the table.
Another clever use for them is setting a mixing bowl in the center of one of the circles to keep the bowl from rocking around while prepping dough, etc.
Cuisinart 3-in-1 burger press. ($8)
Cuisinart 3-in-1 Burger Press »
Cuisinart’s 3-in-1 burger press is useful for making burgers of all kinds. It can shape regular patties up to ¾ lb, or it can be used to make stuffed burger patties filled with whatever ingredients one likes. The smaller insert is perfect for making sliders. The press is nonstick and dishwasher-safe, plus it’s small enough to easily be brought along to tailgate parties and such.
Bentgo children’s bento box. ($28)
Bentgo Children’s Bento Box »
This children’s bento box from Bentgo is a leakproof lunchbox with five different-sized compartments for packing a wholesome lunch and/or snacks for a kid, and it’s pretty great. The compartments are sized for one entrée, some fruit and veggies, a dip, and a small dessert.
The children’s Bentgo comes in blue, green, and purple.
You can also purchase the standalone blue tray, green tray, and/or purple tray (each of which is $6) so a kid can mix-and-match colors as they like.
The Japanese-made 6.5″ vegetable cleaver by MAC Knife. ($80)
MAC Japanese Series 6.5-inch Vegetable Cleaver »
While a good chef’s knife is the single most essential kitchen tool, there are other knives worth keeping around for more specialized duties.
The Japanese-made 6.5″ vegetable cleaver by MAC Knife is ideal for anything involving fruits and veggies. It’s of the straight-edged, double-beveled nakiri variety — not to be confused with the single-bevel usuba cleaver or the much larger Chinese cleaver. This means it’s lighter, easier to handle, and offers a higher level of cutting finesse than its usuba and Chinese counterparts.
Here are some examples of things it excels at:
Creating clean, paper-thin slices of tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, etc.
Julienning onions, carrots, etc.
Basic veggie dicing and mincing.
Skinning bell peppers using the roll technique.
If you need more than our recommendation, this veggie cleaver is considered the best by America’s Test Kitchen:
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Home / Office / Decor
Victorian-style map of Mars
Star Wars + Winnie the Pooh print
Map of the constellations
Headphone stand + charging station
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“Here There Be Robots” Victorian-style map of Mars by Eleanor Lutz. (Price varies based on item format)
“Here There Be Robots” — A Victorian-Style Map of Mars »
This amazing, hand-drawn Victorian-style map of Mars by designer Eleanor Lutz combines the romance of ancient maps with modern data about Mars’ geographical features and humanity’s rover landings there.
In a blog post on her Tabletop Whale site, she provides some detail about the design:
To add a little something extra, I included the history of each place name on the map. Martian craters are named after famous scientists (for large craters) or small villages on Earth (small craters). Since the base map is hand-drawn I also added an overlay of actual NASA topographic imagery. This way even if some of my lines are a little off, you can still see what the actual ground looks like underneath.
It should be noted that this is not a full map of Mars, but rather a section of it. Here is a comparable area of Earth to give you an idea of what the Mars map covers.
The map can be purchased at Redbubble in a variety of formats, including a photographic print ($7–$36 depending on size), a hardcover journal ($20), an iPhone case/skin ($25), and more.
“A Most Bold Adventure” print by James Hance. (~$12 USD; use the currency button at the top of the store page before checkout to see the most up-to-date conversion)
“A Most Bold Adventure” Print by James Hance »
Illustrator James Hance has a whole series of artwork called Wookie the Chew that mashes up the worlds of Star Wars and Winnie the Pooh. Sounds weird, but it’s actually quite good.
Our favorite print from that series (and believe us, it’s hard to pick just one) is the one called A Most Bold Adventure. Something about it just speaks to us — maybe it’s Han Solo’s jaunty walk (á la Christopher Robin), or the AT-AT Walker as Eeyore. Whatever the case, this 14″ x 11″ print is perfect for a kid’s room or as a gift for anyone who loves both Winnie and Star Wars.
