Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Smart Home
  3. Features

Holiday Gift Guide 2019

Add as a preferred source on Google

The days grow shorter, the year winding down,
And a mischievous chill blankets the town.
Inside by the fire, or snugly in bed,
A family prepares for good cheer ahead.
Thoughts of warm food, bright holiday scenes
And the perfect gifts to live out their dreams.

Browse by price: $50  |  $75  |  $100  |  $200+

Recommended Videos

Child – A Growing Mind

Kids like to have fun, but there’s no reason they can’t also learn things in the process. Buildable toy sets and science kits let you have fun while also honing creative and reasoning skills for later in life.

Nintendo Labo combines video games with arts and crafts. The variety kit comes with a few different projects to build out of cardboard, each tying in to a minigame you can play on the Nintendo Switch. Read our full review.
The Labo vehicle kit offers a focused building experience, including a steering wheel, flight stick, and submarine … control device. Once you’ve built the controllers, you can pilot the vehicles around a colorful video game island.
It’s never too early to learn chemistry, but you probably don’t want a child fiddling with caustic substances. A child-safe chemistry kit like this offers kids a chance to learn science through dozens of experiments.
Toys come and go, but creativity lasts forever. Skip the action figures and dolls this year, and give a child the gift of Legos. The medium brick box has all the pieces they’ll need to build anything their imagination shows them.
Kids want tablets, and adults want them to browse the web safely. Amazon’s Fire HD 10 Kids Edition is the perfect compromise. It serves up age-appropriate games, books, and more, and has rubber casing in case it gets dropped. Read [internal-link post_id="2414117"]our full review[/internal-link].

Teenager – The Young Creative

Youth and creativity often go hand in hand. Whether you aspire to be a rock star jamming in front of thousands of people or a game designer crafting fantastical worlds, the right tools can make all the difference.

Learning to play guitar would be a lot easier if you could being your teacher home with you. With the Fret Zealot, you can! These LED strips light up to show you which notes to play at any given moment, so learning songs and chords is easy. Read our full review.
Smartphone cameras keep getting better, but film never goes out of style. The Instax 9 Mini is a nifty instant camera with an ambient light sensor, selfie lens, and the ability to overexpose film for stylish photos.
For the aspiring artist looking to go digital, the Intuos drawing tablet is a user-friendly tool for drawing in cyberspace. The sensitive pad allows for precise brush strokes, so even your most complex visions will be rendered beautifully. Read our full review.
The king of portable consoles offers a library of Nintendo originals and indie games you can play on a TV or on the go. Whether you want to adventure solo or host a Mario Party party with friends, the versatile Switch can do it all. Read our full review.
Nothing ruins music like the noise of the outside world creeping in. These headphones will seal out anyway unwanted ambience for pristine listening, and the sound itself is clear and powerful. Read our full review.

Mother – Sprinting Past Goals

You’ve always got a hurdle you’re trying to clear. Maybe you’re trying to beat your sprinting record, maybe you like to juggle big projects at work. For one who loves a productive lifestyle, the perfect gift could be a gamechanger.

Music can supercharge your workout, assuming you’ve got the right headphones. JLab’s wireless Epic Air Sport headphones are comfortable, sweat resistant, and muscular bass to help you power through your goals. Read our full review.
Bonavita’s elegant drip coffee maker is more than a pretty face. It pre-infuses the grounds, evenly extracting for a rich flavor in every cup. It will even keep the coffee warm after brewing, so you can make a big batch without fear. Check out our favorite coffee makers.
When cooking outdoors, nothing beats the smokey flavor of an open flame, and the Biolite Firepit ensures you’ll always have one on hand. It burns more efficiently than a campfire, producing less smoke.
Apple’s latest flagship phone is a masterpiece of design, with a sleek body, powerful processor, and gorgeous display. The main attraction is the camera, with three lenses for shooting in any lighting situation. Read our full review.

Father – Suburban Adventurer

Life’s an adventure, whether you’re filming bears deep in the woods or prepping a cup of tea for a relaxing afternoon in the yard. The right gadgets can help you reconnect with the natural world — even if you’re living far away from it.

