The Must-Have Items of This Holiday Season
The holidays are a time for us to take some time off, relax, and spend time with our loved ones. However, there’s another reason we all look forward to this time of the year: the gifts! After all, it feels good to give gifts, and it certainly feels good receiving them, too. Every holiday season, it seems that there are always those big-ticket items that make it to the top of everyone’s lists, and this year’s no different. Here are some of the most popular gifts that will appeal to just about anyone this holiday season.
Amazon Echo/Google Home
The future of having a robot assistant is just about here. Amazon’s smart speaker, Amazon Echo, does everything from play music to order you pizza, all at the command of your voice. While it isn’t exactly a new invention–it came out about a year ago–it’s gotten cheaper and it’s learned how to do more stuff. And, with the Echo’s growing popularity, Google has released its own competitor, named Google Home, which has similar features but is tied to your Google services. Bottom line: get one of these devices for your tech-loving loved one.
Snapchat Spectacles
The Amazon Echo and Google Home are neat, albeit fairly practical, tech devices. The Snapchat Spectacles, on the other hand, are just plain fun. Much like Google’s ill-fated Google Glasses, the Snapchat Spectacles are a pair of glasses with a camera embedded in them, though these pairs look a lot cooler. Of course, the glasses are tied to the Snapchat platform – all you do is press your finger to the side of the glasses to start recording a 10-second video clip that’s uploaded to Snapchat. It’s way too early to say if these glasses will be a success, but they might just be the foundations of a new popular type of technology. Necessary? Not at all. Fun? Absolutely.
Monthly Subscription Box
We all have to eat, so for the holiday season, why not give the gift of culinary experimentation, or at least convenience? Monthly subscription boxes, such as Blue Apron and Home Chef, which mail their subscribers recipes and all the ingredients needed to prepare their meals, are all the rage these days. So, if you have someone in your life who’s too lazy or busy to make their own meals at home, a subscription might be exactly what they need. Of course, you need not limit your gift choice to a food-centered subscription, as there are subscription box services for pretty much everything out there, from golf to clothes to gourmet coffee.
Tickets to an Event
One of the best gifts you can give this holiday season isn’t an item at all. Rather, sometimes the best present is one that’s more ephemeral, more in the moment. If you know someone who’s particularly hard to shop for (or just doesn’t want more stuff), consider purchasing them a ticket to something that’ll take up less closet space and leave them with lifelong memories. Tickets to a concert, an architectural tour, an art film – what you get your giftee will depend entirely on their tastes. Regardless, it could be a lot more meaningful than a physical gift.
These aren’t nearly all the gifts that will be a hit this season, but they’re a good start. If you want a better idea of what will be flying off shelves, take a look at what’s trending on the popular online retailers. Or, if you’re having a particularly hard time shopping for someone, you know you could always just ask them for a little help!