our guide to what to get your loved ones — or yourself — this year
As we approach the holidays, we are thrilled to share our 2024 gift guide. As always, our gift guide begins with suggestions for where to donate. This year has been a challenging one and our support for the people and causes we care about will only be more crucial in the year to come — and so we continue to believe that a donation to impactful organizations is one of the best ways to show someone you care.
You’ll also find recommendations for fashion, beauty, books, home decor, and food. Each item in this guide was carefully selected by our team as something we’d be excited to get or give. We’re also proud to feature items from some of our passerby partners (passerby club members receive exclusive discounts from our partners).
We try to select items from brands with sustainable and ethical production values. With that in mind, we asked human rights lawyer and activist Rayhan Asat to flag some brands not to buy from this year, due to their unethical practices. She suggests staying away from Temu and Shein, both under investigation for using Uyghur forced labor, Nike and Skechers, which both have ties to suppliers now banned from importing to the U.S. due to allegations of forced labor, Hugo Boss, which has been investigated in Canada for allegations of forced labor and has had previous instances of forced labor in its supply chain, and Zara, which has repeatedly been accused of forced labor in its supply chain. But of course, that’s just a few examples, and we encourage you to look into companies you’re considering purchasing from (here’s one place to start).
Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday season full of love and care.
We also asked some of our friends for their gift recommendations — find their picks here. And join the passerby club to get our mini vintage gift guide, coming out Friday (subscriptions are 20% off through December 7th).
Support
Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee
The Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee provides one-to-one support and training to workers organizing for better working conditions in any industry. The first-of-its-kind organization is providing a path forward for the labor movement and supporting worker-led organizing.
NYC Migrant Solidarity
NYC Migrant Solidarity is an anti-authoritarian collective that funds mutual aid among newly-arrived migrants in NYC. They support community members in need through food distribution, cultural gatherings, and more, and aim to support migrants in building dignified, stable lives in NYC.
Fundación Amigos del Adolescente
Fundación Amigos del Adolescente uses a methodology based on neuroscience principles to prevent drug use and teen pregnancy and support children and adolescents in building a fulfilling life for themselves. Their work is based in poor neighborhoods in Venezuela and they work with members of the community, including parents and teachers, to create a social ecosystem that empowers young people to live their best lives.
Medical Aid for Palestinians
MAP envisions a future in which all Palestinians have access to safe, effective, local-led healthcare and can realize their right to health and dignity. Their programs in the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem, and Lebanon engage local experts to provide health services to Palestinians and to build local skills and knowledge. They provide rapid aid in times of humanitarian emergency and bear witness to the injustices caused by occupation and displacement, advocating for an end to barriers to Palestinian health and dignity.
Arc Southeast
Arc Southeast provides Southerners funding and logistical support to receive reproductive healthcare services, including abortion. As barriers to abortion access in the United States increase, this support is more crucial than ever. If you would prefer to donate to a local abortion fund, find one here.
Red Umbrella Fund
This sex-worker-led, participatory fund is the only global fund dedicated to supporting the rights of sex workers. They provide funding specifically for sex worker-led organizing, supporting groups that work to ensure that sex workers’ rights as human beings and as workers are respected and that sex workers can live free from criminalization, violence, and stigma.
Lesbian Herstory Archives
This grassroots archive is dedicated to preserving records of lesbian lives for future generations. Growing out of the Gay Liberation Movement in the 1970s, the archive is an inclusive space dedicated to documenting the wide range of lesbian experience, building intergenerational community, and sharing knowledge of archival skills.
Room to Read
Room to Read works with local communities to promote children’s literacy in low-income communities and support girls’ education through secondary school. With most of their staff located in program countries, the organization is focused on community-based programming to end illiteracy and promote equality in education.
fashion & accessories
CALLA Babouches
These one-of-a-kind, textural babouches, handmade from vintage Berber rugs, are a beautiful option for wearing around the house or slipping on to run to the store. Rooted in tradition and community, each pair supports Moroccan artisans and is made using principles of sustainable design.
