A Very 2025 Gift Guide
By Stacy Lee Kong
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I may have mentioned this before—ahem—but I love a gift guide. Shopping with other people’s money? Sign. Me. Up. But also: even if I don’t buy a single thing, or even really need gift-giving inspiration (see above, re: shopping), I still find it very satisfying to scroll through a curated product page, and get even more joy out of making my own. Chalk it up to my magazine background, I guess!
So, for the sixth year running, may I present Friday Things’ annual round-up of pop culture-inspired presents. As always, this list is part genuine gift-giving inspo, part (hopefully funny) look at the zeitgeist of 2025—excluding the annoying parts. Think, the global appeal of Bad Bunny’s Debí Tirar Más Fotos, the Love Island catchphrase that was all over my TikTok feed for months and the Justin Bieber quote that was also all over my TikTok feed for months. Happy perusing!
Fine Prints
‘Fit Check
Paper Products
Trim the Tree
Good Reads
Home Run
Diversions
Happy December! To mark the holidays and ring in 2026, I’m bringing my weekly recommendations out from behind the paywall *and* offering a 25% off sale on paid subscriptions. So, if you’d like to support the work I do with Friday Things—and keep getting these curated recommendations come January—upgrade your subscription here. (Offer valid until Jan. 8, 2026.)
This very important Associated Press dispatch from a Chicago zoo.
Writer Ayesha A. Siddiqi’s super smart newsletter on the link between the recent spike in anti-aging rhetoric and the decline of the Western empire.
New York mag’s recent investigation into what it’s like to work in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under RFK Jr. (Spoiler: very bad.)
The year-in-review recap to end all year-in-review recaps.
My perennial favourite gift guides: The New Yorker’s food focused one; Wirecutter’s under $25 options, Drew Magary’s annual takedown of the Williams-Sonoma catalogue (this year’s isn’t out yet, but you can revisit 2024’s dispatch). Plus, a couple of new-to-me round-ups: Joel Golby’s very detailed recommendations for presents boyfriends (and other dudes) might like and Audrey Lee’s list of things never to give as gifts, and what to give instead.
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