The Official SPY Guide to Holiday Shopping 2022: Trending Gifts for Everyone on Your List
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The holiday shopping season is upon us. Whether you’re ready or not, Christmas is coming, and with Amazon’s Prime Early Access Sale officially kicking off the holiday shopping season, the time to start preparing your gift list is right now.
Typically, the holiday season comes with equal amounts of joy, anticipation, stress and dread for all the work it involves. This “work” can include hosting and attending parties, decorating your house and most of all — buying gifts. While we can’t help you get out of that office holiday party you’d rather not attend, and we can’t put up or take down Christmas lights for you, we most certainly can help you with the gifting.
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We also strive to stay on top of the best deals and discounts heading into prime holiday shopping events like Black Friday, Cyber Monday and other tentpole sales from some of our favorite brands.
To make sure you don’t miss a thing, we wanted to gather all of our holiday coverage, gift guides, and trending gifts into one place. So keep reading for the official SPY Guide To Holiday Shopping in 2022.
Why Trust SPY When Shopping for Christmas Gifts?
Without putting too fine a point on it, as SPY Editors, we consider ourselves genuine gifting experts. We scour the internet far and wide for trending gifts, and this year is no different.
Not only do we publish a list of our 101 Favorite Christmas Gifts at the beginning of each holiday season, but we also continuously update it quite literally until Christmas Eve. We also publish dozens of other gift guides aimed at finding the top trending gifts.
Part I: The Top Trending Gifts of 2022
Tracking trending gifts and what’s on everyone’s Christmas lists is part of our specialty here at SPY, and part of the reason why we love our jobs. Getting to spend hours finding THE gift everyone wants this year? It’s a blast (and helps us pick out the best gifts for our own families and loved ones).
So what are the top gifting trends for the 2022 holiday season?
After months of research and product announcements, we’ve identified seven big gifting trends we’re anticipating will be popular among holiday shoppers this year. If you’re unsure what to get someone on your list, then we recommend looking into one of these categories for some of the hottest trending gifts of the year.
Pickleball Sets
Forget baseball, pickleball has become America’s favorite pastime. It grew nearly 40% between 2019 and 2021, making it America’s fastest-growing sport post-pandemic. If you have a friend practicing their skills on a rented racket, now’s the time to gift them their own to play with. There are also travel sets, paddle bags, luxury paddles made of high-end materials, and more.
Read More: The Best Pickleball Paddles of 2022
Niupipo Pickleball Set
Price: $59.99 (orig. $74.99) 20% OFF
Buy Now
Helium 4-Person Pickleball Sets
Price: $84.95 (orig. $99.95) 15% OFF
Buy Now
Retro Gifts and Toys
Nostalgia is very hot right now, in the gifting space and beyond. There’s a reason there are so many remakes in TV and film at the moment. We’re recommending retro toys for not just kids, but everyone on your list in 2022. They’ve withstood the test of time because of their fun designs, they’re a dose of happy memories for adults and a new toy for kids.
Footwear
This year, we included five different pairs of shoes in our Christmas gift guide. Why is this going to be such a popular gift? In part, it’s because of the way the footwear industry has changed post COVID. More and more people are embracing comfy shoes. We’re also seeing lots of new and exciting footwear brands like Rothy’s, Cariuma and Thursday Boot Co. gain popularity. Finally, we’re seeing men embrace similar styles of shoes, and so it’s possible to recommend a sneaker that will appeal to the majority of guys’ tastes. After all, you can’t go wrong with a white sneaker or pair of dad shoes.
Early Adopter Gifts
There have been a ton of new product releases recently. In just the past two months, we’ve covered new launches from Apple, Google and Amazon, and popular tech gadgets like Kindles, iPhones and Pixel earbuds have all been updated for 2022. You can find many of these new tech gadgets in our gift guides, and any tech-savvy people on your holiday shopping list will be thrilled to receive the new AirPods Pro 2, the iPhone 14 Pro, the Pixel Watch or the newly updated Kindle e-reader. In particular, Amazon just dropped a bunch of new products ahead of the holiday season that we can’t wait to check out.
If you want to get some of the top trending gifts of 2022, be sure to order these in-demand tech gadgets.
Hosting and Entertaining Gifts
Travel accessories were one of the top trending gifts in 2021, and this year, we’re expecting gifts for entertaining to top holiday wishlists. Gathering in groups larger than 2-3 people is back, and gifts related to hosting and entertaining are definitely in this year. Whether it’s a nifty kitchen gadget for a chef who loves a good dinner party or a chic coffee table accessory for your go-to hostess — we’ve got you covered.
Pet Gifts
People adore their pets so much, sometimes it’s a safer bet to get them something for their pet rather than themselves. After the pandemic pet surge, there are more four-legged friends than ever before to gift to, so if you’ve got a bonafide dog or cat mom on your list, we recommend splurging on something for their fur baby.
Smeg Countertop Appliances
This year, we’re seeing a lot of interest in Smeg appliances. These retro appliances have a timeless mid-century look that everyone can appreciate, and they come in fun colors that add to your home decor. For the holidays, Smeg has coffee makers, mixers, toasters, and tons more fun products that will make amazing gifts for friends and family. If we had to pick just one, we’d recommend the retro Smeg electric water kettle, which comes in multiple sizes and colors.
Smeg Electric Kettle
Shop Smeg Appliances at Amazon
Part II: SPY Holiday Gift Guides
Here at SPY, we have a gift guide for everyone. We’ve listed just a hand full of the gift guides we have on our site, ranging from large categories like gifts for her, to niche interest identities like corn lovers. No matter who you have on your list, we can guarantee there’s something in one of our gift guides that will satisfy them.
Looking for the best of the best? The entire SPY team worked on our primary Christmas gift guide, which features 101 of the year’s top trending gifts.
In addition, we’ve also been working like elves to curate our ultimate list of stocking stuffers. With stocking-sized gifts for kids, spouses, parents and all of your loved ones, our stocking stuffer gift guide is full of fun gift ideas. We’ve got games, delicious treats, surprise toys and tech accessories that are sure to start Christmas morning on the right foot.
Finally, we have specific gift guides that are regularly updated throughout the holiday season by our dedicated SPY Editors and gifting enthusiasts:
Part III: Holiday Shopping Timeline & Key Dates
There are many dates in the lead-up to and throughout the holiday season. There are the holidays themselves, but also major sales and shopping events you should be aware of as you’re mapping out your gifting strategy for 2022.
We’ve listed all of the key dates below as well as the corresponding deals round-ups. Some of them are more general, and some of them focus on a specific product category or brand, to help you narrow your search.
Amazon Prime Early Access Sale
October 11 and 12
Amazon is officially hosting a Prime Early Access sales event on October 11 and 12 as a lead-in to Black Friday and the holiday season. We’re expecting Prime Day-level deals across all product categories from gadgets to health, Amazon devices, home goods and more. You can stay up to date on all the latest coverage using our best Amazon deals round-up.
Black Friday and Cyber Monday
November 25-28
While we anticipate plenty of sales and deals throughout October and November leading up to Black Friday, November 25th is the day itself. We’ve got plenty of coverage you can bookmark and refresh on the day itself, as our editors will be up bright and early scouring the internet for the best discounts.
We have a lot of content surrounding this particular shopping holiday, so we recommend picking one or two items you’re definitely looking to score at a steep discount and bookmarking those articles in particular. After you’ve checked those off your list, stick around for the rest of the day to browse, you never know when a last-minute deal will hit!
Main Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals Round-Ups:
Brand-Specific Black Friday and Cyber Monday Deals Round-Ups:
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