Christmas is not all about the kids – that’s merely a ploy. Adults like to party, too. But what can you get your mam and dad this year? We look at a handful of options.
We already found a great a range of STEM-inspired gifts for kids this Christmas, but trying to pigeonhole dads and mams into one Christmas gift list is a bit difficult. However, we’ve managed to come up with six relatively random, but nonetheless parent-pleasing, ideas.
We’ve got Star Wars, Sega, insulting cards, wine chillers, awesome art and a tray to take your laptop to bed. What’s not to like?
Cards Against Humanity
Anyone who spots the divil in their parents can pick up decks of Cards Against Humanity for around €15. A bunch of new options are available, too, with a food, fantasy and world wide web pack recently released.
The fantasy pack option, which includes gems like “kneeing a wizard in the balls” puts all proceeds towards Worldbuilders, too, so you’re doing a good deed!
There’s only a UK option for shipping so, if you’re stuck in Ireland, then just use Parcel Motel, as an excitable member of our team did recently.
Slate LapDesk
Laptops and tablets have helped make browsing the internet so much more mobile. You don’t have to sit at a huge monstrosity of a computer, tightly squeezed between the alcoves in your living room.
But wait, I hear you not ask, what of the slightly uncomfortable heat my laptop generates on my lap?
Well, check out this really nice Slate LapDesk. Costing around €100, although down to €70 at the moment, this could be a nice little gift for the ‘rents. Coming from the US, allow time for postage.
Retro Sega consoles
This completely passed me by until very recently, but Argos is currently selling retro Sega Megadrive consoles.
These were at their peak about 20 years ago, so there’s a decent chance your parents were fans of things like Sonic The Hedgehog or, likelier still, Streets of Rage, Golden Axe and Revenge of Shinobi (what a trio on the one cartridge!).
Priced at a pretty decent €77 (although discounted down to €62 at time of writing), sales of the consoles have spiked this year compared to last (up 400pc). Might be worth a look, especially with 80 games preloaded on it.
Wine chiller
Sometimes people want wine. Sometimes they want their wine chilled, to their specifications. So step forward the Waring Single Bottle Wine Chiller.
Costing €75 plus shipping, this seems like something that should have been created before. But I can’t find it anywhere in Europe so the US has to do. It will take a while to have this shipped from there to here so, if you like the look of it and you think your father or mother would want one, probably best to act fast.
Oh, and as an addition, Waring also has a wine opener and vacuum sealer, but at £105 + packaging it’s a bit of a rip-off. Just finish the bottle and save your money.
‘Birth of Venus, With Dinosaur’ art print
Parents love art, yeah? Well, they probably love dinosaurs. So why not combine one of the world’s most iconic images … with the Birth of Venus? (See what I did there? Yea you did).
Seasonal Beast is a great little site actually when you’re struggling with ideas. It curates “unique and inspiring events in Ireland”, with science and nature at its core.
It also has items to buy, like this fantastic €15 print. *Update: Seasonal Beast has gotten in touch with a special 15pc discount code for Silicon Republic readers called ‘SILICONBEAST’ that can be used until 17 December.
Star Wars Laptop
This is for the few of you going all out to impress your dad or mam. It is also for the even smaller few of you who have a father or mother that’s a Star Wars nut. HP has created this special edition Star Wars beast with Windows 10, an Intel Dual i5 processor and 6GB memory.
It sports an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970 graphics card and full HD screen, which, as you will see, is very Dark Side oriented. It’s not cheap, costing €850 at Currys PC World.
Christmas gifts image via Shutterstock
