When it comes to shopping for the men in my life, I quite literally don't know where to start. Each year it is the same old song and dance, because these men of mine quite literally have everything, and what do you buy someone who has everything? It means I have to really think outside the box, think of unique products or items just to make a ripple in the water.
It has to be sai though, it doesn't matter how old you get... You still want an Advent Calendar in your life, you know it's true, and this year it has been really exciting to see some new creative ideas popping up, because who said counting down to Christmas had to be all things Chocolate?
If you have a foodie in your life then I have the absolute perfect advent calendar alternative for you! The Big Chilli Advent Calendar from Sous Chef, which just so happens to be the Telegraph's BEST alternative advent calendar for 2017. Need I say more?
Instead of the chocolatey stuff you get to try 24 different chillis (and each day has a different recipe for you to cook up with your chilli of the day!), you can take your tastebuds on a trip around the world, from the Mexican Chipotle, Fiery Indian Bhut Jolokhia or even the Sweet Prik Chee Fah of Thailand, but the question is... Will you be brave enough to try the world's hottest chilli? Hold tight for the Carolina Reaper!
The Big Chilli Advent Calendar retails at £35.00.
Let's talk stocking fillers...
Socks. Yup socks. They have feet, therefore they NEED socks. You don't need to purchase boring socks though, there are some pretty funky options around if you choose to look, and Quiet Rebellion have the most amazing socks EVER! Fact. Their range is bright, funky and fun, they have a Christmas range available in packs of 3, or you can pick a more everyday design as a trio or a pair on their own.
Prices start from £12.00 - A great stocking filler right there!
If you are looking for the perfect stocking filler, then maybe the Twitching Lure is the way to go? The Twitching Lure is a rechargeable, electronic fishing lure. It has Vibra Strike Technology, flashes and twitches in order to mimic the movements of a injured baitfish in order to help you catch more fish! It does this by triggering the DNA programming in fish that has signalled fish to strike since the prehistoric times.
When the lure flashes is it visually signalling to predator fish that there is a easy bite to eat ahead, which encourages them to swim towards it and try to claim it for their next meal. With the lure being electronic, you do need to charge it, but it charges just like you would charge your mobile phone. It doesn't take long to charge and can even be charged in your car!
The Twitching Lure retails at £24.99
Let's talk main gifts...
Got a man who lkes to borrow your moisturiser and lip balms? I know I do, so when I heard about The O’Keeffe’s Hardworking Skincare Multipack I couldn't help thinking what a welcome addition this would be for the other halfs Christmas Stocking. O’Keeffe’s Hardworking Skincare Multipack contains a selection of O’Keeffe’s bestselling products and is an ideal gift for those men and women in your life who are tricky to buy for!
Within the O’Keeffe’s Hardworking Skincare Multipack is O’Keeffe’s Working Hands Jar, this provides relief for extremely dry, cracked hands. Which is perfect for the man who works with his hands a lot (especially in the colder weather). Luke is a cabinet maker by trade and I have seen the state his hands can get into during the winter months. You will also find a Jar of O’Keeffe’s Healthy Feet, providing hard-working relief for hard-working feet and new O’Keeffe’s Lip Repair Cooling lip balm; cooling relief for dry, cracked lips!
O’Keeffe’s Lip Repair Lip Balm is great to have to hand, upon application it heals, relieves and repairs extremely dry, cracked lips. if used as part of a daily routine, O’Keeffe’s Lip Repair Lip Balm is clinically proven to:
- Provide instant relief and all day moisture in 1 use
- Create a flexible barrier and heal dry, cracked lips
- Protect against dryness all day, even while you eat and drink
- Absorb quickly to provide soft, smooth lips
The O’Keeffe’s Hardworking Skincare Multipack costs £17.99 and is available from Boots. |
| The Twitching Lure |
When the lure flashes is it visually signalling to predator fish that there is a easy bite to eat ahead, which encourages them to swim towards it and try to claim it for their next meal. With the lure being electronic, you do need to charge it, but it charges just like you would charge your mobile phone. It doesn't take long to charge and can even be charged in your car!
The Twitching Lure retails at £24.99
Let's talk main gifts...
You can never go wrong in treating your other half to a new razor, this seems to end up under our Christmas Tree most years, it's an excuse to treat them to something practical that will get daily use. Especially for my other half who works in the emergency services field and needs to have a clean shaven face while he is on call.
