It was so much easier when the kids were little, right?! You could gift them LEGO, dolls or stuffed animals and they might even just as happy with the boxes they came in. Fast forward to the tween and teen years and they either want money or tech. For many gift-givers, though, handing over a wad of cash in an envelope often feels impersonal. Personalized family gifts, on the other hand, are a great way to gift the tech they want with some customization that shows you really “get” them.
Here are 7 personalized family gifts for this holiday season:
I’m using Apple products as my muse for this post, because we’re an Apple family — connected to each other through Family Sharing. If you’re not planning to become an Apple family, you can simply use these ideas as inspiration for your own personalized family gifts.
1. An iPhone — with a fabulous case.
Whether or not the new iPhone 15 is in your gifting budget or not, chances are good that a fun case from Toronto-based Gelaskins will be. You can choose a design that fits the owner’s unique taste; there are pages and pages of existing art — including work from Montreal’s Callen Shaub and even van Gogh — so you’ll want to invest some time looking through all of the options to find the perfect print.
If a new iPhone is in the cards, however, your budding photographer will LOVE the 15 Pro. I’ve been using it for several weeks now and the camera and video capabilities are really slick — with the option to shoot up to 48MP in RAW format, which is kind of insane in a compact device like this. Plus, the new Action Button on the left hand side means I can open directly into still-photo-shooting mode quickly. Two thumbs up.
2. An Apple Watch — with a special band.
Personalized family gifts come wrapped perfectly when you gift an Apple Watch, because you personalize it right out of the gate: choose a case and pick a band. The user can then take it many steps farther by selecting a watch face and reconfiguring where icons like the date, heart rate and rings are shown. And while the new Series 9 is out now (and available in PINK, y’all!), you don’t have to spend a lot to get into the Apple Watch game — the SE is perfect for kids and teens, grandparents and those on a tighter budget.
Adding different bands is a really fun way to further personalize, allowing your gift recipient to look as at home in the boardroom as in the gym.
3. An iPad — with a custom skin.
Gelaskins iPad skins can transform many generations of iPad, iPad Mini, iPad Air or iPad Pro. Just upload an image from your camera roll to customize someone’s beloved entertainment device — and voilá! Now their iPad is one-of-a-kind.
Wondering which iPad is right for your family? I’ve reviewed a few of them in my Apple Ecosystem post.
4. An Apple Pencil — personalized during your online order.
The latest Apple Pencil rings in at $109 but if you jump to the 2nd-generation Apple Pencil at $169, you can get it engraved through the Apple site before you check out. This isn’t doable in-store, so if you have your heart set on gifting a personalized Pencil, you need to purchase it on the Apple site. (Don’t worry, it’s really easy.)
5. AirPods Pro 2 — with a custom fit.
Not only are the second-generation AirPods Pro earbuds engravable, you can customize the in-ear fit because they come with four different sizes of silicone tips (from XS to L) to fit a really wide range of ears. They’re also probably my all-time favourite Apple product (which is saying a lot since this girl LOVES her iPhone); from the incredible noise cancelling and super-long battery life to beautiful sound, if there’s one Apple item I suggest splurging on this holiday season, this is it.
What if your loved one already has AirPods or AirPods Pro buds? No worries — consider a protective case in his or her favourite colour instead. (This would make an awesome stocking stuffer!) Personalized family gifts don’t have to mean that you’ve engraved something, after all.
6. A HomePod (or pair!) — customized for each family member.
Personalized family gifts don’t get more custom than this, because the Apple HomePod actually recognizes up to six family members’ voices and can react individually with reminders and calendar events, for example. I haven’t written about the HomePod before, and with a price tag of nearly $400, I want to spend a bit of extra time here explaining what it does.
With just one HomePod in your home, you can:
- Enjoy powerful acoustics (for your fam’s fave playlists, of course) with room-sensing technology that knows whether it’s near a wall or in an open space so it can optimize sound for your environment
- Create customized smart-home automations using Siri, such as turning on your smart lights with a “good morning” prompt or close your smar blinds when a room reaches a certain temperature
- Get notifications sent to your iPhone when a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm is detected in your home
- Check temperature and humidity in a room — all hands-free. (Humidity is important for wooden furniture to help prevent it from splitting and cracking…ask me how I know…)
- Pair it with Apple TV 4K for a more intense home-theatre experience
- Send intercom messages to everyone in your house who’s connected to the Home app
- “Hand off” whatever you’re playing on your iPhone — like a podcast — or even a phone call so it seamlessly continues on the HomePod
Add a second HomePod or even a HomePod Mini speaker, and you unlock even more features:
- Using multi-room audio with AirPlay, two users can say “Hey, Siri,” or touch and hold the top of HomePod to play the same song on multiple HomePod speakers, play different songs on different speakers or even use them as an intercom to broadcast messages to other rooms
- My favourite pairing feature, though, is that two HomePods can create a stereo pair when set up in the same space, so your gift recipient’s dream of a home theatre may just be within reach
My kids love “playing DJ” and putting their playlists up against each other while we’re all hanging out on our main floor, and we actually use a second HomePod on our upper level and it plays white noise all night while we sleep. The intercom feature gets a lot of play in our house; calling everyone for dinner now — when Big B is in our bedroom, Miss Q is in hers and The K Man is gaming in the rec room — is so.much.easier!
7. An Apple gift card — to make it ultra-personal.
Some say gift cards are an impersonal gift, but I actually think it’s the opposite. It allows the gift recipient to choose exactly what they want or even top up the card with their own money for something you might not have been able to gift them. That’s a win-win. Whether they spend it on Apple products, apps, Fitness+, the Apple Arcade or extra iCloud storage, the key is that it’s what they really want — and that’s the best gift of all.
Still need more gift ideas — fear not!
Here are all of the links to my holiday gift guides of yesteryear, many of which include even more ideas for personalized family gifts:
- 2021 Holiday Gift Guide
- 2020 Holiday Gift Guide
- 2019 Holiday Gift Guide
- 2018 Holiday Gift Guide
- 2017 Holiday Gift Guide for adults
- 2017 Holiday Gift Guide for teens
- 2017 Holiday Gift Guide for big kids & tweens
- 2017 Holiday Gift Guide for little ones
- 2017 Holiday Gift Guide for babies
- 2016 Holiday Gift Guide
- 2015 Holiday Gift Guide
- 2014 Holiday Gift Guide
- 2013 Holiday Gift Guide ($26-50 gift ideas)
- 2013 Holiday Gift Guide ($25 and less gift ideas)
- 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, part 1 (newborn-12 months)
- 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, part 2 (ages 12-24 months)
- 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, part 3 (ages 2 & 3)
- 2012 Holiday Gift Guide, part 4 (ages 4+)
- Plus this bonus gift guide: Best experiential gifts & unique gifts for friends
DISCLAIMER: This personalized family gifts post is not paid. Apple has provided devices on loan for testing purposes. Gelaskins gifted an iPhone case and iPad skin as part of this holiday post.
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