$189.23 (note: passerby club partner-level subscribers get 15% off at Calla)
JUJU VERA olympia arm band
This hand-molded arm band, designed to be worn on the upper arm, has an Elsa Peretti-meets-Greek goddess quality. This piece adds a special touch to an outfit for a night out but can also elevate a simple sweater and jeans.
$395
mfpen Blue Check Wool Scarf
From one of our favorite brands — the sustainability-minded, Copenhagen-based mfpen — this soft brushed wool scarf in a lovely, understated slate blue-and-brown check will keep you cozy and chic even on the coldest days.
$117.76
Warby Parker Ellington Blue Light Glasses
These light, simple frames with blue light-blocking lenses are a gift for tired eyes. These are perfect for anyone who’s still on Zoom calls all day.
from $175
SC103 Cinema Links Tote
SC103’s links totes are classics at this point, a perfect addition to anyone’s wardrobe. They are made in NYC using remnant leather, making each bag sustainable and unique. And they now come with a dustbag made of deadstock fabric to organize your items. We especially like this black, red, and brown combo, which goes with almost anything.
$450 (note: passerby club partner-level subscribers get 15% off at Maimoun)
AURALEE Brown Super Light Wool Shirt
This shirt from Auralee works for anyone of any gender and can be worn many ways — under a sweater, open over a tank top, or all on its own. We like the cut and the lightweight material makes it a good layering piece to start wearing now and keep wearing year-round.
$450
Vitelli Gray Doomboh Mittens
We like the contrast between the floral silk and the technical bungee cord detail on these mittens from VITELLI, a Milan-based designer influenced by the ‘80s club scene and committed to zero-waste production.
$205
Nu Swim Bodega Sweater
Nu Swim makes some of our favorite basics and this soft crew neck sweater — available in a vivid blue and two goes-with-anything neutral shades — is no exception. It’s one-size-fits-most and sure to be a wardrobe staple, making it great for gifting.
$420
beauty & body
ZIIP Halo
We think this microcurrent and nanocurrent combo device is one of the best at-home skincare devices available. It’s worth downloading the ZIIP app, which syncs with the device for a wide range of treatment options, and following the founder Melanie Simon on Instagram (she gives great advice and her skin is flawless).
$399
Augustinus Bader x Sofia Coppola Tinted Balm Trio
This trio of sheer, tinted lip balms from the skincare geniuses at Augustinus Bader and director Sofia Coppola are deeply hydrating and the colors are buildable and beautifully flattering on anyone. Perfect for protecting your lips from the wind and freezing temperatures and a great gift for whoever you got the Sofia Coppola book for last year.
$100
Kypris Beauty Elixir III: Prismatic Array
This moisturizing face oil made from organic, wildcrafted, and sustainably-grown botanicals is free of irritating ingredients, making it well-suited to anyone’s skin. It feels luxurious and gives skin a beautiful glow.
$160
Omnilux Contour Glove
Even if the skincare obsessive in your life already has an LED face mask, they probably don’t have one specifically for their hands. Our hands have an especially hard time of it in the winter, between the cold, dry air and the frequent flu-season hand washing. This device is the perfect way to provide them with some TLC — it can improve the appearance of skin and reduce inflammation from joint conditions.
$345
Brownkind Night Cream
We just discovered Brownkind, a dermatologist-led skincare line focused on the needs of melanin-rich skin, which are too often overlooked due to structural barrier. Their night cream is formulated to even skin tone, correct dark spots, and protect skin from free radical damage.
$72
Osea Vagus Nerve Trio
This trio of products — an essential oil blend, a bath oil, and a pillow spray — activate the vagus nerve’s calming response, promoting relaxation and sleep. A perfect gift for anyone who’s hosting this holiday season (always a bit stressful, though we have tips to help here) or anyone who’s been stressed lately.
$110
Spencer’s Spa Gift Card
Spencer’s Spa in Soho feels like the apartment of a stylish friend. It’s an inviting space for a luxurious and relaxing facial, body massage, or foot massage. Partner-level passerby club members get 40% off one treatment — so get a gift card for someone you love and book treatments for the both of you.
amount varies
Baserange Yoga Mat Towel
Made from organic cotton to preserve soil health and protect workers’ rights, this yoga mat towel is perfect for someone with a home practice or to take to the studio (and either way, Sky Ting is our pick for yoga classes, offering an online streaming platform for anyone to use anywhere or in-person classes in NYC — partner-level passerby club members get 15% off in-person classes).
