Welcome to our 6th annual Holiday Gift Guide.
As always, we’re presenting a unique selection of gifts for the adventurous and thoughtful nerds in your life (or you, we don’t judge). This year the REA team and our Patreon supporters shared their wonderful ideas for the gift guide too.
Each year’s gift selection offers an assortment of games, puzzles, tools, and oddities. We don’t repeat gifts year-to-year, so you can always reference our past guides for more inspiration. We’ve put a lot of thought and love into each guide; they still hold up.
Escape Room Tickets
Before we dive in, I will open with a public service announcement:
The supply chain for all sorts of goods is strained. Shortages here, delays there… stuff is hard.
The good news is that escape rooms have no such shortage. I strongly encourage you to buy your friends and family admission to your favorite escape room.
2021 Gift Guide
Tabletop Escape Games
Escape From the Maze of the Minotaur, Solve Our Shirts
Lisa: “This is a fun evening activity that comes with its own souvenir shirt (and a high quality one!) I was repeatedly impressed by how many puzzles and surprises CU Adventures packed into this… article of clothing.” (Review)
Area 51, Break-In
David: “Break-In’s Area 51 packed a lot into a small box by using the box as a physical structure for us to play in. I’m shocked at the low price point on this product, as it was crammed with innovation.” (Review)
The Cinderella Murders, Fairy Tale Files
Matthew: “The Fairy Tale Files were a delightful way to bring newer puzzlers or teens into the fold. (I played them with my mom!) Packed with satisfying yet accessible ahas, the two installments currently available embody the beautiful design, slick tech, and narrative-driven puzzling that have come to characterize all Society of Curiosities creations.” (Review coming soon)
The Initiative
Sarah W: “The Initiative is a unique campaign-based cooperative strategy game with delightful escape-at-home overtones. Unlike most board games, there’s an overarching narrative that ties in with the gameplay mechanics, as well as plenty of secrets—some of which I found while writing up the review.” (Review coming soon)
Exit: Kidnapped in Fortune City
Kate: “This is my favorite installment from Exit: The Game to date. Kidnapped in Fortune City is a fast-paced, multi-layered adventure where you’re on a mission to rescue the kidnapped sheriff. You select your preferred path through the base game while working towards a meta puzzle at the end.” (Review)
Jigsaw Puzzles
The Mystic Maze, Magic Puzzle Company
Cindi: “The Mystic Maze was the most unusual jigsaw puzzle I’ve ever put together! With highly-detailed artwork and a thoughtful story (and surprises!), this puzzle was a joy to complete. I’ve already added Magic Puzzle Company’s Happy Isles and Sunny City to my list this year!” (Review)
The Puzzle Scoop
David: “Magnifier, flash light, and scoop… this little tool can do a lot to help the jigsaw puzzler in your life who’s eyes aren’t quite what they used to be.”
Infinite Galaxy Puzzle 2
David: “Embrace the infinite. This puzzle of the galaxy poetically has no beginning or end. It endlessly interconnects with itself. It reminds me of the time I took astronomy in college thinking it would be fun… instead it broke my brain.”
Puzzle Books
Cantaloop
David: “This was described to me as ‘a really good point-and-click adventure game in book form… that actually feels like a point-and-click adventure game.’ That description was dead-on. If you’ve ever enjoyed a point-and-click adventure game, do yourself a favor and play this. It’s fun, funny, and novel.” (Review)
Hinck’s Gazette
$7 per month subscription (BlueFish Games)
Lisa: “Ok, this isn’t really a book, but it is puzzles presented in newspaper form, and I think that should count. My life is weird, and I don’t have time to casually puzzle the way that I used to, but if David and I were to subscribe to a regular puzzle product, this would be at the top of our list.”(Review)
Tangram, Volume 1
Matthew: “Tangram is an art journal themed around wonder that features artists from a wide range of creative disciplines. Each volume also hides hours of puzzles, designed by yours truly! (I don’t get any additional royalties… I just want more people to play it.) The first volume is a self-contained puzzle hunt with a tactile meta sequence, and the second volume contains even harder puzzles that lead to real-life hidden treasure…”
Mechanical Puzzles
Cluebox 2: Davy Jones’ Locker
Brett: “Cluebox 2: Davy Jones’ Locker is a terrific sequel to the original Cluebox. It ups both the puzzle and design aspects, with on-theme shapes and graphics leading you through a series of challenges that will make escape room players feel right at home. It packs in 60 to 90 minutes of puzzling for most players, at a very reasonable price, and is resettable so you can share it with family and friends.”