The Gillette ProGlide Styler 3-in1 is a razor, beard trimmer and edging blade in one handy pack. It trims evenly, shaves closely, and edges precisely and has absolutely everything you could need to achieve any facial hair style!
The Gillette ProGlide Styler 3-in1 retails at £20.00 and is available to purchase at Tesco.
Now if you want to really earn brownie points this Christmas, then look no further than Living DNA. Who doesn't have a curiosity about where they come from? Living DNA is the world's most advanced DNA test, and the results are packed with information about who you are and where you come from.
What does it do?
- The test covers your family line ancestry, but unlike other tests they also include your motherline, and your fatherline ancestry if you are male!
- They put your ancestry into context showing your breakdown today (going back up to 10 generations), and also the spread of your ancestors at different points in history, showing how we are all connected.
- As science and systems evolve, your results will be updated for FREE to provide on-going details about your ancestry.
Back in September I took a mouth swab and sent it off to the lab for analysis, I was informed at the time that I should have my results in just before Christmas, but they actually came back towards the end of October! So it was a pretty fast turn around and I was so excited to see what the the results would yield...
You can see my results right here in my YouTube Video!
You can see my results right here in my YouTube Video!
The Living DNA Test usually costs £120.00 but at the point of writing this gift guide, you can pick it up for £99.00, which is quite honestly a fantastic bargain. My family and I have absolutely loved going through all of the information that has come from one single mouth swab!
Isn't DNA incredible?
The next couple of gifts are sure to be a massive hit as you can never be too careful on the roads, it is always good to have a set of eyes keeping a watchful eye on what goes on during journeys, and you might as well have something half decent to listen to at the same time right?
Introducing the Nextbase 312GW Dash Cam, the perfect driving companion, hailed as the most connected dash cam in the world, it is a marvelous addition for a new or experienced driver. The dash cam can instantly upload to social media channels or even your insurance provider! Nifty eh?
It is the connective qualities that really does set this cam apart from any other that I have come across, this is all made possible thanks to the systems built in wi-fi that allows it to connect so effortlessly with your smart phone.
You can download the Nextbase App to take your experience to the next level, the app becomes your personal space to save the important footage you collect on your travels, and it allows you to share it quickly and easily.
What can the Nextbase 312GW do?
- It has 140 degree wide angle view with full 1080p High Definition recording at 30fps
- Ultra clear 2.7” LED display for ease of playback and menu selection
- Six-Element Sharp Lenses made with 6 layers of glass to provide stunning clear images
- Inbuilt G sensor to record force data
- SOS data protection prevents the impact/event recording from being deleted
- Easy to install with 4m 12v power cable and Click & Go window mount included
- Supports SDHC Micro SD cards up to 32GB
The Nextbase 312GW has the Which? Seal of approval and is one of the best buy dash cams of 2016. It retails at £99.99 and would make a great addition under the Christmas tree this year.
Next up we have another member of the Nextbase family, this time it is more for entertainment purposes than safe guarding, and it is the Nextbase Adapt DAB250. I hadn't heard of one of these up until recently, but they are genius! For those of you who aren't sure it is basically a plug in DAB radio solution for your automobile. It's really simple to fit and it works by using built in signal stabilisation for high speed reception, this means that you can enjoy your favorite DAB stations in your car!
The DAB250 can be mounted on the windscreen or on the dashboard, so it really is just a case of plugging it in and enjoying. It has a 2.4 LCD Screen so that you can select and play your favourite station, and the overall menu and use of this item is really simple and easy to use.
If you do have a firm favourite station then you can lock it to the screen so that you can quickly find it again, you can see some more of the DAB250's features below:
- Plug and Play digital DAB+ radio
- Large 2.4” (5cm) LCD screen
- Windscreen mounting system for ease of installation
- Inbuilt signal stabilization system for reception at high speed
- DAB+ signal synchronization to provide improved antenna performance and maximise signal
-Active film antenna
- 4 clear buttons for ease of use in the car
- Automatic selection of the best vacant FM car frequency
- Supports 10V to 30V power voltage range for all vehicles
- DAB+ channels stored automatically
- RDS with programme type, clock, date, channel name & radio text
- 3.5mm Aux-In and Line Out jack
The Nextbase DAB250 retails at £99.00
 |
| The Nextbase 312GW Dash Cam Retails at £99.99 |
Introducing the Nextbase 312GW Dash Cam, the perfect driving companion, hailed as the most connected dash cam in the world, it is a marvelous addition for a new or experienced driver. The dash cam can instantly upload to social media channels or even your insurance provider! Nifty eh?
