I’m looking for a dull man’s gift guide for Christmas. Any suggestions? What dull gifts are on y’all’s wish list this year?
“Darn Tough” brand socks
Notebooks. I like Rite in Rain notebooks because I break everything In touch, but Field Notes are a popular brand and they have a dope af National Parks collection. I wish I would receive these as presents because I’m too broke to buy it for myself.
3-meter USB-C cable. Maybe a power brick. USB-PD-compatible if you want to go extra.
Or, you know, wool socks.
That one guy needs a bathroom scale.
Flash lights (headlamp, floodlamp, wired hook) all are welcome
Solar oven for the prepper
Books of matches
Parachute cord
Knives (key chain knife that looks like a key, pocket knife with fold out locking blade that has interchangeable blades with box cutters)
Knives (key chain knife that looks like a key, pocket knife with fold out locking blade that has interchangeable blades with box cutters)
I have several of the former from various eras. They seem to be universally crap, which is disappointing. Some states (California leaps to mind) also have laws against knives that are disguised look like other things. This is objectively stupid, but it’s how it is.
For the latter, might I suggest this or this? Just sayin’, as they say.
You can never beat socks.

Fuck I hate getting socks for Christmas. Or any clothes for that matter. I have specific ones I like and when I need new ones I buy them. Also other people’s tastes aren’t mine
My sock drawer was filled up, then they started getting holes, now I’m ready for socks again.
Bombas Merino wool socks are a party on my feet, and everyone’s invited.
Some tool batteries make a great gift. I’d love receiving some Dewalt 20v max. Obviously, it depends what brand tools your recipient has.
Gifted myself a new pocketknife.
I am upvoting the only correct answer in this entire thread, short of someone suggesting gifting random motorcycle parts.
- Rechargable AA / AAA batteries
- Wool socks (can never have enough)
- Good USB-C cables
- Coffee
- Work gloves
- A pack of 9V batteries to shut the beeping smoke detectors up
- Edited to add: A fire extinguisher. People often forget those need maintained every so often.
If anyone wants to be a dull secret santa, hint hint ☝️
Rechargeable 9v’s are a thing I found when randomly searching on Amazon, the ones I found have a USB-C port on the side and are pretty good. Definitely handy for random 9v tools that always seem to be dead when I grab them.
I wouldn’t put those in a fire alarm. Fire alarms are really low-power, long term devices. Perfect for non-rechargable batteries. A lot of rechargeable batteries have some self-draw, meaning, if you leave them out on a shelf for a year, they’ll be noticeably emptier.
Yeah, I’ve seen those (though not with the built-in charging; that’s cool). Even had some Ni-Cd ones back in the 90s. The only issue I have with using those in things like smoke detectors is having to deal with them more often. I can usually get about 18-20 months out of an alkaline but a Ni-MH one would probably be only like 8 months since the voltage and capacity are both lower.
Well, scratch that. I just found what I think you’re talking about, and those are 1300 mAh lithium. Those should last longer than an alkaline. Will keep those in mind next time I replace the smoke alarm batteries.
Any thoughts on the best battery charger? We have a Nitrcore pro charger. Curious if he’d like an upgrade, or if a few more packs of batteries would be enough. We do cycle through them quickly in this house.
If you live near IKEA, they have a sleek ass 8 bay charger that closes shut and attaches to a wall. And they sell eneloops (in the name of ladas) but they’re from Japan and were (and still likely are) eneloops. And eneloops are the top tier of the rechargeable batteries.
Edit: forgot ikea ships now, usually with a minimum total, but they do ship now
Btw thanks for asking, I’ve got many dullsters to think about
I’ve got mostly EBL-brand batteries and 8-bay charger. They work well but the charger uses micro-USB which is kind of a bummer.
The other set I have are by PowerOwl. They also work great, and the charger (only a 4 bay) is USB-C.
Both brands are the low self-discharge Ni-MH style and can charge any combination of batteries (some chargers require them to be charged in pairs; neither of these have that limitation), so no complaints.
Wool socks are awesome. I like the thin, toed ones to use when I’m dual socking.
A tie. Nothing duller than that.
I like running across things where my reaction is either “oh wow that’s a thing, that’s interesting!” or “oh wow you can own one of those?!”
I’ve given some necklaces made out of 6,500 year old Irish bog oak. I gave some trinitite (the glassy residue from the Trinity nuclear bomb test) to a rock-hound friend. I’ve given small pieces of meteorites, some originating from outer space, some from the Moon, some from Mars. I’ve given fossils - a few from the Cambrian or Ordivician periods (about half a billion years ago), the rest more recent. Just weird things I run across and I’m like, “oh that’s kinda cool!”
Matter-enabled smart lights
Clothing: socks, underwear, or t-shirts.
I told my wife that this was my wishlist. She laughed at first, than got mad and told me that this will not be my wishlist. So this is not my wishlist now.
Sausage/cheese gift assortment
- 2020 themed wrapping of toilet paper.
- grocery store gift card
- hardware fasteners sets
- rare sticky tape one cannot easily buy locally like Kapton, thin double sided for modern phones/hardware, thick double sided, conductive.
- a pair of decent Bluetooth noise canceling headphones. Like Ausdom’s are pretty decent for $20.
IMO, the greatest gifts are those that are mundane but regularly useful. Avoid selling anyone into digital slavery with stalkerware that cannot be owned!











