It is hard to believe that the holidays are just around the corner. I feel that it is never too early to start shopping, but if you are a hardcore procrastinator, thanks to modern technology you can wait until the day before Christmas and still get a package delivered via Amazon Prime. Here is a selection of items in all price ranges for everyone from tech geeks to fitness freaks and back again!
The big news in the home electronics world is that Epson recently expanded its EcoTank® line of cartridge-free printing solutions to include a super affordable model that has perfect for nonstop family printing. The EcoTank ET-2400 allows users to save up to 90 percent on ink with replacement ink bottles vs. ink cartridges— each ink bottle is enough to print thousands of pages and equivalent to about 90 individual ink cartridges. Designed for stress-free printing, the EcoTank ET-2400 comes with up to 2 years of ink in the box and users can easily refill the high-capacity ink tanks worry-free with affordable replacement EcoFit® ink bottles for zero cartridge waste. The ET-2400 leverages unique Micro Piezo Heat Free® technology to produce sharp text, impressive color photos and graphics on virtually any paper type, and comes with a built-in flatbed scanner and copier for easy document management. It also includes a two year warranty. The EcoTank ET-2400 All-in-One Supertank printer, exclusively sold through Target and Walmart this holiday season. The full retail price is $249 but you can count on Target and Walmart having a big sale on it all holiday season long. Order here: EcoTank ET-2400.
Troomi is a revolutionary item who wants their kids to have their own cell phone but want built in features to prevent them from inappropriate content! The subscription is much cheaper than using a common phone carrier as well! Your child can set up their phone with a simple QR code that they scan in! I can’t think of any device that could give parents complete piece of mind like Troomi does! You get to choose from several models of current phones that range from $150 to $250 but I am testing the Galaxy A12 and I’m loving it! The camera on this phone is totally badass! For more info, go to Troomi.com.
Zales is “knocking it out out of the box” with both classic and unique engagement rings in the $2000 to $23,000 range with a collabo simply called Kleinfeld X Zales. Yes, they have really joined forces with the legendary Kleinfeld’s in Chelsea which is famous for being on Say Yes To The Dress. Above are examples of some of the fashion forward designs and you can see how several can work as cocktail rings or as a reward to oneself for a landmark life event. The two stone ring measuring 2 3/8th carats on the model above’s ring finer had me salivating when I saw it at the collabo launch party in the Kleinfeld store recently and it retails for about $11,000. Now, keep an eye on your favorite rings because they will be as much as 45 per cent off between now and the end of the year. For more info on the unforgettable collection of bling, go to the official site: Kleinfeld X Zales.
Everyone needs a super tough phone case and Rhinoshield is making some of the toughest out there. They have many different styles for different tastes and needs including the Crashguard NX which is a bumper case with a difference. With a changeable rim and buttons, you are able to mix and match colors to make the case truly yours. The bumper style case does not cover up the phone’s back, giving you the choice to enjoy the device’s original design or slap on a skin for a personalized look. And of course, CrashGuard NX offers great impact protection. I am also loving the Print Series which allows you to make a collage of personal photos the design on your case and the Clear Collection which lets you show off the natural color of your iiiiphone. I am using the Mod NX in Violet and loving it on my deep purple iPhone ProMax 14. Cases from this reliable brand are generally in the $29.99 to $49.99 and they offer lots of fun phone accessories as well. I love the Gripmax that you stick on the back of your case to avoid the “slippery fingers” situation that I often have. For more info, go to this link: Rhinoshield.
Want a real thrill on Christmas Day? Real Racer from Kobotix is the ultimate driving gadget that everyone can enjoy this holiday season. Forget driving games, Real Racer puts you right in the driver’s seat for a thrilling race around the home or outdoors on a solid surface. Thanks to its built-in first-person camera, drivers are taken right into the inside of the mini-RC racer. Simply download the Real Racer VR app and insert your phone into the accompanying VR headset—then from the comfort of the couch or bed, you can see and experience all the twists and turns of a thrilling ride. Create the ultimate racetrack in your home or garden! This is the perfect gift for a child or child at heart. I am over 60 and using one! Price is $150 and you can order it here or get more info: Real Racer By Kobotix.
