It’s that time of the year again: holiday season! The snowflakes will start to flutter and the Christmas trees and lights will begin to glitter. It’s hard to decide what to give your family. There’s so many options. That’s why we’re here to help you this year! CGMagazine’s has created a guide to help you and your loved ones decide on some cool toys and gadgets for all of your enjoyment this holiday season.
Ghostbusters Merch For the Kids (And Enthusiasts)
Ghostbusters Plasma Series Action Figures
Price: $22.99
The new Ghostbusters: Afterlife movie is coming out on November 19, 2021, so why not collect the classic ghostbusting crew as a holiday gift. Each Hasbro figure comes with accessories like the proton pack, neutrona wand, and ghost trap. If you collect them all, each figurine comes with pieces to build a bonus, spooky Terror Dog action figure. This is an awesome gift to get for Ghostbusters adult fans of the original films or for newer, younger fans joining the fandom. Spooky season may be over, but ghosts come out all-year round.
The Ecto-1 Playset
Price: $36.95
This is a must-have, cool collectible version of the Ecto-1 for any Ghostbusters follower. If you haven’t seen this version of the Ecto-1, that is because this is the edition featured in the upcoming movie. The doors and trunk are all able to open and contain various movable parts like the blaster chair attachment that swings out. The car’s wheels are able to move, so it can race across all flat surfaces.
Fright Feature Ghosts
Price: $10.99
These fright features highlight the staple, iconic creatures busted by the Ghostbusters: the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, Slimer and the latest addition, Muncher. Each ghost toy has buttons and actions unique to them individually. From the Marshmallow Man contorting its torso to Muncher, doing what it does best, munching away at anything it can. This is a great interacting collectible for playing with and showing off.
Fun Games For the Whole Fam
Colors Live (Nintendo Switch)
Price: $34.99
Colors Live is an amazing game to get anyone in the family to awaken or re-awaken their inner artist. It even comes with the drawing pen, SonarPen, included. The “Paint Anywhere” mode in the game allows users to paint either from the comfort of their home on their TV screen, or on-the-go using just the Switch screen. To keep your creative juices flowing, the “Colors Quest” mode rewards players/artists that spend a little time painting daily by levelling up. It’s a great game to explore your inner artist or even gift to a family member who is an artist; it doesn’t matter what level of artistry you are into.
Sushi Go!
Price: 14.99
This is one of my personal favourite games because I can play it with all my family and friends. The recommended age for this one is 8+ and it can entertain 2-5 players. There is some strategy to it, but the rules are super simple, but most importantly, the cards contain so many cute images of different sushi and desserts! It is a pick-and-pass card game that is quick and offers so much fun, even my younger cousins can pickup on the critical thinking after a couple rounds while having fun. Enjoy some nice holiday sushi with the family!
Coup
Price: $14.99
Coup is my second favourite family and friends card game that is a bit more advanced because it has a bluffing aspect to it. The recommended age for this game is around 12+ for about 2-6 players. There are five roles for players to take on, but each player gets two character roles to play with, not revealing to others what they have.
Each role has specific actions they can take per players’ turn and the endgame is to eliminate the other players by either exposing their lies by challenging their claims, assassinations, or by coup-ing them with in-game currency players can slowly build up. It’s a last-person standing game that requires a lot of deduction and deception skills.
Tech To Help The Fam
Amazon Echo Show 8 (2021)
Price: $154.98
Whether you are working from home or in the workplace, it is tough to manage everything else in life, from the kids’ sports games to making time to check in with your siblings. The Echo Show 8 has been updated this year to deliver more with the integration of Alexa’s voice commands that can help keep you and the whole household organized. It can contain calendars and reminders, even works with the house’s compatible security system.
The 8-inch HD touchscreen with stereo speakers can also serve as a mini TV to enjoy your favourite holiday shows and movies from streaming services like Prime Video and Netflix. It also has a 13 MP camera, specially designed to make the user(s) look great with easy access to call anyone in your contacts. This is a great gift for those looking to move to a paperless, central unit to keep the household up-to-date and organized.
iRobot Roomba J7+
Price: $1,049.99
The iRobot Roomba J7+ is a great investment and awesome holiday gift for a family member or friend who finds themselves running out of time to vacuum their home, or maybe they just don’t have the room. This little robot friend can help. The integrated Genius technology and PrecisionVision Navigation helps the device recognize what is a non-cleanable item to be sucked and will actually learn zones to avoid as it learns the placement of big stationary furniture. The user can schedule when it cleans and the robot vacuum empties its own bag!
Zagg 3-in-1 Wireless Charging Pad
Price: $89.95
Zagg delivers one of the best charging stations with the 3-in-1 charging station. More people are getting wireless devices like phones, earbuds/headphones, smartwatches and more. Another current integration on most of these items offers wireless charging. This charging station is able to charge three devices at once! It can be annoying to buy multiple cables and multiple charging blocks, no more! This charging pad is very sleek and compact, so it does not even take up a lot of space. This is a perfect holiday gift for those constantly travelling and need to keep their devices reliably charged quickly and easily
iClever TransNova Bluetooth Headphones
Price: $39.99
Something stylish and safe for kids, the iClever TransNova Bluetooth Headphones delivers. It’s volume-limiting and padded earmuffs puts safety at its utmost importance. Whether it is for a child watching a movie while parents drive to Christmas dinner parties for the holidays, or they are working beside their children in remote classrooms, these headphones will rise to the occasion. It has up to 22 hours of listening time on a single charge, and it has Bluetooth 5.0 for easy, stable connectivity. It is also light and foldable, making it space-friendly.
