Best Wishes

Each December, Wired magazine recommends holiday gifts based on its staffers’ wish lists. Each December, I marvel over the apparent largesse of these individuals’ supposed gift-givers.

If you were to pick and choose from Wired’s gift guide, perhaps the biggest dilemma you would face is deciding between a $5,500 motorcycle and an even pricier ($9,775) nonmotorized bike. There’s an action camera for $400; but if you can stretch your budget to $475, there’s a wooden chair. Maybe you know someone in dire need of a 3-D printer; with included software, $3,300 may be a bargain. Speaking of 3-D, with a downloaded building app, your giftee can have an even more awesome bot (so says Wired) that they can make with Lego’s Mindstorms (base kit: $300). An adjustable desk starts at $2,310, but, after all, it’s powered by a motor like those used to adjust the seats in a car.

I’ve noticed over the years that Wired staffers like to spend time with nature, but apparently not without accessories such as a $150 satellite beacon (plus the annual subscription fee), $100 water purifier, $130 camp stove and/or $175 rain tarp.

They also show a proclivity for staying fit. They like a $65 jump rope and $200 resistance bands (perhaps the fact that it’s called a TRX Home Suspension Training Kit makes it worth two Benjamin Franklins). For the same two Benjamin Franklins (or perhaps two more BFs), they can track their and their dog’s activity levels (to clarify, these are two individual devices, $100 each, so the giftee and Rover don’t have to share).

Other products to consider are the $18 collapsible travel cup, $95 sleep mask and $150 umbrella (with a lifetime warranty!). Even seemingly mundane products strike me as a bit extravagant in Wired’s hands.

Speaking of hands, I did find one item in the guide that winter has made me want too: a $20 hand warmer. Excuse me for a moment while I place my online order for a couple of those babies (one for each hand).

OK, I’m back. I hope you didn’t lose patience over the pause, as I decided to take the break in writing to poll San Diego Home/Garden Lifestyle’s staffers on their wish lists. It turns out they too know magnanimous gifters, even for supposedly mundane products like slippers and candles. Here are some of their hearts’ desires:

• 150 feet by 8 feet of garden trellis: approximate price $600
• Fossil rose gold watch: approximate price $100
• Interactive pen display tablet monitor: approximate price $390
• Sodastream machine: approximate price $100
• Kai skylight candle: approximate price $50
• Ugg slippers: approximate price $100
• A cream white Canali tux: approximate price $2,000
• Set of pots and pans: approximate price $200
• Set of golf clubs: obviously the more expensive, the better
• Two double guest beds: obviously the more expensive, the better

In wishing terms, one SDH/GL employee clobbers Wired’s staffers with this list:

• An original LC4 Le Corbusier leather lounge: approximate price $4,000
• A big cashmere throw in winter white: approximate price $300+
• “One of those nifty little new Fiat cars to buzz around town”: approximate price $20,000
• Caviar and Extra Brut Champagne to ring in the New Year: obviously the more expensive, the better

As for me, now that I’ve got hand warmers on the way, what more could I want? 

Janice Kleinschmidt

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