If you celebrate some kind of gift-exchange this season, here’s our handy annual guide to Things That People Might Like, Not That We’re The Boss Of You Or Anyone Else, We Just Thought It Might Help.
Previously:
Gifts for All
- A museum membership
Stephanie actually purchases a membership for herself to the Melbourne Museum every November [and Liz thinks, gosh, I should buy a membership one of these years], and everyone deserves a museum membership to their favourite local museum or gallery or fancy botanic garden.
Gifts for Tiny People
- Lego is always a winner. Except when you step on it.
It’s true, nowadays Lego is a terrifying maze of licensed and themed project sets. Liz was advised to get a Ninjago set for her niblings, and, of course, she obliged, but buckets of classic unthemed Lego are still out there.
- Star Wars merch.
Some of it’s really cool! Some of it … look, I’m not sure why you need a toy car inspired by Princess Leia, but you do you. Right?
What particularly made the franchise jump out at Liz this year was walking into Toys R Us and finding herself face to face with a display of action figures for female and non-white characters. This wasn’t happening last year!
Liz: I have to be blunt, I’ve lived in houses with smaller kitchens than this. I want it. I want it a lot.
Make Me Iconic has some really excellent Auscore and Melbcore gifts, novelties and stationery items, but their wooden toys for children are particularly great. The children in your life can play with a tram, or a Sydney ferry, or they can even undermine small businesses with a lovely wooden AusPost mailbox!
Gifts for Fully Grown Humans Who Are Of Legal Drinking Age
- Fance cocktail ingredients
If your friends and family are into DIY mixology, head along to Only Bitters to boost their collection of ingredients. (There are also intriguing non-alcoholic options, which is to say, Liz is deeply intrigued by the hot ‘n’ spicy ginger beer syrup.)
Why is Aldi even selling unicycles? More importantly, why is it classified as a “gift for men”, when clearly everyone needs a unicycle. But especially the cyclist who has everything.
We link to Rebecca’s work with the Backburner a lot, but we also love her parody Twitter account, @notofeminism. Here’s a nice little stocking stuffer, complete with tentacular cover.
They’re comfortable, they’re designed by Indigenous Australians, people always comment on how stunning they are.
Cleverman was a delightful six weeks of Australian tv in 2016. You can reread our recaps if you’ve forgotten what it was about, but our recaps are full of spoilers and you should just buy the dvds and give the show a go. Indigenous Australian SFF! Support that stuff.
- A subscription to Overland, The Lifted Brow, or Dumbo Feather
Not to be prescriptivist; you can subscribe to any Aussie journal of your choice. But these Australian journals magazines are doing great journalism and writing, and are worth your time and support. Dumbo Feather is just as serious as TLB + Overland, but Steph sometimes finds it more uplifting, if you want a less overwhelming reading experience.
- ~empowering~ bangles
When they’re not being sabotaged by Australia Post, local company BeBangles make very attractive jewellery with nice slogans. Yes, it’s consumerist feminism, but they’re pretty, and if you know someone who needs both a polished, professional wardrobe and the occasional boost, here’s a solution.
no-award.net 