Each year I create a gift list for preachers with suggestions that are hint-worthy to drop with Santa, loved ones, or parishioners.
This year’s suggestions are sure to delight and inspire you in 2024, and most will even help save the environment beyond that.
Neither I nor Backstory Preaching receives compensation if you purchase these items.
I suggest them only because they put a smile on my face, and if you are lucky enough to receive any of these, I hope they will bring a smile to yours, too.
1) If you want birds of a feather to flock together—in your office! 180° bird feeder for your window
Invite some birds to your office! No, really!
There’s nothing like nature to calm us down and help us remember that we are part of something larger than ourselves: God’s good creation.
Now you can bring a little nature right into your office where you need it most with this 180° bird feeder that fits into single- or double-hung windows.
Ingenious!
$62.99
Find it on Amazon.
2) If you want fresh produce all winter: a hydroponic indoor garden
During the winter, rather than pay high prices for fresh herbs from the grocery store and adding plastic containers to be recycled, grow them yourself!
There are many hydroponics gardening systems available these days for herbs and fresh greens. This one received an average rating of 4.8 with nearly a thousand reviews.
Eat well, eat healthy, and eat delicious!
$63.99
Find it here on Amazon.
3) If you want to write with a bottle: pens made from recycled plastic bottles
How about the next time you write a sermon that you write it — with a bottle?
Pilot, already known for making comfortable, retractable gel pens that write smoothly in a variety of colors, has a set made from recycled plastic bottles!
And bonus, you can get refills for the pens so you can use them long-term!
This will make for a terrific stocking stuffer!
$8.65 for a pack of five.
Find them here on Amazon.
4) If you don’t want to add more straws to landfills: stainless steel straws
I keep a stainless steel straw in my backpack to use whenever I’m out and about.
Washable, resusable, and sturdy, keeping a set on hand saves the environment over and over.
This set from OXO includes silicone tips that look comfortable on the lips and come apart for easy cleaning.
Comes with a case that includes two 10.5” straws and a brush cleaner.
$19.37
Find it here on Amazon.
5) If you want to become a better preacher and be entertained at the same time: Creative Nonfiction Magazine: True Stories, Well Told
I love this magazine!
If you want to up your game as a communicator of the gospel, you won’t learn any more easily or entertainingly than by simply reading great writing about true things.
Just check out the description for the current issue!
What is voice? How do you find yours? How can you change it, rearrange it, play with it? And then, how can you use it to make change in the world? This issue is a celebration of writerly playfulness, exploration, and risk-taking, featuring breathless, epistolary, speculative, second-person, and snarky essays.
Just fabulous!
$39/year and you’ll receive digital access to upcoming issues for a year, plus the entire Creative Nonfiction and True Stories archive, and web stories.
Subscribe here.
6) If you want to warm your feet and plant trees at the same time!
I love me some fun socks, but I’ve never had socks that also planted trees! That’s as fun as it gets!
These organic cotton socks come with a pledge to plant trees in sub-Saharan Africa through the nonprofit organization Trees for the Future.
In fact, they say that one pair of socks leads to ten trees getting planted!
Two styles look great on all genders.
$15.00/pair
Find them here at Uncommon Goods.
7) If you’re tired of Your grocery bags multiplying like rabbits: foldable, nylon grocery bags
I keep couple of self-folding, nylon grocery bags always clipped to my purse and keychain.
They fold up so small that they take up virtually no room, and then I have them available whenever I’m at the grocery store, department store, farmers’ market — and even conferences to hold all the books I promised myself I wouldn’t buy!
Here’s a set of three 19” x 19” in black, green or gray, with carabiner clip included.
Perfect.
$17.99
Find them on Amazon.
8) If you’re looking for the perfect cuppa: Kolkata Chai
This one comes recommended by BsP’s Steward for Education and Formation, Meredith Crigler. She says:
I am a big fan of afternoon tea and the invitation of 20 minutes of delightful stillness in the midst of my day.
I've taken to making homemade chai. I don't like the sugar from concentrates, but I love the spice from the combination of loose-leaf tea and fresh herbs.
I recommend Fairlife Milk with Kolkatta's Chai Co. decaf.
I add Penzey's ground ginger (& sometimes their turmeric) to mine.
I make a batch and it lasts days in a glass carafe in the fridge.
Good chilled, iced or warmed.
Mm-mmm. Delicious!
$38.00 for the combo two-pack of loose-leaf tea.
Find the chai at Kolkata Chai Company.
9) If you want to pick up reading right where you left off: Your Personal Reading Valet
This is such a great idea!
It’s an acacia tray that holds your book, glasses, phone, and cup of coffee or tea.
Nothing too much new there.
However, there are two special things about this design.
First, it holds your book and its place by hanging the book over its triangular platform.
And second, it also holds but hides your phone inside the triangle so its handy yet out of sight to decrease distractions!
$50.00
Find it here at Uncommon Goods.
10) If you want your pens to inspire you: pen organizer
I know I’m not alone in my love of colored pens, pencils, markers, and highlighters.
But where to put them all?
I confess that my inner pen geek is swooning a bit over this bamboo pen organizer that will keep those enticing writing tools handy and looking gorgeous, ready to be used to craft my next sermon or other work of art.
$19.99
Find it here on Amazon.
And there you have the list for this year!
Merry, merry, one and all!