As what feels like the longest year of our collective lives comes to an end, we’re faced with one more challenge — the dread task of buying Christmas presents for our nearest and dearest.
I’m not sure when the act of gift-buying went from soul-nourishing and generous to a total nag. Perhaps we used up all our online shopping libido at the beginning of the lockdown period? Either way, here at The Brag we’re here to offer you a helping hand. So without further ado, here is our Christmas gift guide.
Personalised Antipodes Gin
Antipodes Gin is Australia’s first certified organic and carbon neutral gin and it’s completely mesmerising. Antipodes offer personalised bottles of their original and pink gin. The beauty of a personalised gin bottle is that once the gin has been drunk the vessel becomes a vase.
Shure AONIC 50 Noise Cancelling headphones
The ultimate gift for any music lover is a means to consume the music that they love. The AONIC 50 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones from Shure offer the ultimate listening experience.
I’ve made my way through many top-tier headphones in my lifetime (for no reason other than an unsavoury propensity to lose everything I own) and the Shure AONIC are, in my opinion, the cream of the crop.
The headphones offer a totally wireless listening experience. With adjustable noise cancellation, so you’ll be able to curate just how intensely you wish to detach from the world around you. The AONIC headphones boast a 20-hour battery life and can be folded flat for ultimate portability.
Bed Threads Linen Bundle
If there is one thing I know to be true about women, it’s that they love adding linen bundles to their cart with the curatorial precision of Andrew Bolton, only to not go through with the purchase because spending upwards of $300 on bed linen is almost totally unjustifiable.
We don’t know why there is such profound, transformative power to fresh linen but we do know that it makes a helluva gift.
Shure MV7 Podcasting Microphone
The pandemic has seen overall podcast consumption more than double. There’s never been a better time to encourage your nearest and dearest to capitalise on their singular obsession and launch a podcast.
Launched this month, the Shure MV7 Podcasting Microphone draws inspiration from the legendary SM7B. The mic has been has been hailed for capturing clear, high-quality audio for podcasting, gaming, recording, and live streaming at home, in the studio, or recording on the go at an affordable price point.
It’s the perfect microphone for both professionals and beginners looking to cut their teeth in the podcasting scene. Shure has developed the ShurePlus MOTIV app, which allows users to adjust vocal tone and distance from the microphone.
Crosley Record Player
Before you laugh me out of a job for suggesting you spend money on a Crosley, hear me out. This is the perfect gift for a young music fan. The day I received my pale blue Crosley portable record player for Christmas was the best day of my teenage life.
It also eliminates the total ball-ache of trying to buy future gifts for a picky teenager daughter. Every birthday and Christmas after that was a treasure trove of records almost exclusively bought via Urban Outfitters. You don’t need the best tech to win over a teenager, you just need something that looks good.
The ultimate stocking filler. One can never have too many reusable cups. Especially if one has the propensity to accidentally leave their beloved Frank Green to fester in a soy latte mildew on their work desk for three months because they didn’t anticipate a global pandemic hitting. Whether you’re a Frank Green girl, or a Keep Cup devotee — there’s a coffee vehicle for everybody.
HUAWEI WATCH GT
I will feel eternal jealousy towards the personality types that are organised enough to own a smartwatch. The HUAWAI GT series is one of the more sublime smartwatches on the market, offering full GPS, fitness training and unparalleled battery life. It also looks vaguely like an analog watch so you can con people into thinking you know how to read time in 2020.
Paper Pot Maker
Quarantine may long be a thing of a past but that doesn’t mean we have to let hobbies die with it. This kit allows you to make your own biodegradable environmentally friendly seedling pots and they’re chic as hell. In 2021 we’re leaving last minute frantic dashes to Woolworths for parsley behind. We’re becoming farm to table bloggers.
Oblique Strategies
Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt
Back in 1975, British multidisciplinary artist Peter Schmidt and producer extraordinaire Brian Eno created the Oblique Strategies cards. The set features 100 cards that offer an oblique suggestion or course of action to assist those overcoming a creative block.
If you’re out of touch with youth culture and have a particularly bratty teen to buy for you simply can not go wrong with a voucher. Culture Kings is a safe bet for the delegated hype beast in your life. Whether they opt for getting a fresh fade, or decide to line up at the crack of dawn to buy an item to flip on Grailed, you know that this voucher will spark something inside of them come Christmas day.