The ideal drone for those looking to get into the hobby, the Tello is small and easy to steer. You can fly it with a smartphone app or with a drone controller, and the 5 MP camera shoots great photos and videos. Check out our favorite drones.
Time ruins all things, especially a good cup of coffee. Leave your mug for a bit, and you’ll come back to frigid joe. Not so with the Ember, which can keep your drink warm for over an hour. Read more about the [internal-link post_id="2404534"]Ember mug[/internal-link]. 
A great cup of coffee or tea requires precision; if the water is too hot, the brew is ruined. The PerfectTemp kettle offers six distinct temperature settings to get that perfect cup, and will keep the water warm for a while after brewing. Check out our favorite electric kettles.
When you’re adventuring in nature, don’t rely on your smartphone to capture the moment. GoPro’s Hero8 Black offers smooth, detailed video and clear audio. It captures movement without ghosting, so even your most extreme exploits will look good. Read our full review.
Home brewing lets you put your own twist on craft beer, and the PicoBrew C makes the process easier for newcomers with dishwashable parts. You can choose from over a hundred beer styles from renowned breweries like Alesong and Elysian. Read our full review.

Grandparents – Easy Living

Technology should make life easier, so you can spend less time struggling with it and more time enjoying it. Whether you’re a book worm hoping to take your collection on the go or someone looking to take the hassle out of cooking, we’ve got the right gear for you.

Wrapped in fabric, the third incarnation of the Echo Dot isn’t just a good-looking smart speaker; it’s got a big, bold sound as well. Of course, it also comes with Alexa, one of the most useful digital assistants around. Read our full review.
One of the most versatile appliances you can have in your kitchen, the Instant Pot Duo functions as a pressure cooker, slow cooker, rice cooker, even yogurt cooker. Whatever meal you want to cook, it’s quick and easy. Check out our favorite instant pots.
Voracious readers don’t need to lug their collection around with them if they have a Kindle, a slim ebook reader that can hold thousands of books. Long battery life and waterproofing mean you can keep reading even in the wilderness. Read our full review.
Ding, dong. Who’s at the door? You don’t have to walk over there to find out. The Ring doorbell connects to your phone, letting you see and talk to whomever might be at your door, and it can record visitors who come while you’re away. Read our full review.
Don’t wrestle with your thermostat, rolling the dial from scorching oven to frigid cave. Ecobee’s smart thermostat sets the temperature with sharp precision, so you’ll always be comfortable at home. Read our full review.

Credits

Illustrations by Christopher Webster

Animations by Will Hawkins

Art Direction by Genevieve Poblano and Will Hawkins

Creative Direction by Ben Hermel

Written by Will Nicol

Copy editing by Brandon Widder and Rob Oster

Development by Richard Benjamin

Produced by Joshua Benton

Creative and development support by Peter Durham and Chris DeGraw

Will Nicol
Will Nicol is a Senior Writer at Digital Trends. He covers a variety of subjects, particularly emerging technologies, movies…
Topics
Google just made Gemini for Home a lot better at running your smart home
Google just updated Gemini for Home with smarter features and faster controls.
Google-gemini-for-home-updates

If you have a Google smart display or speaker at home, there are new updates you should know about. Google has rolled out a fresh batch of improvements to Gemini for Home, making the assistant noticeably smarter and faster across smart speakers and displays.

Gemini for Home is getting smarter and more personal

Read more
Pet tech is ridiculous, and I hate how badly I want it
Smart feeders, GPS collars, pet cameras, and health trackers all feel like anxiety with Wi-Fi. The annoying part is that some of them might actually help
Computer Hardware, Electronics, Hardware

One of my cats recently caught some kind of bug, which meant a vet visit, blood tests, and about $135 poorer. After all that, it turned out to be a normal fever. Good news for the cat. Slightly humiliating news for the me who spent the next few hours wondering whether a gadget could've helped me panic more efficiently.

That's the problem with pet tech. It sounds ridiculous until life gives you one weird symptom, one missed meal, or one unusually quiet afternoon. There are feeders that portion meals from an app, collars that track escape artists, cameras that let owners spy on naps, and water fountains that monitor drinking habits because apparently even the bowl needed analytics.

Read more
This Google Home update is all about smarter automation
More control, more conditions, more real-world use.
Google Home Nest Automations Featured

Google isn’t just tweaking Google Home this time; instead, it’s quietly turning it into something far more capable. And the focus is clear: give users real control over how their smart homes behave.

What’s new in the Google Home update?

Read more