Normally I title gift posts “for a 13-year-old,” “for an 8-year-old,” etc., but it looks funny when it’s “for a 23-year-old” or even “for a 19-year-old.” If you have older kids to buy for, here are some of the things my kids have on their wish lists. I’ve done mostly William’s (23) and Elizabeth’s (19) shopping so far, so this is mostly from their lists.
(image from Amazon.com)
A pomodoro timer. I don’t know what it is, either. William put it on his list, and he said it was a productivity timer; I see in the description it’s good for time-management, ADHD, etc. I asked Edward if he would enjoy such an item or if it’s like getting a chore chart for Christmas, and Edward said it seemed fun BUT that he was already using a good phone app for that. So then I got one for Rob, who has nothing on his wish list and DOES seem interested in productivity/time-management and DOESN’T have a smartphone so can’t be using an app.
(image from https://www.ebay.com/str/sebastiansclassiccollections)
A Chinese abacus. (There are also Japanese ones, with differently-shaped beads.) This is William again. He asked for one that would look nice on his desk, not the rainbow-colors kind made for children. I used a fair chunk of missed-work hours on this task. I just could not decide. There were miniature ones with brass beads and a marble base, but I thought those looked too small, especially since he wants to learn how to actually use it. I narrowed it down to three or four vintage sets on eBay, all pretty similar but different colors/glazes, and then just picked my favorite. (The one I bought is of course no longer available, so I linked to one that looks the same.)
(image from UsefulCharts.com)
A Useful Chart. William has this Timeline of World History one, and wanted a Timeline of U.S. History and/or Writing Systems of the World. I got both, one for Christmas and one for his birthday. I also got Rob the Evolutionary Tree of Life.
(image from Amazon.com)
Elizabeth had Birkenstock sandals on her list, and I texted her to ask did she know Birkenstocks were like $100, and she modified her entry to be “Birkenstock-like sandals, basic/black, to be easy indoor shoes.” I looked for ones that seemed to match the description of Birkenstocks, with pretty good reviews, available in her size, and chose these. Sometimes with this sort of gift idea I consider my choice a First Attempt: if this isn’t right, they can come back with a better description (and/or LINK) next time.
(image from Amazon.com)
She also wanted “a world map, for wall decoration.” I thought: I am NOT getting this on Amazon, I do NOT trust them not to have some AI-generated garbage full of errors, I am going straight to either Rand McNally or National Geographic. I studied the options on both those sites and picked a National Geographic map (I liked that it was neither the usual pastels nor the also-nice-but-very-familiar sepia tints) and clicked the Buy link—and it took me to Amazon. Well FINE.
(image from Amazon.com)
Elizabeth wanted “one or two” coloring books, and declined to give further information, and even you who know me so well might find it hard to believe how much time I spent looking at coloring books and reading reviews. The trouble is that for every review that says “WONDERFUL, my FAVORITE, pages don’t leak through AT ALL!,” there is another that says “BORING, coloring areas too big/small/dark, pages LEAK!!” The other trouble is that there are a TON of Amazon-self-published ones saturating the search results, many of them AI-generated and full of weirdnesses. Finally I chose these two, figuring that she is an art student and can source her own art materials/information if needed: Color at Home: A Young House Love Coloring Book with pictures of interiors and fun things to color like book spines and throw pillows; and Worlds of Wonder, chosen agonizingly among the various Johanna Basford options, because there seemed to be widespread agreement that her coloring books were wonderful, but also widespread talk about how they had changed in recent years, and also all of them looked so good, and anyway I finally chose one.
(image from Target.com)
This is more a stocking stuffer: I like to get the kids socks/underwear for their stockings every year, and as I was shopping the possibilities I turned to Henry and said, “You wouldn’t wear strawberry-print socks, would you?” (thinking he might, but it’s so hard to tell), and he regarded them for a moment and said “I would.” I took a risk and got the mushroom ones for Edward, figuring they could always end up in Henry’s sock drawer if Edward doesn’t want to wear them. And these are a different brand, but I got these cute retro striped crew socks for Elizabeth.
