Get what you wanted? 50 last-minute gift ideas & Christmas Eve store hours
Our updated Holiday Gift Guide from the editors of The Shortcut – now with instant gift ideas and store hours for last-minute shoppers
You’ve got almost everything – or you just started shopping. Either way, you’re looking at The Shortcut newsletter wondering what to buy instantly or desperately need to know how late stores are open on Christmas Eve for in-store pickup.
We got you on both counts – and 50 deals links!
Here’s our list of 50 must-have gadgets, how late stores are open on December 24, and an idea of what to buy with your new gift cards – just in case you didn’t receive what you actually wanted this week.
🌟 Walmart / 📦 Amazon / 🏷️ Best Buy / 🍎 B&H / ✏️🪟 Microsoft Office (PC) / ✏️🍎 MS Office (Mac) / 🛑 GameStop / 🎯 Target / 🟦 Samsung / ⬛ Sony / 🟥 Lenovo / 📺 LG / 💻 Dell / 1️⃣ OnePlus / ⌨️ Logitech / 🎧 Bose / 🧹 Dyson / 📱 Nomad / 🟥 Macy’s / 👟 Nike / 👟 adidas / 👟 Foot Locker / 👖 Kohl’s / 🔷 Marshalls /🤵♂️ Nordstrom / 🤵♂️ Nordstrom Rack / 👕 Gap / 👕 Gap Factory / 👕 Old Navy / 👕 Banana Republic / 👕 Banana Republic Factory / American Eagle / 👗 H&M / 💄 Sephora / 👞 Zappos / 🧖♀️ Ulta Beauty / ❤️ CVS / 📶 Verizon
10 US store hours on Christmas Eve
Obviously, check with your local store, but we asked each major retailer what time they close today. Ten got back to us with answers ranging from 5pm to 9pm, just to cater to last-minute shoppers.
Walmart is open until 6pm
Best Buy is open until 6pm
GameStop is open until 6pm to 9pm
Costco is open until 5pm
Macy’s is open until 7pm
Target is open until 8pm
Gap is open until 6pm (with some stores going later)
Old Navy is open until 6pm
Banana Republic is open until 6pm
Ulta is open until 6pm
50 ideas: The Shortcut Gift Guide 2024
Beyond our #1 pick, we’ll start with instant gift ideas where you can get digital items without having to go to the store.
1. DJI Neo
Move over, New Jersey. The DJI Neo’s fantastically low $200 price makes it the perfect gift for anyone in your life who’s drone-curious. It’s one of the smallest drones you can find on the market, and thanks to its enclosed propellers, it’s fairly safe as well. It’s the perfect starter drone, and you can take flying it to the next level with an added controller and/or the DJI Goggles N3.
2. PlayStation / Xbox / Nintendo gift card deals
The easiest purchase for gamers is to give them access to whatever they want – and to save you money along the way. Eneba sells video game store gift cards with our exclusive code TSC8 from The Shortcut.
$100 PlayStation gift card for $82 with code TSC8
50% off Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $26 (MSRP is $60 now) with code TSC8
$50 Xbox gift card for $43 with code TSC8
$50 Nintendo eShop gift card for $44 with code TSC8
Yes, the money can be put toward things like PlayStation Plus and Nintendo Online, not just PS5, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch digital games.
3. Flighty
This Apple-only flight tracking app impressed us with its polished design and ability to predict last-minute flight changes that Delta and others are slow to mention within their own apps. Flighty is the travel app that every airline should strive to mimic, down to the annual year-in-review passport. It costs $3.99 per month or $249 for lifetime access, but worth every penny.
If you fly enough to have status, you should download this app.
4. 20% off The Shortcut subscription
A little self-promotion doesn’t hurt, right? The Shortcut has a paid feature, and we’re eager to roll out new subscriber-only content in 2025. We’re offering a 20% discount to people who sign up between now and the end of CES. Now is the best time to support our original tech journalism and help us grow.
5. 10 games to get instantly
Last-minute gift-giving has been made easier thanks to digital games that can be downloaded instantly. Here are some picks from us, to you, to your loved one.
Astro Bot (PS5)
The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom (Nintendo Switch)
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (Xbox Series X)
Home Sports (Meta Quest)
Maestro (Meta Quest)
Shattered (Meta Quest)
Thrasher (Apple Vision Pro)
Balatro (iPhone/PC/consoles)
Neva (Mac/PC/PS5/Xbox/Switch)
6. Adobe Photoshop + Lightroom
Canva may be new and cool, but we’re still partial to Adobe’s Creative Cloud for its more advanced photo-editing capabilities and leading generative AI toolsets. If you don’t want to spend $60 a month on all of the apps, look for the $20/mo photography package that bundles Photoshop and Lightroom. We use it daily on The Shortcut.
7. PlayStation Portal
The $200 PlayStation Portal is easily the most affordable gaming portable on the market now. This 8-inch gaming portable lets you stream PlayStation games from your PS5 or directly through the cloud. That last bit is important as the PlayStation Portal lets anyone play PS5 games even without having to connect to the console. It’s the best PlayStation portable solution until an eventual Sony PSP 2 release date.
