My favorite tech Christmas gift requires no batteries or software updates. It’s not even a gadget even though it’s made with technology.
Can you guess what it is?
A few years ago, my wife experimented with her iPad and a digital stylus to create digital illustrations. Using Procreate, a drawing app, she uploaded a photo of our beloved corgi, Max, as a reference to draw over before embellishing the image with a polka dot bow tie and a cartoonish long tongue. I liked it so much that I chose a background color that would match our home and uploaded the artwork to the Keepsake app, a printing service that puts your images together in a beautiful frame before they’re delivered to your door.
A large framed portrait of Max now hangs as the centerpiece of our living room in all its two-dimensional glory. It makes me laugh and is always a conversation starter when we have guests. That’s more than I can say about other tech gifts I’ve received over the years, such as video games and smart speakers, which only brought short-lived joy.
This kind of gifting practice — tech-adjacent gifts without hardware or thoughtless Best Buy gift cards — may be especially welcome this year. That’s because we live in a pandemic-induced era of scarcity, driven by a global chip shortage and supply chain disruptions, making conventional gifts difficult to buy. (Anyone who has tried to buy a game console in the past year understands this pain.)
So here’s a list of ideas for tech gifts we can give without actually buying tech, from the gifts you can make to experiences that last a lifetime.
The gift of repair
Last week I told a friend that I had a special gift for her: I was going to fix her iPhone problem.
She had complained to me about her five-year-old iPhone SE. The device was unable to take pictures or install software updates because almost all of the device’s data storage was exhausted.
So before she left for her Thanksgiving holiday, I met her for lunch and guided her through the process of backing up photos to an external drive before deleting all the images from the device. Then I connected her phone to a computer to back up all her data before installing the new OS.
She was very happy that this problem was solved before her trip. She can now take a lot of pictures on vacation. Plus, a new Apple software update has a tool to add a digital vaccine card to the iPhone’s wallet app, making vacation travel a little less stressful during the pandemic.
For those who are somewhat tech-savvy, this can serve as a template. Listen to the complaints of your loved ones about their technology and offer the gift to solve the problem. If it’s a slow Wi-Fi connection, see if you can diagnose the problem to increase the speeds. If it is a short life phone battery, consider taking it to a repair shop to have the battery replaced for a small fee.
In some ways this is better than giving them a brand new gadget as it saves them the hassle of learning how to use a new piece of technology.
The Gift of Creation
Aside from the example of my dog’s digital illustration, there are plenty of other ways we can use technology to create for friends and family.
First, I’m a fan of photo books that can be easily created with web tools. A few years ago, a co-worker’s Secret Santa gift to me was a calendar she made using Google’s photo book service. She made it by pulling photos from my dog’s Instagram account and putting them together in a calendar—each month was a different photo of Max posing next to an appetizer cooked by my wife and me. I was pleasantly surprised.
In general, photo printing services offer fun ways to turn digital photos into physical keepsakes in the form of old-fashioned, large prints and even mugs and Christmas decorations. (Wirecutter, our sister publication that reviews products, tested two dozen photo printing services, and highlighted the favorites.)
Before the pandemic turned our lives upside down, my wife bought a DSLR, the type of digital camera used by professionals, with the aim of learning more about digital photography. Then came the lockdowns, vacations turned into staycations, and the camera ended up in a drawer.
My plan for a holiday gift for my wife is a two-hour digital photography class with a San Francisco photo studio that takes students on a walk across the Golden Gate Bridge while teaching the fundamentals of photography. (Hopefully she’s not reading this column.)
What would your friends and family like to learn? We have plenty of options for potential gift classes, as the pandemic has prompted many teachers to offer online virtual instruction, including cooking classes and workout routines. The gift of knowledge goes a long way and sometimes gives back, such as when the recipient of online cooking classes uses that newfound knowledge to make food for you.
The gift of no technology
The pandemic may have exposed us to more screen time than we could ever have imagined, so a great gift this year could also be anything that diverts our attention from technology.
That could be renting a cabin in an area with no cell service, tickets to a play, a winter hike, and a picnic—anything that will delay our inevitable return to fencing.
