Holiday Gift Guide
Be of good cheer, friends! Enjoy your holiday season!
We’ve sped around the World Wide Web and brought back a sleighful of interesting, unusual gift ideas from all price ranges that are sure to appeal to all ages. So avoid the time-wasting, exhausting parts of “shop ‘til you drop” by wandering only as far as your couch or office chair and simply dropping there with your Internet connection.
Speaking of efficiency, this season's Holiday Gift Guide is once again brought to you by the helpful folks at GEICO, who know a thing or two about saving time and money on your homeowner, vehicle and rental insurance — and who offer special discounts to American Mensa members. We invite you to invest 15 minutes in learning what GEICO can do for you. It's the smart thing to do!
So what sort of gift are you looking for?
| Exciting et ceteras! | See the world through new eyes... | Gifts under $15... |
| For the young... | ...Or through your mind's eye | ...Or $50 and up |
| ...Or young at heart | "MApps" to better living | Fun from Mensa |
Exciting et ceteras!
You’ve heard of a sundial for telling time; what about a stardial? Redefine “retro” with Edmund Scientific's 15th-century navigator’s tool. It’s functional, it’s educational and it looks cool too! *
Never waste time waiting again! Carry the 100-card deck of Visual Brainstorms puzzles and games, and you can turn any otherwise annoying delay into a brain-improving break.
OK, yes, the iGuy for iPad made us LOL, but he made the list because he also protects your technological investment — and that’s smart, no matter who y’are.
If you have a grillmeister on your list — and who doesn’t? — consider the TurboQue. It easily adds the element of convection cooking to your conventional gas grill, intensifying flavors and reducing cooking time.
For the young...
This is not your daddy’s ant farm. ThinkGeek's Ant Farm Revolution features a 360-degree, nutrient-rich gel habitat complete with LED light that projects images of your industrious buddies. Comes with ant coupon if shipped within the U.S.! *
Mental_floss encourages your kids to play with their food on their Food Face plate. Let the edible portraiture commence! *
If the words “snap, crackle, pop, ooze, fizz and bang” appeal to anyone in your life, they need The Book of Totally Irresponsible Science: 64 Daring Experiments for Young Scientists. They’ll be demonstrating scientific principles with common household items in no time.
The hottest toys among the Young Mensans at the 2011 Annual Gathering were the Folkmanis hand puppets: the chameleon is simply astonishing, but perhaps the most popular was the three-headed blue dragon.
...Or young at heart:
We’ve heard of stretching your mental capacity, but this seems like much more fun. The Mind Stretched paperweight features a moldable, gray (of course) eraser that helps you keep your mind — and paper — clear.
Who says coloring books are for kids? The Charley Harper Deluxe Coloring Book features
elegant minimalist illustrations worthy of one’s most creative efforts, no matter your age.
Mind-meld with everyone’s favorite Vulcan at the push of a button with the Smithsonian’s Talking Spock bobblehead. It’s probably the most entertaining — and logical — desk accessory your favorite Trekkie will get this year.
Fractiles' large magnet board allows for the creation of beautiful and complex patterns with colored magnetic tiles; we’re sure the Young Mensans at the 2011 Annual Gathering would have loved playing with it if the nuclear physicists and engineers would have left it alone for five minutes.
See the world through new eyes…
Elderhostel’s Road Scholar educational adventures literally span the globe, but our imaginations were captured by “Sailing Puget Sound: A Tall Ship Exploration with Your Grandchild.” So do you want to be the coolest grandparent evarr?
Like anything else, travel is easier when you have the right tools, and Tom Bihn hand-creates incredibly well-thought-out travel gear. Their latest creation: the Cadet bag.
Simply can’t stand the idea of going off grid, no matter where your travels take you? The Goal Zero Nomad 7 foldable solar panel captures the sun's power for your hand-held USB- and 12V-compatible devices.
For a smarter travel-planning experience, make www.us.mensa.org/travel your first online stop! You can plan anything from a family trip to Grandma’s to your honeymoon and get all the best travel rates right at your fingertips. *
…Or through your mind’s eye
The experience of a truly absorbing book is about the best gift you can give anyone. Encourage reading among your favorite youngsters — or help an adult brush up on the classics! — with books from the Mensa Foundation’s Excellence in Reading Award Program. * Just visit American Mensa's Smart Buys online store and select Gifted Youth Resources, then Excellence in Reading Award Books.