Kagen Sound Maze Boxes
Brett: “Kagen Sound is widely acknowledged to be one of the finest crafters of wooden puzzle boxes. His Maze Boxes have simple but precise woodworking, with a metal maze locking them. You’ll rapidly discover the maze is trickier than it appears, though still solvable by mortals.”
Home
Midnight Ice Cream Scoop
Lisa: “So… we may have consumed a lot of ice cream over the past couple years… like a lot a lot. This was admittedly a decadent purchase, but it works way better than any other ice cream scoop I’ve ever owned. And everyone can have a good laugh at how, umm, suggestively shaped it is.”
Duck & Bunny Illusion Shaker Set
Matthew: “Is your dining room table lacking in wonder? Shake things up with this delightfully sculpted rendition of the classic duck/ bunny optical illusion.”
Tap Score – Water Test
David: “One of the many home improvement projects that I undertook this year was setting up a water filtration system. It turns out that there are lots of options and the one you need is based on what you need to filter out. Tap Score was by far the easiest part of this project. This simple testing system gave me so much information and made it easy to understand. I cannot recommend it highly enough.”
Flyte – Levitating Light
David: “These things are so cool. Every time I encounter one I always wish I owned one.”
Office
RayMay Pen Style Portable Scissors
David: “These are the coolest portable scissors. They shrink down to the size of a pen, and they work damn well. The blades are full tang (meaning the metal runs throughout the body), and they are a great addition to my portable puzzle solving kit (more on that kit in a future post).”
Sakura SumoGrip Retractable Eraser
$7 (Amazon) & $7 for a 3 refill pack (Amazon)
Lisa: “David got tired of us burning through erasers before we finished up using a pencil, so he dove down an eraser rabbit hole and emerged with this. I’ve since made him buy 3 more so I can stash them in bags and desks. The refills are also great.”
Midori Foldable Aluminium Ruler
David: “I’ve been looking for a small, foldable aluminum ruler… and finding a good one was strangely difficult. This one is fantastic. A while back I mostly switched to metric measurements for my projects, and I haven’t looked back. Metric makes both the measuring and math way easier. Don’t @ me.”
SENNHEISER HD 599 Open Back Headphone
David: “Between running a virtual convention and launching a podcast, I have spent way too much time wearing headphones, so much so that it was becoming painful… until I bought these headphones. I absolutely love them. The sound quality is magnificent, they fit well, but they don’t clamp down on my head. These headphones feel and sound much more expensive than they are.”
Tabletop Games
Poetry For Neanderthals
Lisa: “I love any sort of word challenge, and this one is both unusual and fun – you can only use one syllable words. When your friends (or husband) use multisyllabic words, you get to bop them on the head with the inflatable ‘NO’ club. You can always count on Exploding Kittens to combine completely disconnected mechanics to make a hilarious game.“
Wingspan
$60 for the base game, an additional $30 for the Oceana Expansion (Amazon)
David: “Wingspan is a paragon of beautiful and deliberate design. This is a meaty tabletop game with so much going for it from its careful balancing, to its obsessive attention to bird details, to the elegant art and components. There are two expansions, but I strongly recommend picking up the Oceana Expansion as it adds an additional resource that helps further balance the game and open up new strategies.”
Stay Cool
David: “Hey Theresa, can you get me a quote on that game Stay Cool for the Gift Guide?”
Theresa W: “Oh absolutely. In the morning. We’re drunk playing it literally as we speak. It’s great.”
David: “Got it. Thanks.”
Tools
Hakko-CHP-170 Micro Cutter
David: “I picked these up for snipping some plastic and light metal… and they feel great. I’ve used plenty of similar products over the years, but there is something about the shape of the handles that makes me feel considerably more in control of this tool.”
Govee Wifi Water Sensors
David: “Earlier this year we had a pipe burst in our home. It was exciting, to say the least. These water sensors are my new line of defense against a future water calamity. They haven’t been battle-tested yet, and I hope they never are, but for now, they stand guard.”
