Welcome to the T List, a newsletter from the editors of T Magazine. For our holiday gift guide this year, we asked readers to send us questions about the hardest-to-please people on their list. Below, our editors answer some of the most intriguing queries we received. We’ll send a second batch of ideas next week. Sign up here to find us in your inbox every Wednesday, along with monthly travel and beauty guides and the latest stories from our print issues. And you can always reach us at tmagazine@nytimes.com. For a Husband Who Appreciates the Intersection of Beauty and Practicality
“My 55-year-old husband loves midcentury modern design, is an avid vinyl record collector and is well off enough that he can buy (most) anything he wants. I’d love to give him something useful, beautiful and surprising, hopefully something niche so he may not have seen it yet.” — Judy, Orange County, Calif.; budget: $300 to $1,000 As a middle-aged, slightly obsessive guy with exacting taste — all good qualities! — I have a feeling your husband and I might get along. I, too, love modern design and collecting rare vinyl. In fact, my dream vacations — if my wife happens to read this — would involve traveling to Finland to take in saunas and as much Alvar Aalto architecture as possible, and to Kyushu, in Japan, to explore temples and nature, while also combing out-of-the-way record stores for original Vanity pressings. For hauling LPs, you could give your husband a coated-canvas tote from Ichizawa Shinzaburo Hanpu, a 120-year-old company from Kyoto. (After heavy use, mine is almost in shreds — thankfully, Ichizawa offers a repair service.) If he already has a tote he likes, perhaps a moleskin chore jacket for contending with the cool Southern California winter mornings? This one, from the Australian brand Man-tle, combines the DNA of a French bleu de travail and Korean jebok, reminding me of the director Chris Marker’s incredible 1959 photo book, “Coréennes.” If you’d rather give your husband an item for the home, there are fascinating pieces from Italian designers who, in the ’60s and ’70s, embraced plastic as a medium. You could repurpose a Giotto Stoppino Portariviste magazine rack for him to store and display his favorite LPs, or present him with a Gaetano Pesce poured-resin side table. Either would create a nice frisson with the wood tones of any midcentury furniture you might own. If you think he’d prefer something more austere, you can’t do much better than a vessel from the Japanese master potter Akio Nukaga, whose pieces, like this vase and pitcher, suggest the idealized forms in a Giorgio Morandi still life. Or you could always surprise your husband with a flight to Mexico City to tour Luis Barragán’s Casa Gilardi and hit the Lagunilla flea market for treasures. — Diego Hadis To Stoke Family Fun on a Milestone Trip
“My mother is planning a multigenerational family trip to celebrate a milestone birthday. The family would like to get her something for the trip (which includes a septuagenarian, a childless couple, parents and multiple kids under 7). We’re going to a warm destination. Matching T-shirts seems so tacky!” — Julia, Toronto; budget: $200 Yes, matching T-shirts can be tacky, but what about customized baseball caps with the destination and year of your trip? I recently saw a friend wearing a cap from a family reunion and it made me think about how personal “merch” can become a beloved part of someone’s wardrobe (and the shady brim will be useful at your warm destination). Or, to get everyone involved in the making of cherished family memories (and off their phones), hand out Fujifilm Quiksnaps at the start of your trip and collect them at the end to develop the pictures at your local camera shop. Compile the best shots in Semikolon’s Classic Photo Album so your mother can revisit the trip whenever she wants. To bring the group together during the vacation, consider a portable board game like backgammon or dominoes: I like Liberty London’s photogenic sets, which feature the British brand’s iconic floral prints. — Carla Valdivia Nakatani To Please a Partner Who’s Averse to Stuff and Spending
“My wife is a selfless, kindhearted NICU nurse. She spends all her time giving everyone everything. She reads a lot but buys the books before I can. She hikes and camps but has all the gear. She doesn’t want people spending money on her and doesn’t like adding more waste to the world. Her work schedule makes surprise trips difficult. She listens to a lot of podcasts, feels passionately about injustices in the United States, and gives everything she has to people in need.” — Lindsey, Easthampton, Mass.; budget: $1,000 What do you get for someone who needs nothing and deserves everything? I advise — as I do for most gift-giving quandaries — a change of scenery. Rather than surprising your wife with a trip, how about jointly scheduling a few nights away this winter to seek out the northern lights in Maine? The state has two designated dark-sky sites, Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument and Appalachian Mountain Club’s conservation area in the 100 Mile Wilderness; both are considered among the best places to stargaze in New England and, in early 2026, the elusive aurora borealis promises to make an especially strong showing. You can plan your own hut-to-hut cross-country ski trip by following one of the A.M.C.’s itineraries (private cabins start at $453 per night including meals; or $113 if she’s up for sharing a bunkhouse), or book one of its five-day guided trips (from $945 per person, including