It's the 2024 Important Gift Guide!

📚 📰 Gifts That Aren’t Things

Trick question! We’re firm believers that you can and should gift literally any kind of experience, instead of a thing.

Experiences don’t have to be expensive, or even cost anything.

They don’t have to involve you, or anyone else but the receiver.

Or it can, or just simply be whatever you think that person would enjoy and could maybe use right now, or in the future, in some sort of (I don’t know) break glass in case of emergency mental health minute.

Here are some examples we came up with, have gifted, or been gifted ourselves:

• Pre-scheduled dinner dates w/accompanying childcare

• You providing childcare while someone else goes on a dinner date

• Daily morning walks

• Tickets to a baseball game, ballet, comedy show, or anything

• Book an appointment for the spa or nail salon

• A hike or picnic or both at a state park

• Cooking or art or knitting classes

• Camping

• Homemade anything

• A promise to actually meet at the farmer’s market every Saturday from now on

• Roller skating

• A lecture

• A book reading

• A Sunday morning spent volunteering

• An hour coloring in a coloring book

• Baking something, anything

• A D&D game

• Tickets to a NWSL game

• A new or old board game to play right now

• A puzzle and some gummies, let’s do this

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📚 📰 Gifts for Readers

• First of all — we have too many recommendations to list them all here, but you can get them all from our Bookshop reading lists! We’ve got lists curated for kids, climate change, food and water, tech, health, and more.

• Look, we think Amazon sucks as a company as much as you do, but you know what else sucks? How little kids are reading these days. Quinn prefers his kids read actual books, but some recent travel has made it clear that a Kindle Paperwhite would enable them to read more, carry less, and ask for their (cracked, disgusting) iPads just a little less, too.

• This book light that’s easy on the eyes for when you need to finish the entire series before the movie comes out. Quinn is a big (psycho) fan of redundancy, so has one (fine, six) whole Patagonia Black Hole cubes dedicated to family travel. Inside — dedicated chargers, white noise machines, and these book lights.

• A personalized book stamp, because that’s obviously essential when you desperately need literally any hobby that will shut out the outside world

• Unsure what books the faerie smut lover in your life hasn’t read yet? Let them choose with a Bookshop gift card or get them a Libro audiobook credit bundle.

🌎 Gifts for People Who Give A Shit!

That’s right — our merch store is re-launched!

Enjoy a cornucopia of classic Important, Not Important favorites, PLUS new tees, hoodies, stickers, and water bottle-things from What Can I Do?, It’s Called Science., and more! Shop now!

🎨 🎭 🍿 Gifts for People Who Are Cultured Or Want To Be

• Never stop learning! Great Courses has a class for just about everything, gift one to someone earnestly, or passive aggressively, your choice. On one vacation Quinn and his wife listened to a whole series on medieval England and learned those freaks used to test if you were lying by dipping your arm in hot oil and if the skin came off, you were guilty? Genuinely WTF.

• We love everything kurzgesagt does. Quinn has gifted his kids the Curiosity Guide and Gratitude Journal and other things he can’t remember, maybe some posters? That would have been helpful in 9th grade?

• I (Quinn) was recently made aware my wife has a small group chat dedicated to IRL grammar mistakes. So. Stet! is a board game for “language lovers, grammar geeks, and bibliophiles”, aka people who know how to party

🍆 🍑 ❤️ Gifts for LOVERS

• Maude intimacy essentials - Woman-owned and inclusive as hell, Quinn’s a big fan of basically everything here. Handy to have…on hand…when the opportunity actually strikes!

• Avocado non-toxic mattresses - Quinn has a lot (?) of these and they’re great and won’t kill you ever so slowly in your (already anxiety-ridden) sleep

• Again, childcare. Do it for your partner, do it for your friends with young kids who just need a minute. Take their kids to the park or a movie or your place or whatever once a week or once a month for like an hour and you’ll earn mad love and respect AND build a bond with their little humans.

🧑‍🍳 Gifts for People Who At Least Try To Cook

• Rancho Gordo beans - There is absolutely no reason why heirloom beans can’t be stocking stuffers, especially when legumes are 1) delicious and 2) an answer to climate change with like six co-benefits? Don’t miss their new bean-specific cookbook!

• The Masienda tortilla starter kit - stop using anything else. You’re embarrassing yourself.

• Seed & Mill halva and tahini — I think these have been on the list for three years straight? Ordering more now brb

• Katfish Salmon Co Salmon Trio Picnic Kit - a tote (salvaged from old sails!), two cans of salmon, and a package of fucking delicious looking coho strips

• An apron from Hedley & Bennet so they can look the part. Yes, chef.

• Brightland is a kitchen staple at this point. Drown me in this Pizza Oil.

• Blue Bottle instant coffee is next level. Get it for all the busy go-getters in your life and thank me later. The number of times I’ve forgotten to get more coffee beans and this shit has saved me, I can’t even tell you. I guess I’m telling you now, but you get it.

