The internet is flooded with gift guides. Most of them suck, optimized to rank in Google search instead of being helpful. This is not that type of guide.
Here is our POV: We live in an age of abundance, and with that comes the sad truth: most gifts are totally unnecessary. Why else would "gifts for the guy who has everything" be its own category? Half the time, the person receiving the gift feels like they’ve just been handed more clutter to find space for.
I know this personally, last year my mom, who is obsessed with “air frying,” got me one as a Christmas gift. Now I have an air fryer living in my closet. (Sorry Mom, if you are reading this. I love you no matter.)
So with that in mind, here’s what we’re actually trying to do: help you find gifts that are slow, thoughtful, and personal.
Our first category is: Gifts for thinking and pondering
We live in strange times, where just staring out the window in thought is a rare thing. We now seem to be filling every void with digital distraction.
With that in mind, here is a collection of gifts for good old-fashioned deep and all-consuming thought.
Permission to ponder, and even struggle, granted.
Next we have: Gifts for escaping screens
So many things have been gobbled up by our apps. These are gifts that move things back to the physical world. Why not gift an hourglass to replace that phone timer? Or something to take notes the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper, instead of yet another list buried on your phone?
Gifts for reclaiming your home
One of the easiest ways to live a little slower is to stop relying on your phone for everything—starting with music. Even for just a small part of the day, discover some music the old-fashioned way, with a tuner.
When we started selling AM/FM radios, we kept hearing the same kind of thing: “My whole family has fun finding radio stations we never knew existed.” Or: “It takes just enough friction to find a new station that I stop fiddling and just let it play throughout the day.”
Gifts of Craft and Precision
Having a comeback, in defiance of all things digital, are old-school alarm clocks.
Once on the brink of extinction, driven by phone-based alarms, simple and cool alarm clocks are back. It seems the common sense of just wanting a peaceful night's sleep still has its appeal.
We’ve pulled together our favorites, from $30 to $600. Each one is iconic in its own right—and 100% screen-free. If you are into German design, Braun is hard to beat (and its ’80s nostalgia is strong). A newcomer that nails that classic alarm clock look you remember on your grandmother’s nightstand is Båge & Söner. Made in Sweden, their quality is next level—more like a piece of jewelry than a typical alarm clock. The weight, craftsmanship, and attention to detail easily justify the price. This is an heirloom and a modern classic.
Gifts for More Time Outside
We’ve basically started curating a collection of excuses to spend more time playing outside. Bonus points if it happens at a beach or a park. Extra extra points if it’s wind-powered—like these two:
Kites. If you give someone a kite, they will never forget it. Especially these kites. These are not cheap plastic kites, but instead handmade fabric kites from a family-run business in England. In fact, the two brothers still make each kite. They are fully repairable and could even hang on a wall as a piece of art.
If you give someone a kite, who lives in the modern world, they will at first feel a bit like a little kid when they open it up and see its full 60” size. And then, as modern life demands, they will struggle to find time to fly it. But they will—one weekend they will bring it with them to the beach or the park, and looking at the kite up 120 feet above the ground, they will laugh at how something so simple can be so much fun.
Another, perhaps a bit more rare, gift is a model pond yacht. My favorite thing about these is how they serve two purposes. They look great sitting on a desk or in a living room. Actually, most people will just think it’s a non-working model. But they would be very wrong—it only looks like a static model. These Grove Pond yachts are fully functioning sailboats, made for water. And they need very little skill to set sail across a lake. Here is a video of mine sailing across Spreckels Lake in San Francisco.
Gift a pond yacht or a kite here
Handmade gifts:
Amazon gives us all our stuff quickly and cheaply. But I promise, if someone opens a gift bought on Amazon, they will feel a little sad. It’s just too easy to do. It shows so little effort. We all know it took about 10 seconds to buy it. And that something is usually very, very generic as well.
This category of handmade gifts is all about that human touch. An actual person behind it—a craftsperson—making something that requires skill.
An example: Our board games are handmade in Tunisia using the same traditional clay baking process they have been using for over 3,000 years. For context, the game of chess is a mere 1,500 years old. Consider this clay, dug from African soil, was also dyed using the local roots and plants, and you have a gift with a fascinating backstory.
What’s the best gift you’ve ever received?
I’d love to know. Send me a note at anthony@slowerthings.com and tell me about it. I’ll send a little something in return.
– Anthony
Founder, Slower Things
anthony@slowerthings.com