meals). Not a skier? How about a night at the lakefront Kenoza Hall in New York’s Hudson Valley (from $450 a night), or a day pass to its spa ($225), which includes a massage or a facial, plus a yoga class and access to the pool and hot tub. Or try its sister property, Hemlock Neversink, about 25 miles northwest of Kenoza Hall, instead. There’s a spa there, too (a day pass is $325), but since the hotel is set on 230 acres, there’s more to do, including miles of hiking trails, goat therapy and ecstatic dance parties (from $640 a night). And one more idea that might appeal to her conscientiousness: a year’s subscription to a local composting service like Banana Compost, based in Ludlow, Mass. For about $280, the company will give you two bins — a small one for your kitchen counter and a five-gallon bucket to keep outside — and come pick up your food scraps every week (or every other week for a lower rate) and even wash out the bucket. All the organic material is brought to Red Fire Farm in Granby, Mass., where it’s turned into finished compost, and then, twice a year, toted back to you to use in your garden. Those bins are the rare kind of “stuff” that reduces waste rather than adding to it. — Deborah Dunn For an Aspiring Design Collector
“I want to find a gift for myself. I’ve never received a gift that I was “wow” about. I dream about collecting design, and starting an art/design gallery, but at the moment I don’t have enough money to do it. I would collect designer lamps or folding screens because the latter divides the space and the former unites it.” — Tanya, Como, Italy; budget: $200 I love the idea of getting yourself a “wow” gift and your long-term plan of starting a design gallery. I think with $200, it’s probably best to focus on lamps, as screens will likely be out of that budget. One of the things gallerists do is hunt down new artists. I was recently seated at a dinner next to a Swedish ceramist who was having her first show at an important New York design gallery. I asked her where she’d shown her work previously and, to my surprise, she replied, “Etsy.” The online marketplace is full of unusual lamps: this one has a mod, 1970s feel; this one strikes me as a smaller version of the one in the architect Guillermo Santomà’s Barcelona apartment; and here’s a pretty ceramic pendant. You could also hunt for something vintage from a specific designer. When I was on a Joe Colombo kick, I started collecting these lamps for $200, and now they’re going for three times that. Do you like the work of Vico Magistretti? If so, what about this sunny design? This kind of detective work is fun and a great way to teach yourself about different designers. Or look at student work — often, art and design schools will have shows where the students sell what they’re making for very reasonable prices. — Tom Delavan To Delight a Clutter-Phobic Daughter
“My 24-year-old daughter is very minimalist. She buys most of her things secondhand and has refused gifts that she thinks add clutter to her life. She’s also participating in many of the retail boycotts happening these days. She’s a talented artist who likes to read real books and has become interested in her Indian heritage from her father’s side in recent years. She wears gold jewelry and collects charms for a necklace she never takes off.” — Maura, Boston; budget: $175 to $250 I’m a longtime thrift shopper who, back when I was in college, worked the register at a vintage store in Seattle to pay my rent. For me, that job reinforced the fact that so much of what we need already exists in the world, so when I do buy things new, for myself or others, I try to support local companies whose values align with my own. It sounds like your daughter may feel similarly. I’d suggest looking for something that you know she enjoys, like charms, from a small designer like Susan Alexandra. She’s known for her beaded handbags but also makes little pendants that resemble croissants and snails (among other adorable things). There’s also Mociun, a Brooklyn label that makes a lot of gem-forward jewelry and has a line of yellow-gold talismans that are intended to be reminders of positive traits or elements. One looks like the Egyptian hieroglyph for water, and another resembles an ankh, a symbol for eternal life. Alternatively, you could opt for a simple chain necklace, like those offered by Laura Lombardi. Your daughter can stack it with the necklace she already wears or clip on a charm and wear it on its own, and she’ll appreciate that Lombardi often incorporates recycled materials into her designs. Or if you’d like to try for something bolder, consider the flower-shaped enamel earrings from the brand Tityaravy. The designer behind it, Titya Tin, finds inspiration in her Indian and Cambodian heritage, and this pair reminds me of lotus blossoms, which often appear in sacred Hindu imagery. — Coco Romack FROM T’S INSTAGRAM Watch Japanese Breakfast Perform in the Office
For T’s new video series “Live From the 10th Floor,” we enlist artists to play songs, read monologues or showcase portions of a larger piece among the cubicles and conference rooms of The New York Times’s Midtown headquarters. One recent afternoon, the Japanese Breakfast frontwoman Michelle Zauner performed an acoustic rendition of her song “My Baby (Got Nothing at All)” with her husband and bandmate, Peter Bradley. Around them, editors and staffers carried on with their work as usual. Click here to watch the full performance and follow us on Instagram.
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