• A Titanium Spork…for when you’re cooking on top of a mountain and every ounce counts. (Quinn here) truly on the list of “parenting shit to keep in your car”, a handful of titanium sporks is up there.

🎶 🎧 Gifts For People Who Are Good At Tuning Out The Nonsense

1. Feals gummies. Buy them on the internet, thank me later. I (100% true) pop one every evening as I leave the office, and it kicks in just about when I’d otherwise be a dick about teeth brushing.

2. A gift card to Brain.FM. For that person/spouse/child who needs a little help tuning in and tuning out. Recommend.

3. An IDAGIO gift card for that classical music fan. Unfortunately Apple Classical Music kind of blows, but Idagio is super legit and I’ve been listening for years.

👶 Gifts You Can Do Together With Kids Or That Will Keep Them Busy While You Have One Single Visit To The Bathroom In Peace

• Illustoria magazine - “for creative kids and their grownups” (who just want to poop in peace)

• Kazoo magazine - same idea. Indie pub, marketed towards girls, everybody in our house loves it

• Hive board game. Board game? Kind of? Not really. It’s great.

• How to Cook Everything (Kids) by the legendary Mark Bittman

• Even better: check the experiences list, above, or come up with your own.

🔌 🤖 Gifts That Go Beep Boop

• Fujifilm Instax Mini 11 - Super easy to use, great quality, and fun! Capture the moment in a way that actually brings you into the moment, instead of observing it through a screen.

• Ok that being said, these lenses and filters you can easily attach to your phone to take high-quality photo’s are worth every penny

• P-Touch label maker. It’s called rock and roll, baby

• Aura digital picture frames. Great for sharing pics with friends and family, or just to have in your house or office so you can actually look at your photos in dread at how quickly time passes and the shape you used to be in instead of having those very same experiences on your phone as you swipe to dismiss terrifying Politico notifications.

• Waterproof Binoculars that come in a bunch of fun colors, and are compact and easy to take with you travelling or hiking. Remember kids: the best binoculars are the ones you have on you.

• House of Marley speakers and headphones. Sustainably made, sound great, and look cool (Quinn: nothing looks cool on me)

👕 🧦 Gifts For When There’s Just Nothing To Wear

• This mending loom — make the clothes you already have last 10x longer or add a little flair! #flair It’s super easy to use, you can do it while watching TV instead of simultaneously staring at a second screen.

• Socks are a classic gift for a reason. I (Willow) personally love to receive them — so much in fact that we couldn’t list just one sock recommendation. Doublesoul has socks that are cute and sustainable, socks from the Good Store (100% of profit goes to charity) and these “On My Way to The Bookstore” Richard Scarry socks will let everyone know you’re cultured af and living with a crippling disappointment at the lack of walkable cities you were promised

• Loungewear is the only thing I (Willow, again) want to wear in 2025, if I see a button I’ll scream. Outerknown makes it possible to do this and still feel like a functioning member of society.

• I love Rothy’s and I don’t care who knows it! They’re comfortable, washable, sustainable, and chic.

• Effin’ Birds brings me endless delight (Exhibit A, Exhibit B). Let’s fucking go

🏠️ 🧼 Gifts That Make Your House A Home and Make You Smell Good Too

• House slippers. Look. We have to stop wearing shoes inside. It’s horrendous. Plus, does anything feel more like self-care than casting them aside and slipping into something that doesn’t make you question all your choices? Quinn has had these Allbirds ones forever and, in preparation for their demise, recently added a pair of these.

• A Mill kitchen bin. Dump all your kitchen waste into it and it turns it into chicken feed that doesn’t stink. It’s expensive, but practically magic.

• A Breville Air Fryer/Toaster Oven. Make your beloved a toastie in the morning to show you really care (Quinn: not kidding this is the single most important parenting device you can ever own), like those kids on Love Island (iykyk). Seriously, this thing works great, and will save you counter space.

• Dogs and plants are two of my favorite things, so these dog planters bring me so much joy. One of each, please.

• More animal shaped home goods, because why not: Friendsheep Eco Dryer Balls. Adorable.

• This umbrella with a duck handle. Perhaps we are sensing a theme here.

• Reusable storage bags from Stasher. Great for snacks, great for the planet

• Glass straws for kids, with cleaners — these cuties from the GlassSipper are super fun — do not get metal, you cannot see what is inside, it is the devil, you will die

• Is getting really excited about ceramics something that happens to everyone once they turn 30? I love this Stack Mug from Heath Ceramics and also pining over everything in their vintage and resale section

• My skin is hella sensitive and the Kinship Self Reflect sunscreen is my holy grail (wear it every day!)

• Everyday Oil — you don’t need a 15-step skincare routine, I promise. This smells great and you can use it pretty much anywhere on your body. It’s like an all-in-one shampoo, but for people who still care about proper hygiene (Quinn: I was told I had to wear this, and it’s great)

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