Azul
If you’re looking to tear mom away from TikTok challenges and the endless cycle of scrolling, board games present an old-school solution. Azul, a four-player puzzle game that challenges you to tile mosaics in a palace, is one of the best. It’s a game of ornate patterns and quick problem-solving, and though the basics are relatively easy to learn, there’s a subtle depth to the game that makes it one worth playing again and again.
Price: $19.99+
Tippy Type Keyboard Cover
Long nails may look pretty, but they’re a real pain to type with. Luckily, there’s the Tippy Type, a silicone keyboard cover for MacBooks that aims to solve that problem with tall, tower-like cylindrical keys. It’s designed to provide extra room for your nails so you can type comfortably and accurately, all while protecting your expensive manicure.
Price: $36
Kindle (2024)
Owning a Kindle means you have access to an entire library’s worth of books in your back pocket, which is something any book-loving mom will appreciate. Amazon’s latest entry-level model is an easy choice thanks to its crisp six-inch display and marathon battery life, not to mention improved brightness and contrast levels that make it easier to read at night.
Price: $84.99+
iPad (2022)
Apple’s latest iPad offers a level of versatility few budget tablets can match. It’s a portable entertainment machine with a spacious 10.9-inch display, speedy performance, and great battery life, along with a landscape-orientated camera that’s decent enough for taking video calls. It’s also useful for when it’s time to get down to business, as it’s perfectly suitable for shooting off emails and other light productivity tasks.
Price: $249.99+
Beauty of Joseon Relief Sun
If sunscreen isn’t already a part of your mom’s daily skincare routine, it really should be. Beauty of Joseon’s Relief Sun offers excellent SPF 50 protection, thus shielding your mom from sunburns and cancer-causing agents. At the same time, the TikTok-famous sunscreen uses rice water, grain-fermented extracts, and other ingredients rich in minerals to brighten and moisturize all types of skin.
Price: $12.60+
LG B4 OLED TV
If you’re going to gift your mom a TV, you might as well spring for an OLED panel. LG’s approachable B4 can often be found for under $600, yet it still boasts perfect black levels and four HDMI 2.1 ports, all of which are capable of 120Hz 4K gaming. It won’t be quite as bright as LG’s pricier models, but then again, is she really going to care?
Price: $599.99+
Fanttik X8 Portable Tire Inflator
The Fanttik X8 Portable Tire Inflator is the kind of gift that keeps on giving, even if you’d prefer to never use it. The pocketable tire inflator features a built-in LCD display and can deliver up to 150 PSI, allowing mom to quickly top off her basketball, road bike, or car with the appropriate amount of air. It even charges via USB-C, just to make things easy.
Price: $34.97+
Eve Energy Smart Plug & Power Meter
With the Eve Energy Smart Plug, your mom will no longer need to get up just to turn off the bedroom lamp. Instead, she can either use her smartphone or ask one of several voice assistants to do so. She won’t need to worry about receiving an unexpected energy bill, either, as Eve’s Matter-compatible plug offers some of the most comprehensive energy monitoring available.
Price: $31.95+
The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt’s The Anxious Generation is a must-read for any parent. The book explores how modern tech, namely smartphones and social media, can have a profound impact on child development. Haidt ultimately concludes that parents have been underprotecting kids in the digital world while overprotecting them in the real one — shocker, I know — and offers actionable tips on how to reverse it.
Price: $15.99+
Amazon Fire TV Stick 4K Max (second-gen)
Hallmark’s Christmas movies are as timeless a tradition as eggnog or fighting with your uncle over dinner. Thankfully, Amazon’s Fire TV Stick 4K Max makes it easy to catch all your cheesy holiday flicks. The zippy 4K streaming device features support for Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos, along with a new ambient mode that displays widgets and artwork when idle.
Price: $32.99+
Great Goddesses
Award-winning poet Nikita Gill is one of the most popular Instapoets around, and in Great Goddesses, she enchants once again. In her beautifully illustrated book of poetry from 2019, Gill reimagines Greek myths from a feminist perspective, delivering inspiring nuggets of wisdom in an attempt to give goddesses and oft-maligned figures like Medusa a real voice.
Price: $9.99+
Rothy’s The Point
Flats are an unsung godsend. They’re comfortable but still fashionable enough that you can wear them in casual and professional settings alike. Rothy’s makes a wide variety of washable, durable flats, with The Point being one of the most popular options. They also come in multiple colors and patterns, so you can style the shoes as you please.
Price: $89+
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom
Princess Zelda is finally the star of the show in the latest Zelda title for the Nintendo Switch. The top-down adventure represents a fun, charming twist on the classic Zelda formula, trading the combat of previous titles for a more versatile approach to dungeon-crawling. It’s also insanely cute, as if playing as Nintendo’s titular heroine weren’t enough.
Price: $59.99
Nothing Ear (a)
Sometimes, all you need is a little peace and quiet — which is precisely where the Nothing Ear (a) come in. The snazzy pair of noise-canceling earbuds feature a low-latency mode for gaming, IP54 dust and water resistance rating, and impressive sound for the price, making them a great pick for the mom who prefers to listen to her murder podcasts distraction-free.
Price: $69+
Belkin BoostCharge Wireless Charging Stand 10W
Belkin’s BoostCharge Wireless Charging Stand isn’t all that exciting, but it sure is handy. It can deliver up to 10W of power to any Qi-enabled device, allowing you to charge both iOS and Android gadgets at home. It also functions as a convenient stand that can prop up your phone in either landscape or portrait orientation, making it easy to check notifications at a glance.