$70
books & media
The NYRB Classics Club
New York Review Books has made an art out of rediscovering forgotten classics. Their new releases are always highly anticipated – we’re already looking forward to their 2025 publications, including books by Leonora Carrington, Tove Jansson, and Mavis Gallant. Gift a subscription to their Classics Club to ensure a year of interesting things to read.
$99 in the US; $175 elsewhere
The Last Safe Abortion by Carmen Winant
For this book documenting the near 50-year period during which abortion was a constitutional right in America, artist Carmen Winant drew from personal, organizational, and institutional archives. The result is this collection of photographs, with accompanying text by Winant, recognizing the ordinary yet heroic task of abortion provision and countering the way anti-choice activists have weaponized photography.
$50
Sahten — The SkatePal Cookbook
Sahten, from the organization SkatePal, provides a look into the Palestinian skateboarding scene via cookbook. Featuring recipes from figures in Palestine’s skateboarding scene as well as interviews with skaters, a yoga sequence designed to address skate-related soreness, photography, and illustrations from Palestinian-Canadian animator Noor Abouseido colored in by young Palestinian skaters, this cookbook is perfect for cooks and skaters in your life. All the proceeds go to support young people in Palestine through skateboarding.
$36.80
Acacia Magazine
Acacia magazine is a thoughtful venue for writers, artists, and thinkers of the Muslim left — a space for those who identify as or with Muslims to discuss what a path forward amid overlapping crises might look like. The print magazine is a beautiful, tangible testament to the power and creativity of Muslim thinkers and artists. To get a sense of the magazine, read “Silicone” from Issue 01 by Mariam Rahmani, with photography by passerby’s own Clémence Polès.
$45
Audubon Society Calendar
We’ve been very into birdwatching this year — it’s a meditative way to connect with our surroundings, wherever we might be. If the same is true for someone on your gift list, they might like a calendar from the Audubon Society. These calendars feature beautiful photography and useful information on birds and the purchase supports the Audubon Society’s work protecting bird habitats (ensuring we can continue birdwatching for years to come).
from $9.99
Super Sunprint Kit
This kit allows you to create a lovely print of a fern, flower, or other object using only sun and water to transform something ephemeral into a lasting piece of art. It’s a great gift for kids and also for anyone who recently got married — it’s a perfect way to preserve a flower from a bouquet.
$19.99
Stack Magazine Subscription
A Stack subscription ensures you’re never bored — they curate the best independent magazines and send a different one straight to subscribers each month. It’s a great way to find new publications to subscribe to or just to sample magazines you probably haven’t heard of.
$20 per month; $220 per year
passerby club subscription
Give the gift of passerby — passerby club membership (on sale now for 20% off) comes with additional interviews and exclusive weekly recommendations delivered directly to your inbox, discounts from over 20 passerby-favorite brands like FRAMA and Laura Lombardi, access to our private Discord server, advance screening events, our full archive, and recipes from acclaimed chefs and food-industry figures in our community, like Chloe Walsh and Ella Quittner. Your subscriptions support our work, enabling us to bring you interviews with fascinating women and to pay our writers, editors, photographers, and more.
$4 $5 per month; $40 $50 per year (20% off through December 7th)
home & decor
Iko Iko Cord Cover
These cord covers, made of delicate organza at a family-run factory in Japan, turn an eyesore into something ethereal and whimsical, uplifting your space instead of dragging it down.
$70
FRAMA Fundament Form 2 Candle Holder
FRAMA makes some of our favorite homewares and we especially like this minimalist stainless steel candle holder for gifting. The industrial-inspired simplicity and clean lines create a perfect contrast to the warmth of a candle (we like beeswax tapers).
