Gift Ideas

Gifts for Guitarists

20th November, 2025

Remember: your beloved guitarist is an enthusiast. This means your gift recipient has strong brand preferences and can discern details you can’t. Thus: ask them what they want! And they might not want anything! Making music is not a hobby that requires constant purchases.

Some things are almost always bad gifts:

1. A new instrument. You should definitely discuss this first. They probably like their current guitar, and a cheap guitar is generally crap. Even if their current guitar’s crap they probably have an emotional bond with it.

A PS4 Controller

12th March, 2023

This gift suggestion is for the casual gamer, not a console owner. Someone who likes to play a game occasionally on their laptop, phone, or iPad.

You can use a PS4 controller with a PlayStation, of course, but it’s also a bog standard Bluetooth device. They’re robustly built and have decent battery life. They charge via micro USB, so you probably have a suitable cable already. They’re officially supported in the Apple ecosystem - so you can game on your Mac, iPad, iPhone, or Apple TV. They’re often on sale. They have all the buttons necessary for emulated SNES/Megadrive games. They work great with Steam, and Steam Link is surprisingly viable. They don’t take up a lot of space. All of these aspects make them a good gift.

Incense

3rd January, 2022

Incense is a perfect token gift: inexpensive, consumable, and it smells nice. What’s not to like?

Well, “smells nice” is subjective. It’s definitely bad for your air quality and potentially your brain. But so’s alcohol, so: live a little.

Incense is a good housewarming gift. It’s a way to make a space feel like your own without altering the space itself. Perfect for renters.

Hanabi

30th December, 2021

Hanabi is one of my favourite card games. It’s got a lot of good points:

• It’s a cooperative game - all the humans versus the game itself - which removes the stress of player-versus-player competitiveness.
• The game owner will not dominate the other players, both because it’s co-operative and involves some chance.
• There’s little setup required and the rules are easy to understand.
• The game feels different depending on the size of the group playing.
• There are suggested game variations, so it has longevity.

Writing about games is a bit like writing about sex - I can describe the mechanics, but you won’t understand why it’s fun until you participate. With that said: in Hanabi you see everyone’s cards but your own, and must work as a group to arrange them in order by colour. Each turn you can give people a little information about their cards, but there are limitations; not everyone will have enough information to always play 100% safe. You’ll have to make some educated guesses about what to play.

A Jigsaw Jigsaw

7th December, 2021

I’m not convinced that jigsaws are good gifts. A jigsaw seems like something that’s better when borrowed, rather than owned. I can’t imagine they have a lot of repeat value.

And this won’t click with everyone: a jigsaw fan friend of mine says she hates ones with repetitive patterns, gradients, or solid colours. She uses jigsaws as a way to spend time immersed in artwork, studying the details rather than just looking at the whole. “You’d have to pay me to do this one,” she said.

Wreck This Journal

14th November, 2021

An important role for an uncle/aunt is fostering a little rebellion in their nieces & nephews. Not too much - don’t buy them drugs or The Anarchist Cookbook - but a book that encourages its own destruction is about right. Books are normally sacred, and need to be looked after; this one wants you to drag it through mud, roll it down hills, and glue things into it.

A Yard of Popcorn

31st October, 2021

Popcorn’s easy to make on the stove. Get some oil as hot as possible¹. Add enough kernels to cover the bottom of the pan, then put the lid on. Now keep the pan moving - shake it in circles². It’ll start popping in a few minutes; when it stops popping, remove from the heat. Done! Great as-is, with a dusting of salt, or a dusting of icing sugar.