Price: $24.49
Samsung Food Plus subscription
Samsung Food Plus is a simple way to level up your meal planning kit. All you need to do is take a picture of whatever is in your pantry or fridge, and the AI-powered food and recipe app will whip up a meal plan based on your nutritional needs. As if that weren’t helpful enough, it prioritizes foods based on their use-by date and keeps track of your inventory, making it a useful grocery shopping companion.
Price: $59.99 a year
Fujifilm Instax Mini 12
Anyone nostalgic for the good ol’ days will appreciate the Instax Mini 12. Much like the iconic instant cameras from the Polaroid era, Fujifilm’s latest requires you to do little more than point and shoot to generate wallet-friendly snaps. It’s an entertaining gift, one that can help your mom reconnect with her inner child while capturing new keepsakes.
Price: $69+
Lifx SuperColor Outdoor String Lights
Lifx’s smart outdoor string lights can add some much-needed sparkle to any backyard setup, even after the holidays. The 24-foot string features 12 individually addressable bulbs, each of which can produce an excellent range of tunable white light and some dazzling dynamic effects. That means you can use the weatherproof LED bulbs for both Christmas parties and your next Fourth of July shindig.
Price: $129
Oura Ring Generation 4
Smartwatches might offer more advanced fitness tracking features than smart rings, but not everybody finds them comfortable to wear to sleep. The Oura Ring Gen 4 is a stylish and discreet alternative, one that’s as accurate as it is comfortable. While it shines as a sleep and recovery tracker, you can also use it to keep tabs on light exercise and other health metrics.
Price: $349+
Tovala Smart Oven Air Fryer
Wouldn’t it be cool if you could click a button and, voila, dinner’s ready! Tovala’s Smart Oven Air Fryer sort of lets you do that. Thanks to its accompanying meal kit service and built-in QR code scanner, the oven can whip up tandoori spiced chicken, a Korean BBQ salmon bowl, and other tasty meals in just under 20 minutes. It can also scan store-bought groceries, though it pairs best with Tovala’s meal kits.
Price: $299.99+
Fellow Corvo EKG Electric Kettle
You don’t need to spend much to get a decent electric kettle. That being said, Fellow’s Corvo EKG Electric Kettle feels tailor-made for the hot beverage connoisseur who also has exquisite taste in gadget design. The classy kettle holds a generous 1.5 liters of water and features a wide mesh spout, which is a welcome reprieve from the gooseneck design on Fellow’s pour-over model.
Price: $165+
Ember Mug 2
Coffee is the most important meal of the day, not breakfast, which makes finding the perfect drinking vessel all the more important. The Ember Mug 2 lets you lock in your desired temperature via a companion app for up to 90 minutes or indefinitely when using the included charging coaster, making your coffee taste great no matter when you drink it.
Price: $99.99+
Shark Blanket
If you want to gift something that’ll make mom laugh, look no further than the Shark Blanket. It may look like a mere costume or onesie, but it’s actually a cozy fleece blanket with a hood that comes in two distinct colors. Needless to say, it’s one of the more novel ways to bring a smile to your mom’s face or stay warm during the winter months.
Price: $39.99+
Belkin Auto-Tracking Stand Pro
The Belkin Auto-Tracking Stand Pro is designed for the vlogger inside all of us. The MagSafe-equipped dock automatically swivels and tilts to keep you in the frame while on camera, regardless of whether you’re using Instagram or TikTok. What’s more, the motorized dock doubles as a 15W iPhone charger, so mom doesn’t have to worry about her phone suddenly dying in the middle of a livestream.
Price: $89.99+
Apple Watch Series 10
Your mom deserves the best, so why not gift one of the best fitness trackers money can buy? For iPhone owners, that’s the Apple Watch Series 10, which is the most capable smartwatch in Apple’s arsenal outside of the Ultra 2. The newer wearable features a wide-angle OLED display, FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection, and the ability to go from zero to 80 percent battery life in less than 30 minutes. Talk about fast.
Price: $329+
Queen of the Dead nail polish
Mooncat’s Queen of the Dead nail polish is like a new-age mood ring. The dark lacquer changes color as your body warms up, transitioning from a shade of deep red wine into a festive raspberry that’s perfect for holiday parties. A percentage of the proceeds will also go toward helping adoptable cats find their forever homes, so you’ll feel as good as you look.
Price: $16
Skylight Calendar Max
Getting on the same page as your family is a lot easier with the Skylight Calendar Max. The 27-inch, color-coded smart calendar allows you to view multiple schedules at once, providing you with a quick look at what’s ahead. It’s also a useful tool for delegating chores, managing groceries, and creating myriad other custom lists designed to make life easier.
Price: $569.99+
Hoto 3.6V Screwdriver Kit (Classic)
Your average dollar-store screwdriver has nothing on Hoto’s tried-and-true electric model. The handy, cylindrical tool comes with 25 steel bits and offers three torque settings, providing you with everything you need to tackle Ikea furniture, holiday decor, and other medium-sized projects around the house. It packs a few modern conveniences, too, such as a built-in LED light and USB-C charging.
Price: $39.99+
Samsung Music Frame
Samsung’s Music Frame combines sentimentality with smarts. It’s a mountable picture frame you can customize with physical photographs and artwork, one that conveniently doubles as a smart speaker with support for Amazon Alexa and Samsung Bixby. The 12 x 12.9-inch canvas also supports Dolby Atmos and pairs with Samsung’s newest TVs for a more immersive surround sound experience.
Price: $247.99+
