The Well-Chosen Gift: 50+ Ways to Give the Perfect Present
These gift ideas let you match personalities with presents and help you put the head and heart back into giving. Let's get shopping!
By Lauren Gniazdowski | Emilie Harjes from Reader's Digest | December 2011 / January 2012
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Sure, it's the thought that counts, but around the holidays who has time to think?
These choices let you match personalities with products and help you put the head and heart back into giving.
Well-Fed: Norman Love Confections
Yes, these chocolates are too pretty to eat. No, that didn't stop us. (15-Piece Signature Chocolate Gift Box, $32, normanloveconfections.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Fed: Madécasse Chocolate
Made in Madagascar by former Peace Corps volunteers, this chocolate comes in bars ($5.99), a sampler ($32), and a Chocolate Binge ($49). (madecasse.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Fed: Dancing Deer Gift Boxes
The puckery Sweet Lemon Squares have just the right crackly crust. The Cappuccino Brownies have just the right chocolate-coffee balance. A gift box of either has just the right effect. ($22.99, dancingdeer.com)
Well-Fed: Numi Organic Tea Portfolio
For the mug-caressing, antioxidant-imbibing tea drinker who's heating up a kettle somewhere right now, six nicely boxed types to try. (30 bags, $27.99, shop.numitea.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Fed: The OCD Chef Cutting Board
A 9-by-12-inch beechwood slab with a tongue-in-cheek guide for getting the carrots diced, julienned, or brunoised just so. ($24.99, thinkgeek.com)
Well-Fed: Marmalade Lover's Gift Set
Tart up their toast with a trio of bright, offbeat flavors. ($32, bluechairfruit.com)
Well-Fed: Food of the Month
A different hot sauce, peanut butter, or salsa each month—for three, six, or 12 months. ($56.85 to $215.40, amazingclubs.com)
Well-Fed: Cards They’ll Keep
Letterpress cards with corresponding recipes on the back. “You Are Super Hot” comes with a recipe for Fire-Roasted Salsa, for example. ($5.50 each, elumdesigns.com)
Well-Fed: Sausage Sampler with Soul
A selection of five authentic sausages that kicks back $1 to Vermont’s Make-a-Wish. ($69.95, fortunasausage.com)
Well-Drunk: Penfolds Red Koonunga Hill Shiraz/Cabernet
A delicious red wine — and 15 percent of the profits go to the Global Fund. ($14, penfoldsred.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Drunk: Corzo Tequilas
Champagne is so flat. (Been there, drunk that.) But each Corzo bottle is a thing of beauty — with Silver, Reposado, or Añejo inside. ($46.99 to $57.99, bevmo.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Carried: Mudpie Cable-Knit Clutch
This popcorn-knit handbag has a zipper, satin lining, and virtuous "vegan leather" trim. ($35, mud-pie.com)
Well-Carried: Thule Crossover 32L Backpack
Holds a 17-inch laptop, with a hard case for eyeglasses and a Shove-it Pocket for that old-media newspaper. ($129.99, amazon.com)
Well-Carried: SPIbelt
An adjustable belt (SPI stands for “small personal item”) that can carry money, electronics, cards, and more. ($19.95 and up, spibelt.com)
Well-Carried: Kate Spade Rainspot iPad Cover
Padded protection with signature modern style. ($50, nordstrom.com)
Well-Rested: Snore Stopper
Deliver an effective blow to a loud sleeper. (You've got a meeting in the a.m.! ) ($19.95, potpourrigift.com)
Well-Rested: Sound+Sleep Machine
Pick a sound, any sound—fireplace, waterfall, ocean, city, or six others—and fall asleep to it. Sound + Sleep runs all night or turns off with a timer. ($99.99, soundofsleep.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Insulated: Predator vs. Prey Animal Mittens
Each hand-crocheted pair pits one hand against the other: owl-mouse, wolf-sheep, cat-dog, and more. ($29.99, vsmittens.com)
Well-Insulated: Mizuno Breath Thermo Half-Zip Top
Wicks away the sweat, turns up the heat. ($74.99, mizunousa.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Groomed: Caswell-Massey Onyx Natural Bath Soap
Unisex and incredibly long-lasting. ($50 for three, $20 each, caswellmassey.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Groomed: Soap Woods and Soap Rocks
For removing makeup, shaving legs, and general moisturizing and cleansing. ($6.75 and $14.95, soaprocks.com)
Well-Groomed: Archipelago Pomegranate Gift Set
Hand cream, candle, soap, and washcloth in one box. ($35, archipelago-usa.com)
Well-Scented: Nutcracker Soaps
The perfect way to wash the Christmas cookie crumbs off your hands. (five for $22, giannarose.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Scented: Jo Malone Cologne Collection
Never choose a fragrance for a woman. With this five-bottle sampler, she can do it herself. ($95, jomalone.com)
Well-Tuned: The Essential Loretta Lynn
With 60 songs on three CDs, You're Lookin' at Country is the very best from the coal miner's daughter. ($49.96, readersdigeststore.com)
Well-Viewed: Laurel & Hardy
Laurel & Hardy: The Essential Collection collects ten discs with 52 talking shorts and 11 features. Also included: a book and special features, like interviews with comedy legends Tim Conway, Dick Van Dyke, and Jerry Lewis. ($64.99, amazon.com)
Well-Viewed: Doc Martin