Right after the holidays, nearly everyone goes into health mode. High-accuracy weight and full body composition it is just the beginning with this incredible device. With Body +, the whole family can easily receive coaching, rewards and have all of their personal data tracked automatically—just by stepping on the scale. Body + comes in a range of new colors to match any personal preference and includes amazing following state-of-the-art features like body composition analysis, a dedicated coaching program that takes up to eight users, wifi synchronization and baby & pregnancy modes. This is the highest rated scale in the US for a reason! Many stores cannot keep them on the shelves. The price is $99.95 and so worth it. You will covet the Body +. For more info or to order, go to: Body + Smart Scale.
Want to give someone a truly unique and healthful gift? Featuring a simple one-time setup under the mattress, Withings Sleep Tracking Mat helps improve sleep quality by offering advanced sleep cycle analysis (deep, light & REM), heart rate tracking, and snore detection. Delivers a daily Sleep Score. You can also create a better sleep environment by taking advantage of a range of smart home capabilities that Withings Sleep can support. Your vital parameters, such as heart rate, breathing rate, and movements, are collected by advanced sensors located in an unobtrusive mat placed under the mattress and processed by exclusive algorithms to give you the most accurate & advanced insights of your night. Think how amazing it will be to get an in-depth analysis of your night with sleep cycles (deep, light & REM) and their durations, plus total sleep duration and interruptions. For more info or to order, go to Withings Sleep Tracking Mat.
Need the perfect stocking stuffer for a creative lady in your life? Start her off manifesting her goals with inclusive stationary and gifting brand, Be Rooted. Starting from $16, this highly innovative Black-owned brand has a variety of planners and journals that will assist the perfect dreamer in organizing their life and mapping out their dreams. All of Be Rooted’s best-selling products tailored for intentional or everyday use and are all $20 and under. I am madly in love with their inspirational six Soft Touch pen set featuring six different daily affirmations: Take Up Space, Prioritize Yourself, Chase Your Dreams, Honor Your Feelings, Trust Your Timing and Protect Your Energy. It is incredibly priced at $20. For more info or to order, go to: Soft Touch Pen Set.
The Elephant Project give 100% of the net proceeds of this adorable elephant plush toy named Kiki to several highly respected agencies that care for orphaned, abused, and injured elephants. The organizations that they partner with have well-established programs and on-the-ground experience, ensuring that every purchase directly benefits the elephants. There is also a “brother” plush toy that is a lion called Tembo that you can also buy. Purchase your plush toy elephant for $39 here (it’s my favorite charitable holiday gift for 2022): Kiki The Elephant.
The Nooie 360 Degree Pet Camera 2K is great for checking on both Rover and the baby with its 360 Degree Pant/Tilt. The Nooie Pet Camera is always there for you whether you are in the other room or across the globe! Never miss a single detail with the 2K resolution indoor camera. It has vision up to 32ft (10m) even in pitch-black room or enviroment. You can check in on your pet, baby and home security, anytime anywhere. Nooie features 24/7 live streaming with real-time motion and sound alerts. Listen and talk to your family and pet with built-in noise-cancelling mic and speaker. Priced just under $50, you get serious bang for your buck and the priceless gift of piece of mind while you’re away. For more info or to order, go to: Nooie 360 Pet Cam.
Everyone needs a solid, reliable mouse in their lives and Lenovo is legendary for both their mouse and laptop quality. The Lenovo™ Legion M600 Wireless Gaming Mouse gives the user an ultra-long battery life and rapid-charging ideal for demanding gaming sessions. Its ergonomic design makes it comfortable for both claw-grip and palm-grip users, as well as left and right-handed gamers too. With the M600, you’ll dominate the latest titles with up to 16,000 DPI (adjustable via an on-the-fly DPI switch), and spectacular lighting effects thanks to the 16.8 million colors in two configurable LED zones. If you are a gamer, you cannot live without the M600 but it is also great for we old people who are mainly just surfing the web and chatting with pals and business colleagues. Right now it is on sale for only $69.99–that’s $20.00 off—on the Lenovo site. Check it out here: Lenovo Legion M600 Mouse.