Smartmi Air Purifier
Price: $468.33
The Smartmi Air Purifier is great against allergies, bad odours, smoke and other volatile chemical vapours in the air. It uses an H13 HEPA filter to filter out all the bad smells and toxic effects. Some features include being super efficient and very quiet if you leave it on while sleeping. This air purifier can help improve the air in a standard sized room in about 5 minutes, and about 26 minutes for an entire living room. A convenient feature of the Smartmi Air Purifier is its ability to work with Goggle Assistant and Alexa, meaning it pairs well with Amazon Echo Show 8.
Fitbit Charge 5
Price: $178.95
The Fitbit Charge 5 is an amazing fitness tracker, making sure you’re getting the right amount of calorie burn in and ensuring to workout out on your set plan. Some of the passive stats it collects include body stress levels, heart rate, skin temperature, GPS tracking and more. The battery life is intended to last up to seven days on one charge. As an incentive, each Charge 5 comes with a 6-month Premium membership that offers more advanced stats and personalized plans and guides to give you the best fitness experience for you.
I personally find the Fitbit products great as I have the Versa. I rarely ever forget to bring it when I leave the house because it’s my watch and most importantly tracks when I need to slow down to manage my stress levels. Need help burning off that extra helping of holiday dinners? Look no further.
Dyson V11 Outsize
Price: $795.00
Don’t want a robot to clean your home, that is okay too! The Dyson V11 Outsize brings the same trusted engineering from Dyson, but with more power and a bigger dust collection bin. The bin is said to be 150% bigger than the previous version the V11 Torque Drive. The Dyson DLS technology also senses the floor surface and will adapt accordingly with the brushes and bristles it has.
Like most of its predecessors, it is cordless, and the LCD shows how much battery life it has before it needs to charge. It can even act partially as an air purifier as it collects many allergens and bacteria that get missed from other vacuums.
DJI Mini 2
Price: $449.00
Taking a simple, stationary holiday portrait is so last generation. Definitely still a classic, easy way to capture the annual family celebration. But, if you want to spice up your pictures, the DJI Mini 2 is the all-round pick. For the price you are paying, you are getting a whole new photo and video capturing experience. The 12 MP camera delivers stunning photos on a 3-axis gimbal and greatly helps you cherish all your wonderful family moments at 4K/30 frames per second.
Even with some cool, winter winds, this drone can resist up to level 5 winds and take off at a max altitude of 4,000 meters. The Mini 2 can fit in the average adult hand and only weighs 249 grams, which is only about 0.5 lbs! A small toddler could even pick it up, but maybe not recommended. The DJI app to fly the drone is compatible with most modern iPhones and Android smartphones and sharing your radiant, joyful pictures is easy to post to your social media within the app.
JBL Charge 5
Price: $179.95
Let It Snow or Let It Go, the JBL Charge 5 will bring both winter, festive songs with the booming bass and vocal clarity to get your guests in the right mood. The portable speaker features a PartyBoost setting that allows other JBL compatible speakers to sync with this one to offer a more stereo or surround sound that can warm the hearts of every family member regardless of where they are in the house.
Not only in the house, the wintertime can bring a ton of snow in certain regions, so why not bring the party outside while shovelling? The Charge 5 has an IP67 waterproof and dustproof rating, meaning it will not be damaged by accidental water spills, rain or snow. It also offers 20 hours of entertainment on one full charge, and the speaker itself can act as a powerbank to charge your devices.
Anker PowerPort Speed PD 5
Price: $59.99
Everyone has so much wireless tech, even just based on this list above. Charging these devices all at the same time can be tricky when you are trying to make a call, binge a Netflix show in bed and attempting to get some work done on your tablet before the holiday feasts hit you. The Anker PowerPort Speed PD 5 can handle charging all of those devices and then some.
It features 5 charging ports with surge protection and temperature control in case some electrical mishaps occur. It is applauded for its quick charging as well, said to charge most devices about an hour faster than most stock chargers. This is a great gift for friends and especially families, so everyone can charge all their devices at the same time.
Google Nest Cam (Indoor & Outdoor)
Price: $129.99 | $199.99
If you have all these wonderful devices in your home, it only makes sense to add some security to protect your new, wonderful tech. The Google Nest Cam for Indoor and Outdoor is a quintessential purchase from preventing the Grinches out there from taking your family’s Christmas gifts. Both versions can capture full 1080p HD video with night vision and a 24/7 live feed through your home’s Wi-Fi. The outdoor camera is also weatherproof to ensure the device cannot be tampered from rain or snow. The captured video feeds can all be viewed with the Amazon Echo Show 8 (2021) mentioned above.