The Map of the Constellations by Best Made Co. ($38)
Map of the Constellations by Best Made Co. »
The Map of the Constellations by Best Made Co. is a stellar (heh) gift to give the stargazer in your family this holiday season. Charting the stars of the northern and southern hemispheres, the map measures 3′ x 2¼’ and includes diagrams of…
The Earth’s axis
Phases of the moon
Solstices and equinoxes
Eclipses (relative to the positions of the sun, moon, and earth)
Illustrations of the more notable satellites throughout the years (including Hubble, Voyager 1, Mars Global Surveyor, and more)
Here’s a great photo of it in the field by Best Made founder Peter Buchanan-Smith:
Twelve South’s Fermata headphone charging stand. ($80; available in silver and black)
Twelve South “Fermata” Headphone Charging Stand »
The folks at Twelve South recently announced the Fermata, an elegant stand designed to hold + showcase a pair of premium headphones, and which doubles as a wall-powered charging station.
Made from aluminum with a soft contoured leather pad atop its support saddle, the Fermata has a built-in USB charging cable with a reversible micro-USB connector to keep a pair of wireless headphones charged at all times. When it’s not in use, the connector tucks away out of sight into the back of the stand’s post.
Hidden beneath the base is an extra USB port that’s useful for, say, keeping a Lightning cable plugged in for charging an iPhone and/or iPad when needed. The Fermata also works nicely for gaming headphones.
Note: Don’t be afraid of the “Available from these sellers” link on the Amazon product pages; the only seller listed for either version is Twelve South themselves. If you’re still unsure about it though, you can always order directly from their site.
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Gadgets / Accessories
iPhone + Apple Watch dock
4-port USB wall charger
Portable car jump starter
Pocket keyboard for iPhone
Podcasting microphone
Mobile photo printer
Home Wi-Fi system
iPhone stand
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Studio Neat’s Material Dock for iPhone and Apple Watch. ($45 or $70, depending on model)
Studio Neat’s Material Dock for iPhone and Apple Watch »
The Material Dock is a dock for iPhone and Apple Watch by our friends Tom and Dan at Studio Neat. This video explains the whole thing nicely:
The Dock comes in two versions: iPhone-only ($45) and iPhone + Apple Watch ($70). Both are milled from beautiful, solid walnut wood, with backing panels made from molded cork — a lovely contrast to the glass and aluminum of the gadgets being docked there. Those cork panels, along with the Lightning plugs on each dock, are minutely adjustable, so the Material can accomodate pretty much any iPhone + case combo.
The Dock stays put on a nightstand or table thanks to two micro-suction pads on the bottom of the dock. It adheres without leaving any residue, and holds fast when pushed down into place.
The only caveat: Either you or your gift recipient will have to provide the Lightning cable and/or Apple Watch charging puck.
We really wanted to include the newest version of Studio Neat’s Glif tripod mount in this guide, but unfortunately it isn’t expected to ship until early 2017. We still recommend keeping an eye out for its release, because it’s going to be awesome.
The Anker PowerPort 4 40W 4-port USB wall charger. ($26; available in white and black)
Anker PowerPort 4 — 40W 4-Port USB Wall Charger »
It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of the Anker 40W 5-port USB charger. It’s made several appearances in our various gear guides, and those of us on the team who travel a lot certainly get a ton of use out of it.
As it turns out, Anker makes something even more portable: The PowerPort 4, a 40W 4-port USB wall charger with a foldable plug. Rather than connecting to an outlet via a cable like the 5-port charger, the PowerPort 4 plugs directly to the outlet. In fact, it looks a lot like a bigger version of Apple’s 12W USB power adapter that ships with iPads, with the addition of Anker’s “PowerIQ” feature that smartly routes power to each port based on the receiving device’s unique charging protocol.
A nice bonus feature is its soft LED status light, which indicates when it’s plugged in and done charging.
DBPower portable jump starter. ($43)
DBPOWER Portable Car Jump Starter + Device Charger »
Ever had your car battery die at the most inopportune time, when no one is around to give you a jump start? Yeah, we’ve been there too. This portable jump starter by DBPower is what you’d want to have on hand in such situations.
