WR2BAM Holiday Gift Guide: Under $25

WR2BAM usually focuses straight on fashion and style, but the impending holiday season and my annual scramble for cool, well-priced presents for my friends and family got me thinking -- why not put together a holiday gift guide? Most fashion rags do it in their December issues, and while I always appreciate hints on what to buy people, the truth is that generally magazines' picks are a.) overpriced and b.) not really my style.

I love giving interesting, unique presents to people, but I have a lot of people to buy for so it's imperative that everything is on a kind of tight budget, and I have a feeling a lot of my readers may be in the same boat. So this year I'm putting together my own holiday gift guide, WR2BAM style, to ensure that you give good gift this season without dropping a ton of scrill.

My goal every year, especially with lower-priced gifts, is to buy people cool, unusual things that they totally like but that they probably wouldn't buy for themselves (because aren't those the best gifts to get, too?). So, without further ado, here's the first installment of the first annual WR2BAM Holiday Gift Guide! We're starting off with gifts that are $25 and under. I've broken the guide down according to gender, though I'm sure you'll find stuff that your girls would like in the dudes' section, and vice versa. I hope you like it -- let me know what you think!

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1.) Taschen Icons Series: 50s Fashion and 70s Fashion
Taschen Icons books are awesome gifts, loaded with excellently edited photos of just about anything you can imagine for about ten bucks a pop. The fashion-by-decade books are especially sweet and packed with amazing vintage fashion and beauty ads that are kitschy and totally inspiring.
Perfect for: All your girlfriends, your little sister, your big sister -- pretty much anyone with even a passing interest in clothes. $9.99, Taschen.com.

2.) Kauffman's Haut-und-Kinder-Creme
Imported straight from Bad Kreuznach, Germany, this cream makes hands as smooth as a baby's ass (oh yeah, the cream can be used on baby's asses too), and that graphic on the jar is too funny.
Perfect for: Your female relatives, from infants to the elderly. $9, Kiosk.

3.) Skeleton Key Bottle Opener
A truly lovely, feminine bottle opener. Tie it onto a sixer of something fancy (I suggest Blue Moon's Full Moon Winter Ale) and you're good to go.
Perfect for: That one girlfriend you have who swears she's a lady but drinks like a sailor. $12, Urban Outfitters.

4.) Vintage Flower Studs
These delicate, dainty little post earrings come in four styles and are crafted from vintage materials.
Perfect for: Hip thrift store aficionados and grandmas alike. $20, Free People.

5.) Holly GoNightly Sleep Mask
A replica of the sleep mask Audrey Hepburn wore in Breakfast At Tiffany's -- just about as cute as it gets, and who doesn't appreciate something that's simultaneously completely frivolous and totally useful?
Perfect for: Anyone in your life who occasionally entertains Blair Waldorf fantasies (or just gets hangovers a lot). $14, Fred Flare.

6.) Colori Paring Knife
A super sharp and super chic kitchen knife that comes in an array of Crayola colors. They're safe, effective, easy to clean, and look pretty great in a kitchen drawer.
Perfect for: Your cousin who just got her own apartment, your friend who subscribes to Bon Appetit, your aunt who is always glued to the Food Channel. $11.50, Delight.com.

7.) Blu Bijoux Small Serpent Ring
Loving this silver-plated snaked ring coated in glossy black enamel and studded with Austrain crystals -- it comes off at once tough and luxe, and it looks way more expensive than it is.
Perfect for: The friend about whom everyone says, "I could never pull it off, but she works it." $12, Max & Chloe.

8.) French Lavender Oil
This shit is the real deal: all-natural lavender oil from the hills of Mont Venoux in Provence, France. The scent is super-calming and great for insomnia, anxiety, headaches, stress...pretty much whatever ails ya. It can be used as a perfume, a room freshener, a linen spray, and more, not to mention the little bottle looks chic on a bathroom counter.
Perfect for: Your grandma and your hippie friends -- and here you thought they didn't have anything in common. $9, Kiosk.

9.) Lula #8
Chances are you're already familiar with the great British fashion magazine Lula (Girl Of My Dreams), which weighs in at about three pounds an issue and is so good it's impossible to throw away, but that doesn't mean everyone in your life is.
Perfect for: Younger female relatives just beginning to develop their own personal style, any Anglophiles in your life. $19, Buy Olympia.

10.) Dior Vernis Limited Edition Nail Lacquer in Black Sequins
Luxury makeup is a no-fail gift in my opinion -- it says "I understand you are one name-brand bitch and you deserve the classiest," but you don't have to take out an additional line of credit or anything to make it happen. I love the glimmery dark shade, and the Dior logo is enough to make even the most sensible girl's heart beat a little faster.
Perfect for: Your BFF -- she deserves the best. $20, Sephora.

11.) Ideal Notebook Set
These little red notebooks, each with 50 lined pages, come from Mexico City and are for some reason completely and totally irresistible, and so much cuter than those ubiquitous Moleskines you see everywhere these days.
Perfect for: Aspiring writers, compulsive list makers, girls who are out there getting lots of phone numbers. $14 for a set of two, Kiosk.

12.) Astrological Jewelry Stand
I really love ring hands -- they look incredibly cool on a dresser or vanity and do the very important job of keeping all your jewelry close at hand (no pun intended!), plus they're totally the kind of thing that you wouldn't buy for yourself but you'd be stoked to receive.
Perfect for: Accessory mavens both anal retentive and slobby. $18, Urban Outfitters.