The Poly Sync 20 USB-A Smart Speakerphone doubles up as a phone charger and who can resist multitasking tech devices? I can’t think of a better gift for someone who wants the highest quality sound during business meetings, while listening to music or when just chatting with friends and family. The Poly Sync 20 has excellent echo and noise reduction and it connects to your PC with USB-A/-C and smartphone or tablet with Bluetooth. It’s small and portable—the Poly Sync 20 fits in your pocket when not in use and is perfect for traveling, taking up less valuable space. You’ll enjoy more clarity on every call thanks to the bass reflex system with dual passive radiators for natural voice and deep bass. You’ll also love the Lithion Ion battery which gives the Poly 20 up to 20 hours of talk time. You can also get this in pink if you like the idea that $10 of each sale goes to breast cancer research. The best price available as we go to press is $99.99 (this is at Staples). Purchase it here: Poly Sync 20 Speakerphone.
Some gifts are legendary for a reason—they appeal to nearly everyone and enrich their lives! The classic AncestryDNA is one of these gifts. Why is it so great? There 1,800+ regions that users can explore and connect their origins to from across the globe. They help the user trace their lineage to the specific communities their ancestors lived in. Perhaps this might inspire a new travel destination for their next vacation. It can also open conversations about your family’s shared past and create deeper bonds. If you want to give a super creative gift to a whole family that you love, there is now an Ancestry Family Plan, which will give up to give family members access to explore their roots (and is a great bargain as well). As we go to press, the original AncestryDNA kit is 40 per cent off, so you can get it for only $59. Order here: AncestryDNA Kit.
This is one of the most useful gifts I can think of for the modern home and it gets my vote as one of the top stocking stuffers for Christmas 2022. The GE Cync Indoor Smart Plug makes any lamp or device that plugs into a wall smart. The built-in Wi-Fi bridge adds out-of-home control for your lighting and devices and voice control when paired with a voice assistant. The plug also enables scheduling and scene setting to traditional bulbs and devices. The Smart Plug adds smart functionality to fixtures where smart bulbs won’t fit or match the look of the fixture. Pair the Smart Plug with Cync or C by GE Smart Bulbs in other fixtures and Smart Switches to control all your lights together. Use the Smart Plug with other devices like curling irons, fans and electronic devices to turn them on or off remotely or schedule them to operate around your routine. The Smart Plug connects directly with Google Home and Amazon Alexa devices without a hub required. Simply plug into a standard wall socket and you’re good to go. Order here for $14.99: GE Cync Indoor Smart Plug.
Hallmark is the brand most synonymous with crowd pleasing greeting cards and they have pulled out all the stops this holiday season. You’ll fall in love with one card after another and I have been enjoying myself checking out the larger Walgreen’s and CVS stores with the biggest Hallmark selections. With thousands of new greeting cards to choose from, Hallmark’s holiday collection offers a vast array of both elegant and fun cards and truly have a card for every celebration this time of year! There are both individual and boxed greeting cards that will blow you away, from ones out of recycled paper to three dimensional “pop ups.” The wide range of styles and unique formats available this year are designed to bring unexpected joy when the recipient opens the envelope. My personal favorites are from the Paper Wonder line—this line under the Hallmark umbrella of cards adds dimension and tells a unique story through memorable paper craft artwork that doubles as keepsakes, including Season’s Greetings Evergreen Boughs Bouquet Holiday Card, Spirit of Christmas Musical 3D Pop-Up Christmas Card with Light and Santa Train Musical 3D Pop-Up Christmas Card with Motion. Cards prices range from .99 to $9.99 depending on how elaborate the designed are. As you know, Hallmark is available at most mass merchandise and chain stores but you can also get them many places online including Amazon. There is a great online selection at Hallmark stores and Hallmark.com as well.