It is the connective qualities that really does set this cam apart from any other that I have come across, this is all made possible thanks to the systems built in wi-fi that allows it to connect so effortlessly with your smart phone.
You can download the Nextbase App to take your experience to the next level, the app becomes your personal space to save the important footage you collect on your travels, and it allows you to share it quickly and easily.
What can the Nextbase 312GW do?
- It has 140 degree wide angle view with full 1080p High Definition recording at 30fps
- Ultra clear 2.7” LED display for ease of playback and menu selection
- Six-Element Sharp Lenses made with 6 layers of glass to provide stunning clear images
- Inbuilt G sensor to record force data
- SOS data protection prevents the impact/event recording from being deleted
- Easy to install with 4m 12v power cable and Click & Go window mount included
- Supports SDHC Micro SD cards up to 32GB
The Nextbase 312GW has the Which? Seal of approval and is one of the best buy dash cams of 2016. It retails at £99.99 and would make a great addition under the Christmas tree this year.
Next up we have another member of the Nextbase family, this time it is more for entertainment purposes than safe guarding, and it is the Nextbase Adapt DAB250. I hadn't heard of one of these up until recently, but they are genius! For those of you who aren't sure it is basically a plug in DAB radio solution for your automobile. It's really simple to fit and it works by using built in signal stabilisation for high speed reception, this means that you can enjoy your favorite DAB stations in your car!
The DAB250 can be mounted on the windscreen or on the dashboard, so it really is just a case of plugging it in and enjoying. It has a 2.4 LCD Screen so that you can select and play your favourite station, and the overall menu and use of this item is really simple and easy to use.
If you do have a firm favourite station then you can lock it to the screen so that you can quickly find it again, you can see some more of the DAB250's features below:
- Plug and Play digital DAB+ radio
- Large 2.4” (5cm) LCD screen
- Windscreen mounting system for ease of installation
- Inbuilt signal stabilization system for reception at high speed
- DAB+ signal synchronization to provide improved antenna performance and maximise signal
-Active film antenna
- 4 clear buttons for ease of use in the car
- Automatic selection of the best vacant FM car frequency
- Supports 10V to 30V power voltage range for all vehicles
- DAB+ channels stored automatically
- RDS with programme type, clock, date, channel name & radio text
- 3.5mm Aux-In and Line Out jack
The Nextbase DAB250 retails at £99.00
My dear old Dad has been in need of a new pair of glasses for a long old while now, but he makes do with what he has (not that he has to!). I recently heard about Eyejusters, Eyejusters are glasses that you can adjust - This means that you only need one pair of glasses for absolutely EVERYTHING.
You can adjust the lenses from +0.50D to +4.00D and they can do absolutely everything, from reading a book, messages to using a computer of fulfilling your hobbies. You simply turn the eyeDials in order to adjust the focus!
Eyejusters retail from £69.00 and come in a range of different colours and styles.
If you are upgrading their glasses why stop there? Christian Benedict have a variety of different subscriptions for shirt's. you could treat your loved one to a new one every month, bi monthly or quarterly (this is perfect for the man who 'never has anything to wear'.
When you sign up you pick the first shirt from their 3 core colours: Light Blue, White, Pink and then you enter the measurements so that the shirt is the perfect fit for the man in your life. It takes body shape, neck size and arm length into account.
The most popular package is the 60 days subscription, this is the equivalent of spending £100 on shirts every 8 months. After you have had your first shirt, you will receive an email 2 weeks before you are due your second, and you can again make the choice of which one you would want. If this is for a Christmas gift it might be nice to pick the first shirt and have them open it on Christmas day, and then hand the reigns over to the recipient so that they can choose what they would like next.
The shirts come nicely packaged in a presentation box.
It's the gift that keeps on giving even after the festive season is over.
