This year’s Uproxx Gift Guides are brought to you by Sirius XM, check out their site to find all the holiday music and content you need to get into the gifting spirit.
Tis the season… of scrambling and stress to find that last great gift item for the gamers, cinephiles, and TV fans in your life. We get it: the last thing you want to do is break off a gift card or some other basic item. That’s why we took a look at the marketplace and our own collections to curate a list of items that’ll speak, specifically, to myriad tastes and price points when it comes to TV, film, and gaming. Whether it’s the perfect hoodie, an epic action figure box set, gaming hardware, or a captivating book, these gifts ideas are sure to make you look good while making your favorite super fans super stoked.
Oppenheimer – Original Motion Picture Soundtrack 3XLP
Price: $50
Some might view gifting a film’s vinyl score as pretentious. After all, there are no Dua Lipa disco jams and Nicki Minaj Barbie Girl remixes on composer Ludwig Göransson’s 24-track masterpiece. His Oppenheimer soundscape – a gorgeous, terrifying fusion of keening violins, rapturous orchestral melodies, and the tick, tick, ticking of a real radiation reader meter – is not the kind of music one dances to in “da club.” Instead, gift this work of art to someone who will truly appreciate it for its correct usage: as background music to a girl dinner of cigarettes and black coffee, a calming playlist during an in-office buccal fat-removing procedure, or the catalyst for a philosophical crisis of conscious about the futility of war and humanity’s insatiable appetite for self-destruction.
Barbie The Movie Official “I Am Kenough” Unisex Hoodie
Price: $60
Don’t let your favorite #2 live a life of blonde fragility, help them to embrace their Kenergy and love of the pop culture phenomenon that is Barbie with this tie-dye message hoodie that’s the perfect gift, no matter if you see love or just a friend. Seriously, don’t let them be in their feelings without being in this hoodie. Alright, that’s enough Barbie lyrics, but the shirt.
PlayStation 5 – Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Bundle
Price: $499.99
Remember when it was impossible to find a PlayStation 5 of any kind? Those days are thankfully over so if you have yet to get your hands on one then this bundle with one of the best games of the year is your best bet. Of the three major consoles right now, the PlayStation 5 probably has the strongest library of first-party single-player experiences. So if that’s what you’re looking for then starting off with Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is a great choice. This year’s Spider-Man is just as good as the first one, but everything you could want from a sequel. Improved gameplay, two Spider-Men to play as, and yet another emotionally gripping superhero story to swing through.
A24 Membership
Price: $55
Is indie film studio A24 less cool now that they’ve partnered with Max for a distribution deal that will see their biggest 2024 releases landing exclusively on the streamer once they leave theaters? We couldn’t say. What we do now is that, even with this new joint venture, there are still plenty of reasons why an A24 membership just makes sense – especially if it’s for a discerning cinephile with a justified bone to pick with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav. From free Zines to early access merch, screening tickets for theater releases, hundreds of hours of bonus content and filmmaker commentary, and a kickass membership card, this monthly (or annual) subscription practically pays for itself.
Steam Deck
Price: $399 – $649
Want to increase someone’s gaming library tenfold through a single purchase? The Steam Deck gives anyone who owns it the biggest option of games to play on any console, and it’s just as portable as a Switch. Steam has been going for 20 years now and that means there’s about 20 years’ worth of PC gaming backlog for you to choose from, and with every game coming out on PC this day there might not be a better option to play the newest games than through a Steam Deck. The most incredible part of the Steam Deck though is how, unlike the Switch, many of its games do not suffer a significant downgrade in quality when they go mobile. It’s not as powerful as your gaming PC, but it blows any Switch out of the water.
DC Multiverse WB100 Batman The Ultimate Movie Collection Action Figure 6 Pack
Price: $119
You aren’t going to get the “I hired a sorcerer who gave me the ability to shrink my favorite comic book movie characters into toy form” vibes from Mcfarlane toys. These aren’t Hot Toys-level sculpts, but the breadth of variety is pretty impressive, as is the overall ambition to put a piece of key DC comics storylines and on-screen adaptations into the hands of fans. This box set is the perfect example of that, giving fans high-quality 6” versions of Val Kilmer and George Clooney’s Dark Knight, along with the tried and true Michael Keaton, Christian Bale, Ben Affleck, and Robert Pattinson editions. It would have been nice to see Mcfarlane include an Adam West figure (Batman ‘66) to really nail the assignment, but the premium packaging, collector cards, and working Batsignal with multiple replaceable Bat-insignia’s makes up for it.