$80 (note: passerby club partner-level subscribers get 20% off at FRAMA)
Vintage Black Lacquer Box
Black lacquer boxes feel special and well-made, and they go with nearly all home decor styles. They’re perfect for jewelry, as a catch-all for keys and change near the door, or to hold odds and ends on a desk. They have a long history, which means they’re readily available on sites like Etsy and eBay. Try searching “black lacquer box,” “inlaid black lacquer box,” or “Japanese lacquer box.”
amount varies
for more vintage gift ideas, join the passerby club: we’ll be sending our recommendations — along with our best search tips and 40+ items to get you started — to paid subscribers tomorrow
Bird Call Whistle
These wooden whistles are a beautiful way to communicate with nature by mimicking the chirps and melodies of real birds. They are also lovely, carefully-crafted objects in their own right. Take a cue from LEMAIRE and string them onto a cord to carry with you or keep on a coffee table or by a garden door. This makes an especially good gift if you look up local birds and buy a whistle to match (also pairs well with the Audubon calendar above).
from $14
Justine Menard Water Glasses
Justine Menard’s design practice investigate the artistic possibilities of glass. Her hand-blown works are reminiscent of glacial formations and organic matter. The aquatic quality of her pieces feels especially appropriate for this pair of water glasses.
$220.77
Perfect Nothing Catalog
Artist Frank Traynor’s Perfect Nothing Catalog elevates everyday items beyond the merely functional. We’re particularly fond of the more utilitarian items — there’s something so special about a light switch, deadbolt, or trash can transformed into a delightful work of art — but we also like the jewel-bedecked silverware.
from $150
Kintsugi Kit
Kintsugi is the Japanese practice of repairing broken objects with lacquered gold. The resulting pieces are visually striking and symbolically rich — we appreciate kintsugi’s embrace of imperfections and implicit message about making something beautiful out of adversity. This kintsugi kit provides all the materials needed to repair a plate and Poj Studios provides detailed video classes. A good gift for dark times.
$122
food
Casa Bosques Chocolate Artists Edition Gift Set
This gift set includes collaborations between Casa Bosques and the artists Harold Ancart, Jonathan Monk, and Lawrence Weiner. Each bar is beautiful, beautifully-packaged, and delicious.
$60
Rose LA Palestinian Delights
The flavors of these edibles — mulberry black lime, watermelon marjoram, lemon sumac, and sekanjebin — were created by chefs Fadi Kattan, Samin Nosrat, Reem Assil, and Andy Baraghani to highlight local Palestinian ingredients. The low dose creates a pleasant, gentle buzz. $100,000 from the sale of these edibles goes to Thamra, an organization dedicated to fostering food sovereignty in Gaza.
$45
Market Forays Hoshigaki
Hoshigaki — dried persimmons — are made by peeling and hanging hachiya persimmons and massaging them by hand every day for weeks, a Japanese tradition going back centuries. As they dry, the fructose comes to the surface and crystalizes, leaving each piece dusted with sugar. They are a traditional gift for the new year, symbolizing luck and happiness. These limited-edition hoshigaki are handmade in California.
$75
Ann-Charlotte Ohlsson Egg Cup
This simple, beautiful egg cup from ceramicist Ann-Charlotte Ohlsson has space for an egg, a spoon, and salt. It makes for an elegant, contemplative breakfast.
$65
Pasta Social Club Pasta-Making Class
When you give someone a pasta-making class with Meryl Feinstein, author of the James Beard Award-winning cookbook Pasta Every Day, you’re giving the gift of time together, a new skill, and delicious food.
$150
Belgian Chocolate Cigarettes
These chocolate cigarettes are whimsical and delicious. They make a good stocking stuffer for someone trying to quit smoking, or, if you’re hosting a holiday party, you can fill many small bowls with them like a nicotine-free Mary-Kate Olsen.
$1.75
Nablus Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Instead of a trendy DTC olive oil, give the home chef in your life this olive oil from the Palestinian city of Nablus, where olive oil production dates back to at least the 13th century.
$39.99
Miami Fruit Variety Box
This variety box of tropical fruits will likely introduce you to things you’ve never tried before. Giving someone this is like giving the taste of much-needed sunshine in the middle of winter.
from $127