It doesn’t take much to imagine what a jungle today’s world presents to teenagers, let alone gifted ones. Help yours survive and thrive with Free Spirit Publishing's time-tested tips
and insights in the updated Gifted Teen Survival Guide. *
Microfinance: Empowering someone you’ll probably never meet by funding a loan with as little as $25 through the Kiva program. You may find that alleviating poverty is pretty empowering to you personally as well, but if you want to spread the emotional wealth, as it were, give someone special a prefunded Kiva Card so they can select their own recipient. If you would like to “fight for awesome” with your brains, hearts, calculators and trombones, consider joining Kiva Lending Team Nerdfighters.
“MApps” to better living
If anyone on your list is as addicted to mobile apps as we are, they will appreciate finding any of the following in their iStockings:
Organize your social media through Flipboard’s magazine format.- Flash back to the ‘80s when you queue up your tunes with Air Cassette.
- Nobody does numbers in all their infinite variations like Wolfram Alpha.
- All it takes to add dramatic color to your black and white photos is one finger and Color Splash.
- Anything that teaches kids to enjoy math is good with us, and Mathstronaut certainly does.
- Test yourself against the logic, math, language and visual questions of the American Mensa Brain Test.
Gifts under $15…
Habitually hosed during your summer water-balloon fights? ThinkGeek's Tie Knot water balloon filler will attach to your garden hose, fill and tie a water balloon in under 30 seconds. ‘Nuff said. *
Need the perfect gift for someone who occasionally loses their marbles, or just forgets where they put them? Mental_floss' Emergency Inflatable Brain to the rescue! *
Team spirit, geek style! Change the way someone thinks about knee-highs with ThinkGeek's vintage-inspired Geek Statement Socks. *
Is it an alien sea creature? An uber-trendy European chair? No, it’s better! The Barnacle uses suction to mount your smartphone on pretty much any slick, flat surface. So it’s hip and scientific!
Trust us. Someone you know needs ThinkGeek's TannenBomb prank holiday ornament — particularly if you’re on hand to watch them try to figure out where those noises are coming from. It’s even smart enough to turn itself on for the holiday season and then back off again when it comes off the tree, ensuring long battery life and many gleeful holiday returns. *
…or $50 and up
Did you know that alchemy does work and the Philosopher's Stone actually exists? Give Edmund Scientific's collector’s item to someone special as a symbol of all forms of transmutation. *
On a tangentially related note, the Hogwarts™ Castle LEGO kit is almost 1,300 pieces of magical, three-dimensional building fun, including nine minifigures exclusive to this set.
Surely Edmund Scientific's Vortex Marble Mania is the apex of marble games — a glow-in-the-dark track and 375 construction pieces such as gears, 3D connectors and pendulums. It’s so much fun, they'll probably forget they're learning about mechanics and engineering. *
Here’s a radio-controlled option you probably haven’t considered: control the Parrot AR.Drone Quadricopter through your smartphone or mobile device!
If you have an extra six figures lying around as well as an empty room in your house, we found an unusual phrase that might spark your interest: “bespoke library.” This year our choice from Neiman Marcus’ fantasy gift list is the Assouline publishing house’s custom-built library. As in previous years, proceeds help benefit the award-winning First Book program.
Fun gifts from the minds at Mensa
Yup, here at Mensa we do fun year-round. But just in case you need a quick refresher course on what we offer…
Every year our dedicated Mensa Mind Games judges pick the five best new games to be named Mensa Select®. Order this year’s winners — and all previous years’ winners — through our American Mensa SmartBuys store.
Everyone needs a punderful new T-shirt for the holidays — and the Mensa Store, courtesy of Fox Imaging, has 'em! *
Further, if there’s a brand-new card-carrying Mensan on your list, the Mensa Store has the perfect member gift package. *
Who wouldn’t like to get a little smarter, every day? Check out our licensed Crossword Puzzles and Brain Puzzlers calendars!
The Mensa Home Test won’t qualify anyone for Mensa membership, but it will provide great fun and most likely an ego boost to whomever you choose to give it to. If they do well, you can follow up with the gift of a Mensa Admission Test session!
We sincerely thank GEICO for sponsoring the 2011 Holiday Gift Guide.
* Are you a Mensan? These vendors offer discounts or other special benefits to American Mensa members! Visit our Benefits & Services page for more information, or look into joining now.