Your giftee will be blown away by the bouquets of roses available from Grace Rose Farm and I recently received the two pastel colored ones above—but they have numerous red and white styles for the holidays! The photos on their website (gracerosefarm.com) are super impressive but in person the roses—grown on a 50-acre farm in California as well as in Bogota, Colombia—are unbelievably stunning and fragrant! This brand is also great because you get two or three dozen roses at the price that NYC florists charge for one dozen—plus the prices includes delivery and there are no additional hidden fees of any kind. Bouquets come extremely well-packaged in boxes with corrugated cardboard around the roses and their stems soaking in a wet piece of biodegradable green spongelike cloth. The owners are currently writing a book on growing roses and I will be sure to check that out (you can buy their rose bushes for your own garden, BTW). In case you are curious, the bouquet on top is called Lucy and it features a fragrant mix of 24 stems of pink, peach, mauve and cream garden roses. This arrangement can fill a very large room with a heavenly rose fragrance! The bouquet on the bottom is called Heather—it’s named after owner Gracie Poulson’s sister and features cabbage roses in subtle shades of lavender, blush and sandy-gray. It’s what reviewers have described as having “old fashioned elegance” and I could not agree more. Roses make for spectacular holiday table centerpieces so that is another reason I suggest that you send a special someone a Grace Rose Farm bouquet this Christmas! Both of the arrangements pictured are $169. There is a remarkable and classes rose arrangement called Fifi’s Fa-La-La for only $79 that I consider the perfect hostess gift and you can purchase it in red, cream or white on this link: Fifi’s Fa-La-La.
I have a new favorite creative card company and it is FreshCutPaper.com. They have cards that double as holiday decorations including adorable ones that fold out into generously sized wreaths, poinsettia plants and Christmas trees and they are priced at $12 to $20. These are not just cards but keepsakes you will take out for the holidays year after year. Pictured above as two of my favorite styles. The first one is the Winter Joy Bouquet, which will illuminate your home with wintery visions of red amaryllis and white lilies nestled in a bed of boxwood and holly. This stunning popup bouquet is the perfect gift or home decoration to welcome “the most wonderful time of the year”! The Winter Joy Bouquet can be mailed anywhere in the USA with four Forever Stamps in a very pretty provided sturdy envelope. The matching note card included is just amazing as well. The Winter Joy Bouquet measures 9 x 12″ and retails for $12. You can order it on this link: Winter Joy Bouquet. I also strongly suggest celebrating this holiday season with FreshCut Paper’s balsam fir Christmas tree! With over 80 classic ornaments included, you can create new traditions with friends and family to design your own unique tree. This is a perfect mantle or centerpiece to bring the jolly spirit of Christmas time into your home! The ornaments are very easy to attach as they all have their own hook or slot to perch in right on the tree. The Christmas street is10x16” and retails for $20. Best of all, a tree is planted in your honor every time you purchase one of these. You can order this fabulous 3D popup card here: Christmas Tree.
If you are tired of wrinkled sheets, I can’t recommend anything more that Bedsure’s 100% Tencel Sheets made of premium Lenzing Tencel—a fabric that is amazingly enough is created with sustainable eucalyptus. Lensing Tencel helps to retain moisture and ensures a smooth, silky feel which is great for hair and skin. It provides good breathability that keeps you cozy in winter nights and cool in summer, making it the best sheets for hot sleepers.These sheets are also fade resistant for prolonged use and they will always look fresh, clean, and as vibrant as the day you bought. These bed sheets are Standard 100 by OEKO-TEX certified for meeting the highest testing criteria for harmful chemicals and have been found to be harmless for humans. The four piece Tencel sheet set includes: one flat sheet, 1 fitted sheet (which has deep pockets by hat can fit up to a 16” high mattress), and two pillowcases. Bedsure Tencel sheets set will arrive tied up in a bundle with an elegant ribbon, perfect gift idea for house warming, birthdays, holidays, weddings and more. Order in white, light grey or navy for $85.99 on this link and receive a hooded wearable blanket as a bonus: Bedsure’s 100% Tencel Sheets.
