My Ad-Free Gift Guide (Just A List of Stuff I Genuinely Like)

Gift ideas for men, women, unisex and children

This is probably the last day that I can write a gift guide. It wasn’t my plan, but I have so many good gift ideas (or previous gift successes) that it feels almost wrong not to share. I’m REALLY good at giving gifts.

As many of you know, I worked in adtech for about thirteen years, so I know that most gift guides are really a list of affiliate links, meaning that the person writing them has a deal with the brands they’re promoting, and the links they use to buy the products are specific to them, and notify the brand that they generated a sale (which would typically entitle the writer to some kind of monetary payout.) To be clear, there’s nothing wrong with affiliate marketing, and I trust that most writers who do this genuinely believe in the products they’re promoting. But for better or worse, nobody has offered me any affiliate deals, so everything on this gift guide is just something I genuinely like and want to share with you. I also asked my Twitter followers to see if they had ideas.

I’m going to show you gifts for:

• Children (0-5, admittedly I don’t know a lot about gifts for school-age kids or older.)

• Women

• Unisex

• Men

Of course, the only gift I stand to profit from is a CHH subscription and I recommend you gift that to everyone you know, preferably multiple times:

Okay, now onto the “real” gifts.

Children 0-5

We actually received this standing sensory board as a gift, and it really helped our younger child get comfortable with standing and pulling to stand. It’s perfect for babies in the 5-12 month range. She’s past that age now but every now and then she still plays with it, at this point it’s more about the activities and less about the excitement of standing. It also looks really cute in your house. It’s $149 on Maisonette with a discount based on how much you order, but if you plan on multiple children, it’s amazing quality and can be handed down.

I’ve never gotten this for my kids, although I’m thinking about it because it’s just so cute. This little ride-along toy has two functions: your toddler can ride on it, or open it up and use it as a playset. It’s also only $32 (down from $40) and includes all characters and pieces shown.You can buy it at Target.

For little ones who are obsessed with the Amazon truck, there’s an Amazon version but it doesn’t open up as a playset. You can buy it, appropriately, on Amazon for $40, and it comes with little play packages.

If there’s anything I know about toddlers, it’s that they are obsessed with household objects, and one of the objects that sticks out the most to me is the tape measure. Every kid is obsessed with tape measures. My son has two, and one is a backup after our contractor stole his first two tape measures. Easy stocking stuffer! Just be careful—once I let my son bring his to a cafe, he extended it too far, and knocked a drink over some guy (I apologized profusely.) This one is $9.

On a similar note, my son was obsessed with brushes for the longest time. We had an electric brush that rotated, and he always wanted to play with it. We let him, and eventually he broke it. This one from Amazon is much smaller and better suited for little hands, and has a bunch of different heads (you can use the soft blue ones if you don’t want your kid scratching the floor.) Who knows, maybe they’ll actually help with chores. It’s on sale for $32 (down from $50)

My son is currently having a phase where he loves hiding things in secret compartments. We got him this fake can for Christmas for $9:

This next present is pretty big, but I really love this cute tree house from Crate & Barrel. It’s $143 down from $239 and seems like it would last for years. It’s also the perfect size for some Calico Critters.

If your child likes dolls, I recommend the extremely high quality dolls from Pepotes. They aren’t vintage, but they kind of scratch the ‘90s doll itch and remind me of solid-bodied cabbage patch dolls. They run for about $24 depending on the variety, and have super diverse options, including ones with Downs. They also have boy dolls. I got one for my daughter which she loves.

This next toy is the real MVP. Grandparents got it for our older child when he was five months old, and he continued playing with it until age three, just in time to pass it off to his younger sister who loves to play with it as a very young toddler. It’s the Manhattan Toy tree house toy. It’s on sale for $116 down from $137 (discount applied at checkout)

Another wooden toy I really like is this firetruck carrying case play set. The case provides an easy option for cleanup and kids seem to really love fire trucks. This one is $55 before a 30% off code. There’s also a cute fairy garden version.

Also, if you don’t mind some garish Fisher Price stuff, this kick piano is a hit with babies, and can also be used as a tummy time toy:

Women

The first thing on this list is actually not gender-specific, but I’m listing it as a woman thing because I see women absolutely gooning over this item on Twitter constantly. Just look at the pattern below. It’s insane. Women only want one thing and it’s fucking disgusting: