In this hectic time of year, deciding on gifts for friends and family should be the easiest item on your holiday To-Do List. Fanbase Press is here to help with the best recommendations for gifts to give the geek in your life as suggested by our staff and contributors. Not everything falls into the categories of comics, books, movies, or games. Geeks also like gifts that help them to decorate their home or office or to entertain the geeklings in their lives. In that spirit, we present to you our “geeky extras.”
Cantrip Candles
Recommended by Barbra Dillon
Whether you are shopping for an avid tabletop gamer or someone who simply enjoys soothing scents wafting through their home or office, look no further than Cantrip Candles. Based in Los Angeles, CA, the company designs and manufactures homemade soy wax candles that foster an immersive environment for tabletop adventures. Creating a special ambiance for various gaming parties, Cantrip Candles are themed for specific settings, whether it be an inviting bakery with fresh bed baking in the oven, a walk through the woods that may hide thieves and elves, a pungent dungeon that may hold untold fortune (or impending doom!), or a dark and cozy tavern where you and your mates can enjoy a brew in between dragon battles.
All of Cantrip Candles’ creations are vegan and made with 100% natural soy wax, fine fragrance oil, and cotton-based wicks. Plus, Cantrip Candles now has gaming-themed patches, matches, pins, tote bags, and more!
Be sure to visit the Cantrip Candles website (www.cantripcandles.com) to peruse the online selection of scented candles available for the gaming fan on your holiday shopping list.
Cost: Starting at $14.50
Click here to purchase.
Star Wars Fine Jewelry
Recommend by Bryant Dillon
Described as a unique and exclusive assortment “designed to embody the most iconic figures in the galaxy,” the collection available from Star Wars Fine Jewelry is perfect for the more refined and mature fan of The Living Force. While some pieces are immediately identifiable as Star Wars inspired, most more subtly imbue the essence of the characters and/or thematic elements they are representing, allowing for a graceful and classy way to let your fandom flag fly.
Cost: $150.00-$800.00+
Click here to purchase.
Lullaby Quilts & More
Recommended by Barbra Dillon
Lullaby Quilts are handmade rag quilts designed especially for tots and toddlers. Tiny customers love the snuggly softness of their Lullaby Quilts, which prompts them to become their favorite bedtime buddies! A variety of themes, colors, and sizes are available to match any nursery. Be sure to take a peek at their inventory, and note that they do accept custom order requests.
Cost: $15 and up
Click here to purchase.
A Six-Month Subscription to Newspapers.com
Recommended by Steven W. Alloway
Are you a writer/creator? Newspapers.com is one of the best research tools you can find. Are you a history buff? Newspapers.com provides a window into virtually any historical era or event of the last 300 years. Do you just like going down an information rabbit hole, while you’re supposed to be doing something else? Newspapers.com has you covered there too.
It’s a vast, digital archive of thousands of newspapers—hundreds of millions of newspaper pages—from all over the world, dated from 1690 all the way up to last month. If you want to find out about cool events, interesting people, or niche cultural trends, you can get a comprehensive view of how they were being covered at the time.
I’ve had it for over a year now, and I’d sooner give up my Netflix subscription than my Newspapers.com subscription. I’ve used it to research scripts about Chicago gangsters at Thanksgiving and Christmas during WWI, a story about 1930s robots, and the earliest published recipe for snickerdoodles (which I then made, and which are delicious).
Sometimes when I’m bored, I’ll browse print ads from the 19th century, or read comic strips I remember from my youth. And you can easily clip the stories you find for future reference. The possibilities for this resource are virtually endless. You’ll never know just how much you can do with it until you try it for yourself.
Cost: Subscriptions start at $7.95 per month for the Basic plan, or $19.90 per month for the Publisher Extra plan—which includes more than three times more material, as well as more current papers. However, if you’re purchasing it as a gift, there’s a special deal on the Publisher Extra plan, through December 4th: a 6-month subscription for only $54.90.
Click here to purchase a gift subscription.