The Criterion Collection After Hours DVD
Price: $34.96
We could suggest any number of recent Criterion releases for the cinephile on your shopping list. Martin Scorsese’s taut coming-of-age crime drama Mean Streets, the slow-burn terror of Alejandro Amenábar’s The Others, or Terrence Mallick’s visually stunning Days Of Heaven all come to mind. But we’re going to focus specifically on another Scorsese classic, After Hours, one of the filmmaker’s always welcome forrays into horror. This version of the film is a beautiful 4K digital restoration which includes a new Scorsese interview, commentary, a BTS documentary, and other features. And if the film, which features an increasingly frazzled Griffin Dunne falling into the quicksand of awkwardness, misunderstandings, bad luck, and 80s NYC weirdos threatening, chasing, or entombing him feels a little too close to your holiday experience, we get it.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Price: $69.99
When deciding what game to put on this list I had to think long and hard about what I wanted to sell you on. A good story? Lots of gameplay? Replayablity? Then I thought about it and realized I was just describing Baldur’s Gate 3. A Game of the Year candidate, Baldur’s Gate 3 might give you the most bang for your buck of any game that came out in 2023. Every scenario can be approached differently thanks to the games’ DND routes, which not only create endless replay value but also gives you stories to tell your friends about. You can compare notes of how you won a battle, solved a puzzle, or interacted with a character and that story will be yours alone to tell, or maybe even you and a friend since I hear the co-op is just as fun as the single player. No game is more worth the money this year than Baldur’s Gate 3.
Yellowjackets Varsity Jacket
Price: $199.99
Every girl (and guy) needs a vintage letterman in their closet and this Yellowjackets-themed jacket is tailor-made to be your new conversation-sparking wardrobe staple. Let the luxury of embroidered seals and quilted Sateen lining transport you to your own (metaphorical) wellness community led by a trauma victim with mystic abilities. Tap into your Citizen Detective skills as you search for the hidden Rune symbol insert. And laugh at the irony of a show about cannibalistic teens surviving in the harsh wilds by creating sacrificial rituals via playing cards making sure the leather in their most sought-after merch is vegan and cruelty-free.
WB 100th 25-Film Collection Box Sets
Price: $109.99 each
Christopher Nolan gave cinephiles everywhere a stark warning on the day Oppenheimer was released on-demand: If you can’t hold a movie with your bare hands, it’s not really yours. To prevent those “evil streaming services” from stealing your most beloved films, may we suggest investing in a box set like these from Warner Bros? The company celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, releasing three distinct collections of its biggest hits. There are options for Sci-Fi geeks and action freaks, comedy groupies, and Oscar-winner stans but good luck trying to choose between The Goonies and Goodfellas.
SAMSUNG 32” Odyssey G7 Series WQHD Curved Gaming Monitor
Price: $499.99
A nice monitor is an absolute must for any PC owner. This is not only a gift that enhances your PC gaming experience, but it’s a great everyday use item for those who use their PC as a workstation. Sometimes the best gifts that you can give someone are the ones that are multifunctional. Of course, this is a gaming guide so what about it makes it good for your gaming experience? Because as games get more advanced, and PCs get more powerful, you want a monitor that can keep up. As someone who has in the past used a monitor that doesn’t match the production their PC could put out, it’s like buying a sports car and never going above 50 MPH. You didn’t buy that super-powerful PC for nothing. Put it through its paces and get a monitor to match.
MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios
Price: $28.67
As more and more Marvel offerings fail to land at the box office, the idea of a book chronicling the studio’s meteoric rise to the top of the pop culture pantheon sounds even more fascinating. How did a comic book company create a franchise empire that not only upended cinema but streaming too? That’s what authors and pop culture writers Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales, and Gavin Edwards seek to find out in their exhaustively in-depth unauthorized guide to the MCU. Featuring hundreds of interviews with writers, actors, producers, and directors involved in many of Marvel’s most successful entries, the book spans 15 years and answers literally every question fans might have about the studio’s origins, multiverse-building formula, and endgame. Gift this to the DC executive in your life today.
100 Sci-Fi Movies Scratch Off Poster
Price: $25
When Bob Dylan said that “the purpose of art is to stop time” he was talking about this scratch-off poster. An interactive binge-watching guide aimed at deepening one’s knowledge of cinema’s Sci-Fi catalog, this masterpiece might not freeze the clock, but it will certainly help you waste hours upon hours of your life watching some of the best genre films of all time. From dystopian dramas to set-in-space classics to recent Oscar winners, every square on this theatrical tapestry tells a worthy story. And honestly, it’s a cooler way to keep track of where you’re at in your Ridley Scott re-watch marathon.
Midsommar Incense Temple
Price: $45
Candles have had a good run but the time has come to ditch the wicks and artificially scented wax for a fragrance generator that pulls double duty in your home. This A24 incense burner, built to resemble the Hårga temple featured in Ari Aster’s breakout horror hit Midsommar, does that. Guests will enjoy the gentle notes of cedarwood, chamomile, and patchouli, while you (or whoever you gift this bad boy to) will enjoy unnerving visitors with a scene-for-scene recap of how Florence Pugh’s character stuffed her cheating boyfriend into a bear carcass and set him on fire as part of a solstice ritual performed by a Swedish cult whose truly f*cked up beliefs had roots in Scandinavian paganism