I thought I was DONE with shipping orders, but I have never clicked a link so fast as I did those strawberry socks!
AREN’T THEY GREAT??? I may get a pair for my own stocking, too: I have largeish feet that tend to stretch out women’s decorative socks, but men’s often work!
I have those not-Birkenstocks and like them! 😉
Oh good!!
I am astonished by the Useful Charts. I love the Writing Systems of the World and also the evolution of the alphabet! What a great find!
Your kids are VERY COOL. Those charts are *fascinating!*
why are your kids so freaking INTERESTING? buying that pomodoro timer for every single neurodivergent person i live with.
My daughter would *love* those mushroom socks. She’s a regular width size 8 shoe. Anyone have any experience with men’s socks for women? Do you think she could wear them?
Your kids have great lists. They sound like interesting people.
If Elizabeth likes the not-Birks, let me tell you that real Birks are TOTALLY WORTH IT. Ahem. I am not at all objective on this point, because I have (hold on) four pairs of the classic cork/leather type in different styles and two pairs of EVA (plastic/foam). Plus a couple pairs from Poshmark that I need to reposh… The EVA ones are nice if you want to try brand name Birks at a lower price point, though they don’t mold to your feet as much as the cork soles.
If you like fun socks, I’ve subscribed to the Awesome Socks club for a few years now. Every month is a fun pair, and even if they aren’t my taste, they are usually some else’s in my family. Their profit goes to a public health organization focused on reducing maternal mortality in Sierra Leon. In case you are interested in sock related gifts that don’t fund billionaires – these have become a pretty go to gift for me.
I have the National Geographic map! I mean, it is a copy from literally around 10 years ago, so this is probably an updated version but it is *SUCH a good map!!! And YES your coloring book choices are perfect (at least, perfect for people who like reasonably-detailed pictures, not people who just want to fill giant areas of the page with the same color). I would add that the Bloggess has a You Are Here coloring book I have gotten positive reviews on.
(but also YES to the reviews on coloring books, esp. re: bleedthrough; I would love to know whether this is a “Reviewer A has a pen that only bleeds through thin paper, so medium paper works for them, but Reviewer B has a pen that bleeds through everything except cardstock, so they’re never going to be happy unless pictures are only on one side of the page” *or* whether there are bootleg copies of extremely popular books being sold which do, in fact, have thinner/pages because they’re fakes but the reviewers do not realize this, *or* if maybe publishers screw up one in 4 editions of the same book and accidentally get the wrong paper or what. Really, for some things, I want the “I have never met this product category before and this is what I like/don’t like” reviews, and for other things I want the “I have bought 10 adult coloring books/sewing machines/sock brands/fish oil/sock brands from a variety of sources, here is how this one compares in the existing spectrum” review…)
That pomodoro timer looks amazing! I had only seen the “classic” tomato-shaped ones.
I keep buying socks at aliexpress because while I am cheap, I loathe Amazon [is China better on human rights issues? Probably not, really, but at least buying things straight from China you only have the Chinese layers of human rights abuses and not also the Amazon warehouse/delivery human rights abuses? Maybe?], and I have found crocodile eating your leg socks (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007516910446.html) and animal in a scarf ones (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000382860616.html) and animal-on-your-foot socks (https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005895022709.html ) and if you like any of them, you can image search to find them on a different retailer. (I found the crocodile ones on Etsy but I just… couldn’t… link a mass-produced product that was being sold on *Etsy*!!!???) (Oh, which reminds me, there are also the hedgehog mittens, if you have not seen the hedgehog mittens and have relatively petite hands… that was my first “oh, no, a mass-produced item is being sold by obvious resellers on Etsy!!!” panic moment and then Etsy was like *shrug* and I was disillusioned.) Anyway. If you still seek socks, may some of those be helpful…
Highly recommend Jenny Lawson’s coloring book – https://a.co/d/fIkUB9c