Books
AMORALMAN, Derek DelGaudio
Lisa: “When I’m as impressed by a piece as I was by Derek DelGaudio’s In & Of Itself, I’ll always read the book. This book gave me more insight into the man behind that magic. His adventures in high stakes sleight of hand had me on edge. I literally couldn’t put it down.”
Little Billy’s Letters: An Incorrigible Inner Child’s Correspondence with the Famous, Infamous, and Just Plain Bewildered, Bill Geerhart
David: “Little Billy’s Letters are a collection of letters to celebrities, politicians, business leaders, and convicted murderers written by an adult, posing as child… and their actual responses to him. I impulse purchased this book in the middle of the night. It’s sort of a strange, hilarious artifact of the 90s. Strong recommend.”
Klara and the Sun: A novel
Lisa: “Reading a book by Kazuo Ishiguro is a lot like solving a puzzle. So much about the characters and their world mirrors our own, but as you read, you piece together the oddities to discover what’s different. His newest book Klara and the Sun: A Novel grapples with technological advancement, and also the meaning of being human.”
Stocking Stuffers
Chocolateral Puzzle Chocolate, Enigmailed
Lisa: “This is great chocolate, with some small puzzles on top. If I need to sell harder, then this isn’t for you.” (Review)
Bonus Chocolate
Matthew: “This edible illusion is the perfect opportunity to play with your food. A clever take on how chocolate subdivides into smaller pieces, here you’re guided to rearrange those pieces into a new rectangle of the same size — with a bonus piece magically left over. The chocolate is delicious, too!”
Holiday Cards – Set of 3, PostCurious
Theresa P: “These cards are beautifully illustrated and contain approachable puzzles for all to enjoy. Consider sending them to anyone on your holiday greetings list!”
Schrödinger’s Cat: A Game of Curiosity
Matthew: “I’d never fully internalized the emotional dimension of Schrödinger’s Cat Paradox until I played Jessica Creane’s brilliantly simple Schrödinger’s Cat: A Game of Curiosity. This pocket-sized game made quantum physics fun, thought-provoking, and accessible.”
For the Little Ones
5-Minute Mystery The Museum of Everything
Sarah M: “This fast-paced game methodically introduces kids to close observation, strategic deduction, and racing a clock. The basic mechanics are simple: search for hidden clues, get information, and eliminate suspects. However, the variety of crimes to solve allows this game to be as easy or as challenging as you want. It’s adaptable to kids as young as 5, targeted to kids between 8-10, and still appealing enough for adults to join in. And, if that’s not enough, there’s also a toy cryptex!”
Roller Coaster Challenge, ThinkFun
Sarah M: “This 3-dimensional physics puzzler exercises your brain differently than many spatial reasoning products. Given a partial blueprint of a coaster and a specific set of materials to use, it’s your job to design a route that keeps the coaster on track. When you solve a challenge, you get the satisfaction of watching a mini-coaster glide through your creation! The 40 puzzles will entertain ages 6-10, but even grown-ups can have fun creating their own designs. And maybe the biggest selling point? There’s a LOOP-DE-LOOP…and it works!”
Hoakes Island: A Fiendish Puzzle Adventure
Brett: “Hoakes Island is a beautifully designed and produced book that tasks the reader with using the diary of Henry Hoakes to solve a mystery and save the island. Rita the Anteater is your guide to the adventure, sending you on a journey through newspaper clippings, letters, and a map of the island.”
ROKR 3D Assembly Puzzle DIY Wooden Music Box
Lee-Fay: “My 9 year old loves this. It’s a music box plus the robot is adorb.”
Something Special
LEGO Ideas Typewriter
David: “This typewriter is a LEGO kit, and it’s magnificent. This was born out of the community-driven LEGO IDEAS site… which reminds me… if you haven’t taken a couple minutes to throw your support behind these LEGO IDEAS projects, you really should:
These ideas are so damn cool and they should exist, just like this LEGO typewriter. “
Endless Spring
David: “It’s a lot of money to commit to a prank… but let’s be real, anyone who says, ‘money can’t buy happiness’ hasn’t seen this.”
Support Room Escape Artist’s Mission
There are lots of ways to support Room Escape Artist, like buying from Amazon, Etsy, or Art of Play after clicking into the links included in this post or backing us on Patreon.
The money that we make from these helps us to grow the site and continue to add more value to the community that we love so much.