8. ModRetro Chromatic (Game Boy)
Also $200, ModRetro’s Nintendo Game Boy retro console plays all of your old Game Boy and Game Boy Color catridges on a pixel-accurate LCD. We only wish existed in the 90s when we were kids. The best part is that the screen is backlit, so it works in sunlit conditions. The official ModRetro site is sold out of Chromatic first editions, but you can still buy it at GameStop for a limited time.
9. $199 GoPro Hero camera
The $200 GoPro Hero makes action cameras accessible to everyone not only for its low price but also for its ease of use. It only shoots either 4K60 video, 2.7K60 slo-mo, and 12MP photos, there’s no messing with frame rates, aspect ratios, resolutions, or any other settings to get lost in. In essence, it’s more like a point-and-shoot action camera with all the durability and flexibility GoPro is known for at half the price.
10. Meta Quest 3S
The Meta Quest 3S is a $300 standalone virtual reality headset I wish I were getting this holiday. It features the Meta Quest 3’s upgraded processor, touch controllers, and tracking technology to make it a big leap over the Meta Quest 3. Moreover, you can experience all of the same mixed reality experiences on this headset thanks to its integrated camera system. With new VR experiences like Batman Arkham Shadow and Alien: Rogue Incursion, there are more reasons to get a VR headset than ever before.
11. RayBan Meta Smart Glasses
RayBans were already cool, but the RayBan Meta Glasses take these stylish frames to the next level with integrated tech. This pair of eyeglasses or sunglasses features an integrated camera, microphone, speaker, and onboard Meta AI. You can talk to the glasses to get search results without having to pick up a phone or record truly first-person video with them.
12. Oura Ring 4
Smart rings are all the new craze in the tech world, and the Oura Ring 4 is the best solution for iPhone users. It has all the sensors to track heart rate, blood oxygen, skin temperature, activity, sleep apnea, and more. It’s the perfect gift for anyone who wants the benefits of a smartwatch but hates wearing watches. Best of all, it is platform agnostic, so this smart ring will work for both iPhone and Android users (although you’ll see below there’s another option if you’re on Android).
13. Samsung Galaxy Ring
Have a Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra or a Z Flip 6? The Samsung Galaxy Ring is a better smart ring gift for strict Android users. It is slimmer and offers a neat double-pinch gesture to snap the camera or dismiss notifications on Samsung phones. The Galaxy Ring also offers the best battery life of over a week when paired with a Samsung Galaxy smartwatch – or seven days on its own.
14. Apple Watch Series 10
At this point, everyone you know probably already has an Apple Watch, but the Apple Watch Series 10 is the ten-year anniversary upgrade everyone has been waiting to get. This Apple Watch features a thinner body and a larger face than ever before. Plus, it has a more readable display thanks to its wide-angle OLED display.
15. iPhone 16
What better way to tell your loved ones you care for them than giving them a brand-new iPhone 16? It’s the first base Apple handset to get a new processor in years, and that’s largely to tap into Apple Intelligence – which you can use to ask questions, make custom emojis, and more. The iPhone 16 also features a photography-focused camera control button, allowing users to quickly adjust shooting settings while giving them a dedicated shutter button.
16. iPhone 16 Pro
For even more of a giving spirit, the iPhone 16 Pro is possibly the best iPhone we’ve seen yet. While that’s something that could be said of every new iPhone, the 16 Pro features a larger 6.3-inch screen and an upgraded 5x telephoto camera to match that of the iPhone 16 Pro Max. This handset also features a four times sharper 48MP ultrawide camera to help make your landscape photos look better. It of course, features Apple’s top mobile specs with an A18 Pro processor and up to 1TB of storage.
17. Google Pixel 9 Pro XL
The Google Pixel 9 Pro XL is Google’s finest smartphone yet. It features a sophisticated and luxurious curved body made up of aluminum and Gorilla Glass Victus. It’s also one of the smartest phones around now, and it integrates Gemini AI to do everything from real-time translations, summarizing words and speech, instant transcription, and generative image creation and editing. Our favorite new Pixel perk? Add Me allows you to create composite group photos without the need for Photoshop. It’s the best Google-exclusive feature since Best Take.
18. Nomad Leather cases
Nomad topped our iPhone 16 accessories list and we’ve reviewed many Nomad iPhone cases and Apple Watch bands on The Shortcut, all worthy stocking stuffers this season. While Apple has given up on leather cases, Nomad has filled the void with several premium leather cases. We’re also big fans of the Find My-compatible tracking card for wallets, although that’s so popular it’s currently on backorder.
19. Clicks keyboard for iPhone
Do you miss having real buttons on a smartphone? Going back to Blackberry is a non-starter these days, but you can have the tactical advantage on an iPhone, thanks to Clicks. We love being able to type while viewing a full screen (hiding the on-screen keyboard) and the ability to trigger custom shortcuts with a key press (we’re big fans of shortcuts at The Shortcut). It’s the best throwback gift of the season.
20. AirTags
AirTags are the perfect gift for helping everyone keep track of their stuff. It attaches to keys, luggage, wallets, passport holders and more so that you’ll never forget to take these important items with you. Apple AirTags also got a lot better at helping you find your lost luggage – you can share AirTag location information with trusted airlines.
