Our favorite gifts from the holiday season

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Gifts come in all shapes and sizes, and sometimes the smallest gesture or gift, like a hacky sack, can fill the holidays with the most biggest smiles. In the spirit of sharing, we collected a list of a few of our favorite gifts from the 2025 holiday season to share what we’re thankful for… and maybe inspire a few future gifts of your own.

Michael: Growing up is overrated. You know what isn’t overrated? Space, and flying through it. That’s why my favorite gift last year was the LEGO Star Wars 25^th anniversary Millennium Falcon. At 921 pieces, it’s the right size to build while marathoning the original trilogy. And instead of needing the force or one of those recently announced smart bricks, it’s powered by something even better: your imagination.

Zach: You heard it here first: hacky sack is on the rise. Leading the revival is the Dirtbag Stellar Staller Footbag, a 12-panel synthetic suede footbag filled with a blend of sand, steel ball bearings and plastic pellets. Ideal for pre-run warmups, post-happy-hour shenanigans and office team-building when the boss isn’t looking, the Stellar Staller brings a brighter shade of the ’80s to 2026. I don’t leave home without it—you never know when a hack circle will break out.

Audrey: Staying hydrated doesn’t have to be boring. That’s why my go-to everyday companion is my Owala FreeSip® Water bottle. It keeps water icy cold all day, comes in a bunch of fun colors, and has a leak-proof push-button lid that actually works. The covered spout and carry loop that doubles as a lock lets me toss it in my bag and take it anywhere without worrying about germs or spills.

Hart: The Hexclad 12” Fry Pan is WAY better than a ceramic owl figurine. A cool thing about loving to cook is family and friends gift you amazing/useful kitchen stuff rather than tchotchkes. (It helps that they know they’ll get a delicious gruyere omelet or New York Strip steak as a thank you.) Once you make an omelet in a Hexclad pan you’ll never turn back and never scrape burnt egg from a stainless-steel pan ever again. My runner-up gift: Dreamfarm Fluicer flat-squeeze citrus juicer.

Marc: The best gift is the gift of time, right? This season we gave ourselves a family trip up to Whistler right before the holiday madness. While the snow was not great and the mountain was mostly grass, and they closed due to high winds the last day we were there, the overall experience left us satisfied and allowed for time to recharge and just have fun together.

Tara: This year the whole family wanted new weights for Christmas, and Santa provided! I think I’m the only one who has used them so far, though, so lucky me. And with our recent Apple family subscription upgrade so everyone can have enough iCloud storage, we get Apple Fitness now – it’s the perfect motivation to work on building up the muscles this year!

Martin: With two small kids, life moves uncomfortably fast at time. It’s hard to step back and appreciate all the things we’ve accomplished as a family in one year – the trips, milestones, early morning dance parties and ridiculously cute moments between kids and pets. To that end, my lovely wife gifted me a 2025 family photo album and had it hardbound. While the year still feels like it went back fast, there is a deep joy to sitting down as a family and looking through all that we’ve enjoyed together.

Kyle: Winter in Seattle can be a bit dreary. So, my fiancée and I decided to give each other the gift of a new hobby that would help brighten things up a little. We are now proud owners of a little ten-gallon aquascape. What’s that? You’re unfamiliar with the wonderful wet world of aquascaping? Well, hold on to your Java moss because let me tell you this is not a hobby you can just dip a toe in. Aquascaping has a long history (there are even different schools of design between Scandinavian and Japanese aquascapes) but it’s basically just making the nicest looking planted aquarium possible with a healthy living ecosystem. Together, we visited Aquarium Zen, an aqua-scaping pro store located in the Roosevelt neighborhood. We consulted the staff and picked out our hard scape (aquarium safe rocks and driftwood), various plants for beginners, substrate and hardware to get ourselves set up properly. We spent the rest of the day planting and setting up our design and finding the right place to display it in our apartment. Once the plants are well established, we hope to add some residents but for now we are happy to watch it grow. As far as a gift goes the best part was spending the time together to make something we both enjoy and creating a new centerpiece in our home. 

Ari: My favorite gift was seeing the emotion pouring out of my mom upon receiving her gift from me, her harmonium finally repaired. My mom is a classically trained Indian musician, trained in singing and playing the harmonium since childhood. Her harmonium was damaged 6 years ago upon lending it out to friends. Not having a lot of options in the country to repair such a unique and delicate instrument, it sat broken and unplayable. Fortunately, one of the few specialists in the country lives not far, but also not close by, in Ocean Shores, WA. I was able to reach out to him, drive my mom’s broken harmonium to him and he was able to fix it just in time for Christmas. Upon receiving her newly fixed harmonium, she instantly opened it up and began to play and sing with a joy that had been missing in her life for over half a decade. My dog laid next to her at her feet for an hour as she sang, perfectly at peace with it all. Just as an artist needs their tools, a chef needs their specific ingredients, a musician needs their instrument. Substitutes will not suffice.

Lucas: I’m a father with a wife and two young girls. These days the holidays are much more about the gifts you give, but we did dream up a fun project to give to ourselves and the rest of our extended family. Our family collectively created a “reverse coloring book” to have printed and give to the rest of the family. What is a reverse coloring book? In this case, it was a collection of custom watercolor paintings with plenty of colors and forms, but no hard lines. In a reverse coloring book, you draw the lines. I love to take a deep breath, let my mind go blank, and search these paintings for unexpected shapes and add in the details. It’s a fun creative outlet, and it is made even more fun and memorable when I’m illustrating over watercolor images created by my family.

Joelle: The best gift was having my siblings home for Christmas. It’s been several years since myself, my two brothers and sister-in-law have all been home together so it was special. We all love sci-fi so we caught up on the Stranger Things finale and Fallout series on Prime. But one of the coolest things was they attended my paint & sip class where we painted winter scenes. I haven’t seen my older brother create any art since we were in elementary school!

Kim: “Singles”, “Say Anything”, “Almost Famous”… I could go on and on about how much these movies have meant to me over the years. Cameron Crowe’s storytelling really resonates with me with his blend of deep character development and the spot on music moments that he makes supporting characters. So when I saw that he was publishing a memoir, I jumped on the pre-sale and bought it for myself as a Christmas present. Before I read the book I went to see his book tour about the inspirations for the films he created. Eddie Vetter of Pearl Jam was the moderator so it was quite an epic experience!

Susan: Anyone who knows me knows I’m basically fueled by coffee. So, when my boyfriend gave me the GlossRay Portable Espresso Machine this year, I was thrilled. It’s a thoughtful gift for someone who’s equally obsessed with good coffee and exploring the outdoors. We moved to Seattle from Miami last year, and we love exploring the beautiful nature Washington has to offer.  Now, with my new portable espresso machine, I can have a perfectly brewed cup of coffee in a pinch, whether I’m by a lake or on the trail.