It stores up to 12,000mAh of power and delivers a peak current of 400 amps, which guarantees you’ll be able to jump a 3L gas (or 2.5L diesel) vehicle up to 15 times on a single charge, yet it’s small enough to fit in a glovebox — which is actually a convenient place to keep it, since the device also sports two USB outputs (5V/2.1A each) for charging iPhones and iPads on the road. A built-in, ultra-bright LED light on the end also comes in handy for nighttime reading or when you have a roadside emergency.
ZAGG pocket keyboard. ($38 or $50, depending on model)
ZAGG Pocket Keyboard »
When it comes to writing with an iPad, you’ll have to pry the Belkin QODE out of our cold, dead fingers. Still, it’s admittedly not the best solution for anyone doing a lot of writing on an iPhone instead, especially on the go.
The ZAGG pocket keyboard is the better solution for iPhone writers. This tiny foldable keyboard offers over 85% of the space of a typical keyboard, but can reduce down to a slim rectangle shape for easy stowing in a bag or jacket pocket. It folds this way with a horizontal hinge between the A and Z rows of keys, rather than having an awkward, taco shell-style vertical hinge.
When closed, built-in magnets keep the Pocket folded and turned off so it doesn’t waste power. When in use, a small shelf built into the stand portion folds out to hold your device.
Two versions of the ZAGG Pocket are available on Amazon:
Universal ($50) — Compatible with both Apple and Android devices.
Apple-only ($38) — Designed for only iPhone and iPad.
Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB microphone. ($79)
Audio-Technica ATR2100-USB Microphone »
Know someone who’s thinking about starting a podcast? One thing they’ll need for sure is a good mic. Audio Technica’s ATR2100-USB microphone — which, for you audio nerds out there, is of the cardioid dynamic USB/XLR variety — is one of the best all-in-one solutions around.
The ATR2100 is great at eliminating room echo and background noise, with the caveat that you must speak up closely to it. Each mic comes with its own tripod desk stand, and there’s a built-in headphone jack so the user can monitor their audio in real-time without hearing any distracting delays.
Note: You don’t necessarily need to use a pop filter with the ATR2100, but this $3 foam windscreen is a cheap and easy way to reduce unwanted noise even further (not to mention protect the mic from the unfortunate reality of speaker spit).
The Polaroid ZIP mobile printer. ($114)
Polaroid ZIP Mobile Printer »
Ever taken an incredible photo on your iPhone somewhere and thought to yourself, “Man, it would be nice if I could print this off right here”? Maybe you want to hand a copy of the photo to a companion traveler as a keepsake, or send one to your parents postcard-style, or share photos of the night’s party with all your guests before they head home, or as Casey Liss suggests, have a band sign a photo you took during the concert only minutes before.
Whatever the case, the Polaroid ZIP mobile printer is a great solution. This little gadget — which clocks in at smaller than 3″ x 5″ x 1″ — uses ZINK (zero-ink) photo paper (a 10-pack comes with the printer) to produce high-quality, borderless, full-color photo prints (at 2″ x 3″ size) wirelessly from an iPhone or iPad.
This special paper is smudge-proof and resistant to fading, even from exposure to heat, light, and humidity, so the photos should last a good while. The back of each sheet can be peeled off to reveal a sticky side, so you can stick the photo wherever. A full charge of the printer’s internal 500mAh battery (which takes 1½ hours) lasts about 25 prints — plenty enough for most occasions.
The eero home wi-fi system. ($499 for the 3-pack starter set, or $190 for an individual node)
eero Home Wi-Fi System »
There are those who are lucky enough to have perfect Wi-Fi connectivity in their home, no matter what room they’re in. The rest of us? Well, let’s just say we apparently angered some Wi-Fi god in a past life.
The eero home Wi-Fi system solves this problem beautifully. If you’ve ever tried to fix “dead zones” and other connectivity woes with a confusing series of routers and extenders and still gotten nowhere, you’ll love this setup — or your loved ones will, if you’re buying this for them (which still helps you out in the end, when you’re visiting their place down the road <img src="http://s.w.org/images/core/emoji/72x72/1f609.png" alt="