Ask HN: What did you buy this holiday season?

14 points by kerupian 5 years ago | 14 comments

Curious to see what did everyone buy here? Are your gifts skewed towards being more tech oriented?

Anyone bought any funny, thoughful gifts?

linsomniac 5 years ago |

Not much so far. Probably going to renew the TinkerCrates for my son, and drop the Doodle and Maker crates for my daughter and wife, they just didn't end up doing them but my son can't get enough of them.

Bought my wife the Paprika recipe app on the black friday sale so she automatically had the recipes I had been entering for the last year. I mean, it was $3 instead of $5 or something, but she hasn't really felt the need for a recipe app. I've loved Paprika if for no other reason than 95% of the time I can point it at a web page and it strips off all the surrounding prose and just gives me the recipe.

Some random crafting stuff to make home-made Christmas gifts and ornaments. My wife was just selecting some 3D ornament models to print as samples to select from earlier today.

stevekemp 5 years ago |

Our child is slowly getting the hang of telling the time, and understanding what hours/minutes mean so I've ordered a wall-clock for him so he can see the time in his bedroom.

By coincidence I bought myself a new automatic watch, an old/"vintage" Soviet piece by Vostok. I collect mechanical watches and I'm looking forward to the time when I can buy the child his first watch - no doubt a casio/swatch or similar. No point buying a mechanical watch for a child.

Nothing else that I can think about. I tend to average a new desktop PC every 3-5 years, but apart from random electronic components for making things myself I don't tend to buy too much "technical stuff".

giantg2 5 years ago | |

My desktop PC is over 8 years old. Every 3-5 years seems pretty fast, unless maybe you are doing high-end gaming.

gnicholas 5 years ago |

On a meta note, I bought a box cutter (a nicer-looking version with wooden handle) [1] so I can dispose of all the boxes we are getting these days.

And for opening boxes, I picked up one of these key/cutter tools. [2] It's plenty sharp for cutting the tape on boxes, but it's much safer than a box cutter, so other family members can use it. Each of them was about ten bucks.

1: https://www.amazon.com/WORKPRO-Folding-Utility-Handle-10-pie...

2: https://www.amazon.com/Nite-Ize-DoohicKey-Stainless-Attachme...

mturilin 5 years ago |

X3 exercise bar - a simple and effective strength training tool. Expensive. https://www.jaquishbiomedical.com/x3-program/

ed25519FUUU 5 years ago |

I’ve always been a user or the low profile and quiet Mac keyboard. I decided to try a machanical keyboard for the first time. I found one that was (supposedly) on the quiet side and low profile. Sure enough it went on sale.

Well, I share an office with my wife. She listened to it for about 20 seconds before she strongly encouraged me to go back to the old keyboard.

koheripbal 5 years ago | |

I love the feel, but the other detractor is that anyone on a conference call with you can hear the typing. I wish they made keyboards that FEEL mechanical, but are silent.

japhyr 5 years ago | |

What did you get? I went through five different keyboards before ending up with a Durgod Taurus K320 with silent red switches. It was recommended as a good shared-space mechanical keyboard, and I ended up liking it better than all my louder keyboards even when no one else is home.

giantg2 5 years ago |

I'll be giving people grow-your-own mushroom kits (lions mane and poplar)

probinso 5 years ago |

gave to mutual aid groups, went to local artists for gifts, shifted as many purchases as possible to local businesses

aynyc 5 years ago |

New ski tuning equipment, new skis/boots for the family. Some Legos for the kids.

BenjiWiebe 5 years ago |

A set of GearWrench metric ratcheting wrenches.

Pyrodogg 5 years ago |

A good gaming chair for my desk.

chemmail 5 years ago |

finally found a 9900k cheap on amazon.