Gift guides for the men on your list, everything from candy to kayak racks – all budget-friendly, tried-and-true items that will be used and welcomed.
I hope you were able to get some good ideas from the gift guide for women full of all my favorite things! These gift guides for men (both this year’s and the one below from last year) are following the same format, except they aren’t my favorites of course. I polled Brian and researched some of the things he bought last year and has been really happy with which we compiled into this list of all his favorite things.
So again, we’re recommending only the things we truly use and love in these guides because we know word-of-mouth is one of the best ways to get people gifts that have some sort of lasting value. And you’ll find things here at all price-points, though everything is under $100 (and most are under $50).
While I know the guys on your lists may not be into all the same things as Brian, I’m hopeful it will be a good starting point if you’re searching for a good gift. If I were to guess at Brian’s #1 favorite from this list, it would probably be the dark chocolate malt balls, which I’m confident a lot of men would also enjoy (or maybe some other special, hard-to-find candy). Sometimes it really is the simpler things!
Favorite Things Gift Guides for Men
2016
1. Universal Kayak Roof Rack J Bar, 2 Pairs– at just 1/2 to 1/3 of the price of name-brand roof racks, we thought they might be cheaply made. They aren’t as thick, but they work fantastic, and held our kayaks perfectly all last summer.
2. Classic Fountain Pen, Medium Nib-Brian loves writing old-school with a fountain pen and these kind of things seem to be coming back, so maybe you know someone who would, too?
3. Nike jacket– Brian’s is similar to this version and he wears it all the time since it’s a perfect light layer, but still warm.
MY LATEST VIDEOS4. American Apparel Men’s Tri-Blend Short Sleeve T-Shirt– a new t-shirt love this year so I had to buy 3 of them. He likes the fit and how soft they are.
5. Peets whole bean Coffee– for any coffee snobs lovers on your list like Brian – Peets is one of his absolute favorites – but always in a dark roast.
6. Fire Stick streaming media player– we don’t have cable and stream most of the TV or movies we watch with this to stream from Amazon (we use the Chromecast shown in last year’s list below with Netflix and regular channel apps)
7. Dark chocolate covered malt balls– probably Brian’s favorite gift from last year, they are hard to find locally which make them even more special.
8. Echo dot– Brian loves new tech gadgets that aren’t too expensive and this is SO cool, so – shhhh, it’s his Christmas gift this year (confession – I may want this more than he does!)
BOOKS (with notes from Brian)
nonfiction
9. Save The Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need, Blake Snyder: This step-by-step guide on how to structure a winning screenplay is actually a great guide for all types of writing. Use these principles to grab your audience’s attention and keep them engaged until the end.
10. Two by Francis Chan: Crazy Love: Overwhelmed by a Relentless God: Are you a true Jesus follower or just an American who calls himself a Christian? It’s not hard to tell. And Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit: The person in the Bible who’s most neglected by evangelicals is a part of the Godhead. But He’s the one who’s present with us while Jesus is with the Father.
11. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, Chip & Dan Heath: The Heath brothers introduce a simple methodology and lots of amazing stories about getting people and organizations to make signficant changes. So entertaining, you’ll forget it’s a change-management book.
fiction
12. Ready Player One, Earnest Cline: Great story and possibly predicts the immersive virtual reality gear we’ll be able to buy next year. Ironic how the main character proclaims his atheism, but spends most of his life in a model of a universe made by a benign creator. One where the free will of the participants necessitates the existence of evil. Maybe that’s the point.
13. The Pickwick Papers, Charles Dickens: I can’t think of any other 200 year old books that are laugh out loud funny. Mr. Pickwick and his friends prove that while clothing styles change, people don’t. Showed Dickens’ genius at the age of 24.
14. The War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells: Brilliant idea with a satisfying execution. Every alien invasion movie owes something to this book. The irony of the Martians’ death is even greater with our improved knowledge of beneficial bacteria.
BONUS! I just remembered that he loves this gift we gave him for Father’s Day:
Electric Bug Zapper – we had such a fly problem in our house since we lived around house pastures and this takes care of them quickly and with no mess like traditional fly swatters.
2015:
Gifts for Men (Brian’s picks)
1. Target Watch (he loves the simple classic look – and the price!)
2. Sentey In-ear Earbuds (great, nice-reducing product for the price-point)
4. Chromecast (To stream Netflix, Hulu & Google Play to your TV using smartphone, or from a computer’s Chrome browser for Amazon Prime)
5. Books: The Secret History of Rock & Roll and The 4-Hour Work Week
6. Air nailer & compressor name brand (or cheaper at Harbor Freight which has worked fine for our home DIY projects)
7. Under Armor socks (Brian didn’t think socks would make a difference running, but they do)
These gift guides for women, men (and kids soon) are part of our 8 Weeks of Christmas Ideas series (though all these gifts are good any time of the year, too!).
Disclosure: this post contains affiliate links and by clicking on them you help support AOC at no extra cost to you – thanks so much! Plus you can trust I’ll only share what I love. (You can always read our entire disclosure page here.)
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