If you are upgrading their glasses why stop there? Christian Benedict have a variety of different subscriptions for shirt's. you could treat your loved one to a new one every month, bi monthly or quarterly (this is perfect for the man who 'never has anything to wear'.
When you sign up you pick the first shirt from their 3 core colours: Light Blue, White, Pink and then you enter the measurements so that the shirt is the perfect fit for the man in your life. It takes body shape, neck size and arm length into account.
The shirts come nicely packaged in a presentation box.
It's the gift that keeps on giving even after the festive season is over.
Ever feel like you are waiting on the other half to work through the to do list you have given them (You know because you cannot do everything even if you wanted to), Luke often jokes about pink jobs and blue jobs, for instance cooking, cleaning and general everyday housework all seems to fall under pink, so I charted the garden up under blue for his personal amusement, (or was it because I started pruning with a pair of kitchen scissors?)
Although the garden is quite small, we do get a lot of growth from things growing up over the fence. It's not the neighbors, we actually live next to a railway so everything that grows over needs to be sorted by ourselves or it would become unruly (I did struggle to get into the shed until the kitchen scissors came out).
Gtech seem to have a product for everything, and they definitely have a fantastic reputation, up until recently I didn't realise just how extensive their product range was. Did you know that they have a cordless garden collection?
We have the Gtech Hedge Trimmer (when I say we, I do mean the other half) - If there's one way to speed up their to do list it's to bestow new garden technology on them right?
The Gtech Hedge Trimmer is lightweight and cordless, you can go all over the garden without worrying (or actually) tripping over the cable (because there isn't one!), you might think that this would mean you have to compromise on the performance, but that quite simply is not the case. The Gtech hedge trimmer has efficient lithium-ion battery that will keep you (or the other half) going for 45 minutes at a time.
You might not be looking for a hedge trimmer right now, but this is just one of the additions to the brand new Gtech Cordless Garde tools range!
The Gtech Hedge Trimmer retails at £129.00
Tools for everyday jobs are actually something that men want, my other half is a cabinet maker by trade (which is ironic because can I get him to even put a shelf up around the house!? You guessed it, NOPE!), but when I have been left scratching my head about what to gift him for Birthday's or Christmas, he always points me in the direction of tools.
Now this might just be as much for me as it could be for him, because I have tried to get a little bit more hands on with the D.I.Y around the house (There was this one time I spent 4 hours building a play kitchen only to discover at the very end that I had put the door hinges on the wrong way round right back at the beginning...), and next on my list is the Amtech 3.6V Cordless Screwdriver.
Now I can't help thinking that this is just an essential tool to have in the house, even if like me you don't seem to possess a single D.I.Y gene in your body. It has forward and reverse functions (which is great if you go wrong as much as I do!), it's compact, lightweight and even I can use it!
In the box you will find it comes with 11 screwdriver bits, 1 bit holder and the mains charger.
At £11.49 on Amazon, it isn't going to break the bank, but it would make a great stocking filler for the D.I.Y enthusiast (or the man who has been promising to work through his to do list!).
Disclaimer: The items featured within this guide have been sent over for the purpose of this feature. All views and opinions expressed are completely honest and my own.
Tools for everyday jobs are actually something that men want, my other half is a cabinet maker by trade (which is ironic because can I get him to even put a shelf up around the house!? You guessed it, NOPE!), but when I have been left scratching my head about what to gift him for Birthday's or Christmas, he always points me in the direction of tools.
Now this might just be as much for me as it could be for him, because I have tried to get a little bit more hands on with the D.I.Y around the house (There was this one time I spent 4 hours building a play kitchen only to discover at the very end that I had put the door hinges on the wrong way round right back at the beginning...), and next on my list is the Amtech 3.6V Cordless Screwdriver.
Now I can't help thinking that this is just an essential tool to have in the house, even if like me you don't seem to possess a single D.I.Y gene in your body. It has forward and reverse functions (which is great if you go wrong as much as I do!), it's compact, lightweight and even I can use it!
In the box you will find it comes with 11 screwdriver bits, 1 bit holder and the mains charger.
At £11.49 on Amazon, it isn't going to break the bank, but it would make a great stocking filler for the D.I.Y enthusiast (or the man who has been promising to work through his to do list!).
Disclaimer: The items featured within this guide have been sent over for the purpose of this feature. All views and opinions expressed are completely honest and my own.
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