The first four seasons of the hit show featuring the British incarnation of America’s Dr. Gregory House. The socially inept physician is a brilliant diagnostician who develops an aversion to blood. The other big star: the seaside Cornwall village of Port Isaac, where the series is filmed. ($59.98, amazon.com)
Well-Viewed: The Original Christmas Classics
Your four favorite holiday TV specials -- “Frosty the Snowman,” “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” “Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town” and “Frosty Returns” – in one collection. (blu-ray, $25.49 amazon.com; DVD, $19.99 amazon.com)
Well-Viewed: 6 Ed Sullivan Shows Starring The Rolling Stones
From "Time Is on My Side" (1964) to "Honky Tonk Women" (1969): TV legend. ($29.99, amazon.com)
Well-Viewed: Downtown Abbey
The next season of another British series starts in January on PBS. Get them ready for upstairs vs. downstairs, old world vs. new world, rich vs. poor, scandal vs. propriety, with this DVD set of season one. (It’s World War I. Things will have to change.) ($14.96, walmart.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Played: C. F. Payne Puzzles
The artist who did the back cover of Reader's Digest for more than four years goes jigsaw and cuts things up into 500 pieces. ($10.99 each, amazon.com)
Well-Played: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Board Game
It's Trivial Pursuit for the fans of head-banging and ballad-crooning, hard metal and soft rock. Answer correctly and you move out of your garage and toward stardom. ($32.89, amazon.com)
Well-Played: Simon Flash
Train brains of any age with a variation of the classic Simon game, a sort of modern Concentration with battery-operated flashing lights and four varieties of challenges. ($19.84, walmart.com)
Well-Played: ColorKu
It's Sudoku with colored marbles and a wooden surface — instead of numbers, a pencil and a very nubby eraser. ($29.69, amazon.com)
Well-Played:Connor’s Kits for Kids
Let them investigate plants, crystals, polymers (aka slime), and more with these instructional kits that seem like toys. ($17.95, kitsforkids.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Played: Creative Whack Pack
You get 30 magnetic pyramid pieces in a ball (a rhombic triacontahedron, to be specific). Disassemble; reassemble; get creative. ($17.47, walmart.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Connected: Spiderpodium and Spiderpodium Tablet Flexible Stands
Hang your iPod from the dashboard, mount a camera anywhere, stand your cell phone or iPad at attention. ($19.99 and $34.99, breffo.com)
Well-Connected: Digital Photography: A Basic Manual
Exposures, shutter speeds, composition, printing, storage — it's all here and all clear, thanks to Henry Horenstein. ($19.59, amazon.com)
Well-Connected: S4I Klipsch Earbuds
Rapturously reviewed headphones that won't let Wham! songs leak out to snickering bystanders. ($79, amazon.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Stuffed: Angry Birds Toys
The addictive mobile-app stars: still angry yet ready to cuddle. ($12.99 and up, angrybirds.com)
Well-Stuffed: Tree in a Box
Pot, soil, seed, and how-to. Blue spruce, American elm, or red maple. ($6 each, treeinabox.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Stuffed: Horrified B-Movie Victims
Set of nine figures recoiling from something unspeakable. Or maybe they work where you do. ($14.49, perpetualkid.com)
Well-Stuffed: Medieval Weapon Pushpins and Pinhead Pushpins
Now they can post an important note with malicious flourish. ($9.99, thinkgeek.com; $6.95, funslurp.com)
Well-Stuffed: Mixed Messages -- Do-It-Yourself Ransom-Note Mug
So they can tell it like it is in the a.m. ($14.99, perpetualkid.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Stuffed: The Guitar Collection
For the casual air-guitarist you really love or a true scholar of the instrument: a 20-pound oversize book of 150 of the most exceptional guitars in history, another volume of the stories behind them, plus a museum-quality print signed by photographer John Peden — all packaged in a custom leather case. ($1,050, amazon.com)
Well-Read: A Little History of Philosophy
All that high-flying thinky stuff — your Kant, your Kierkegaard — brought gently down to earth. ($15.99, amazon.com)
Well-Read: The Art Museum
The 2,500 works that really matter in 1,000 stunning pages. ($126, amazon.com)
Well-Read: A Little History of the World
The 2005 bestseller now has pictures to go with Gombrich's ideas. ($18.50, amazon.com)
Well-Read: The Penguin Anthology of 20th Century American Poetry
Rita Dove attempts to put the best of it between two covers. ($25.86, amazon.com)
Well-Read: Monumental Paris and The Louvre: All the Paintings
Page your way through Paris and save thousands. ($94.50, amazon.com, and $47.25, amazon.com)
Well-Read: Hallmark Recordable Storybooks
Read and record a tale a child can listen to anytime. ($29.95, hallmark.com)
Photographed by Sam Kaplan
Well-Read: Laughter Books
Cats, Dogs, Men, Women, Ninnies & Clowns: The Lost Art of William Steig
The wry renderings by the New Yorker artist. ($26.40, amazon.com)
The MAD Fold-In Collection: 1964-2010
Each famous inside back cover, creased and not. ($78.75, amazon.com)
The 50 Funniest American Writers
Andy Borowitz selects and samples his heroes of hilarity: Sedaris, Frazier, Sykes. ($15.19, amazon.com)
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