13.) Trudeau Fondue Set
My girls are big on fondue -- our ladies' nights are fairly often about dipping things in melted cheese. It's drop-dead delicious and surprisingly easy, there's a little bit of kitsch factor involved, and it makes for a really fun group night in.
Perfect for: The hostess with the mostest. $19.99, Amazon.

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1.) Munechika Higo Japanese Carpenter's Knife
Swiss Army knives are so passé, but what dude worth his dudely salt isn't into a portable blade? This style is the standard in the Higo region of Kyushu, Japan, and the graphics on the box are really cool too. You know whoever gets this will constantly be finding excuses to whip it out and use it.
Perfect for: All the handyman dudes in your life (or just the dudes in your life who think they're handymen). $17, Kiosk.

2.) DIY Pinhole Camera
This kit is great for anyone who's into hands-on projects -- it allows you to build your own functioning pinhole camera out of paper and then take cool, low-tech photos with it.
Perfect for: Aspiring Terry Richardsons. $24, Fred Flare.

3.) A Rough Guide To Bicycle Maintenance and Bullet Bike Speedometer
The speedometer is a really cool gadget for anyone who rides -- fun and useful and way better-looking than a bugle horn. Pair it with this sweet little mini-zine, which goes over all the basics of bike care and maintenance, for a two-wheel package deal.
Perfect for: Anyone who bikes, from your mountain-biking uncle to your fixie-riding hipster buddy. Mini-zine, $1.95, Buy Olympia; speedometer, $24, Restoration Hardware.

4.) Two Tiny Stencils
These wallet-sized (seriously, the bigger one is a mere 1½" by 3") stencils come straight from Mexico City and are so absurd they're adorable -- or are they so adorable they're absurd?
Perfect for: Space-conscious graffiti artists and the obsessive compulsive. $7 for two, Kiosk.

5.) Vans: Off The Wall Book
I got my boyfriend this book as a just-because present when it came out, and it is awesome. Full of really interesting stories about the birth of Vans and skate culture, with tons of cool photos and interviews.
Perfect for: All your buddies who love to shred the gnar, gleam the cube, grind the bowl, and so on. $24.95, Vans.

6.) Gonzo by Hunter S. Thompson
I've never met a man who didn't have a special place in his heart for Hunter S. Thompson. Indulge his gonzo side with this fancy-schmancy hardcover companion to the Good Doctor's literary oeuvre.
Perfect for: That one friend you have who still occasionally drops acid; your most sophisticated cousin. $13.57, Amazon.

7.) Mo's Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar
Bacon and dark chocolate -- two great tastes that, amazingly, do go great together. Just trust me.
Perfect for: Unabashed bacon lovers. $7.50, Vosges Chocolate.

8.) Obey "Midnight Posse" Wallet
I remember when I was 17 I gave my high school boyfriend an Obey wallet for Christmas and he thought it was the greatest thing ever. When I saw this one, those memories came flooding back.
Perfect for: The boys in your life who are on the cusp of becoming men -- high-school age brothers and cousins, or guys who just act like they're in high school. $24, Karmaloop.

9.) Tall Bike Tallboy Beer Coozie
Listen, you might make fun of a man with a beer coozie, but you know those beers get cold. This tallboy coozie is the granddaddy of foam coozies, perfect for those 24 oz. cold ones that are just a touch too cold. Also available: a version with a girl riding a giraffe. Consider a his 'n hers coozie Christmas. And I've just typed "coozie" more times than I ever imagined I would.
Perfect for: Beer drinkers and hell raisers; party boys with poor circulation. $5.95, Bust Boobtique.

10.) Stylophone Portable Synthesizer
Developed in the '60s, the pocket-sized Stylophone has an organ-esque sound with a metal keyboard that plays different hues with the use of a stylus and is David Bowie-approved. This updated version can hook up with an MP3 player so impromptu concers are a possibility.
Perfect for: Worshippers at the altar of Bob Moog. $24, Urban Outfitters.

11.) Stanley Flask
Dude, those standard flasks you see around ain't got nothing on this classic style. It's been around since 1913, it's odor-proof, leakproof, and rust-proof, and it's the choice of manly men everywhere.
Perfect for: Hunters, campers, fishermen; heavy drinkers who like to pretend they are hunters, campers, and/or fishermen. $24, Restoration Hardware.

12.) German Hermetus Bottle Opener
Every man needs a bottle opener -- this one, imported from Lennestadt-Elspe in Germany, is cool and low-profile, plus it does things a regular old bottle opener can't, such as resealing already opened-bottles. It figures that the Germans would come up with a better bottle opener!
Perfect for: Every man over 21 (and a few who haven't yet reached the legal mark). $11, Kiosk.

13.) Tin Robot Space Trooper
Does anyone need a tin robot toy that ambles across the floor and shoots sparks? Of course not, but this Japanese vintage reproduction is a nice shot of nostalgia on a desk or a shelf.
Perfect for: Baby boomers who might've had this thing the first time around; sci-fi freaks; vinyl-toy-loving hipsters who need a dose of the original in their collections. $16.50, Pearl River.

14.) Thrasher Sk8 Goat Lapel Pin
Even the least-accessorized dude of a certain stripe will find a place to proudly pin this sucker, guaranteed.
Perfect for: Any man who's ever been in possession of a skateboard or a Slayer record (often, these are one and the same). $8.25, Thrasher.


That's the first installment! Please let me know what you guys think. The next installment, featuring gifts for under $50, will be coming in a few days!