21. Samsung SmartTag 2
The Samsung SmartTag 2 is essentially the Andorid-supported version of Apple AirTags (if you have an Android instead of an iPhone, get this one). These Smart Tags also come with a bit of added functionality in that you can use mixed reality through your phone to find your missing stuff. The button on the Samsung Smart Tag can also be programmed to trigger a Smart Things home routine for movie nights, bedtime, or any other mood you want to put together.
22. Bose Ultra Open Earbuds
Bose Ultra Open Earbuds are the perfect gift for your loved ones who work out, enjoy spatial audio, or just want the coolest cutting-edge audio technology. These clip-on earbuds look like something out of the future, and they offer a fantastic spatial audio experience on their own or when paired with a Bose soundbar. The audio quality is also fantastic and sounds exactly like you have a set of speakers, except you’re wearing them everywhere instead of having them set up in one room.
23. AirPod Pro 2
The AirPods 2 are the most versatile pair of earbuds, and they should be a great gift for everyone. They deliver a solid sound, surprisingly authentic spatial audio, and great noise-canceling. Thanks to a recent update, they can also serve as a hearing aid for those hard of hearing without being as costly as a medical-grade device or requiring a doctor visit.
24. SteelSeries GameBuds
If you want the best gaming earbuds out there, look no further than our SteelSeries Gamebuds review. These powerful earbuds are an Editor’s Choice winner that work across all consoles, handhelds, and mobile devices for a reasonable $159. With 100+ gaming profiles tuned for specific games, ANC, and transparency, the Game Buds are our daily drivers for gaming at home and on the go.
25. HP Sprocket Printer
Instant cameras are all the rage, but if you’ve ever wanted to print your smartphone photos quickly, the HP Sprocket printer is the perfect solution. This $79 portable photo printer makes instant camera-sized prints from any connected iOS or Android phone or tablet.
26. PS5 Pro
The PS5 Pro is the only new home console this year, and while it might seem like a half-step upgrade, it finally lets you play games at the maximum resolution while also getting a smooth 60 or higher frame per second. If you’ve heard any of your friends or family having to settle for performance mode just to get more FPS (but at the expense of max resolution), the PS5 Pro is the gift they’ve been waiting for.
27. Brisk It Origin 580
The Brisk It Origin 580 is a fantastic gift for any aspiring cook who wants to get into smoking food. Take it from me, who has smoked five 12-hour briskets: smoking can be an arduous process, but the Brisk It Origin 580 can help hold your hand through the process with AI. The AI built into this smoker can break down the process by letting you know what temperature to set and when to wrap, or you can just ask it questions. This smart smoker is also easy to control remotely over Wi-Fi with its companion app on iOS and Android.
28. Uturn Orbit Turntable
Vinyl (and cassettes) has been going through a renaissance lately, and what better way to get your friends and family on that trend than getting them a Uturn Orbit Turntable? I’ve had one in for the last few weeks, and I love how compact and stable this record player is. It’s also fully customizable with a frosted platter, DACs, different needles, and more.
29. Laifen Wave Electric Toothbrush
We’ve been using the Laifen Wave Electric Toothbrush for a few months now, and it’s the best rival to the bulkier Oral B iO and Sonicare Prestige brushes we’ve tested. It’s more compact than its rivals and lasts just as long, making it ideal for travel. The best part is that it’s less expensive than the leading competition.
30. Steamery Pilo 2 Fabric Shaver
It’s sweater weather, and no one likes looking at wool that’s pilling after a dozen washes. Save your friends and family from a fashion disaster with the Steamery Pilo 2 Fabric Shaver. It helps make your sweaters look brand new again, and it’s so small you could bring it on any winter vacation.
31. Moonbird
With how tumultuous 2024 has been, we could all use a little help destress and that’s what makes the Moonbird such a great gift. It’s a breathwork device that promises to help reduce stress in five minutes. The device features a heart rate sensor to give you feedback as you go through breathwork exercises on its accompanying app.
32. Aer carry-on luggage
Away may be classic, Monos may be the new popular, but Aer luggage caught our eye this year for its Hinomoto wheel brake system. It’s a small, but meaningful innovation that prevents your suitcase from rolling away in trains or busy airports. It also packs (pun!) all of the space and durability of its rivals, too.
33. Roborock Qrevo Curv
In 2024, we’ve only recommended self-emptying and self-cleaning robot vacuums on The Shortcut because, at this point in time, prices for this once prestigious feature have fallen to reasonable prices. One of our top picks is the Roborock Qrevo Curv, which is a winner for its dual anti-tangle system when vacuuming and mopping on its own. Qrevo Curv means you’ll put in less rescuing your vacuum, exactly what you’d want from a robot vac.
34. Mophie 3-in-1 travel charger
We’re big fans of the Mophie brand of mobile accessories, considering it powered us to complete our Apple Vision Pro review and become the first people to take a flight using the Apple headset and blog about it.
As you’ll read in our Mophie 3-in-1 travel charger with MagSafe, this is our all-time favorite accessory for its compactness and reliability. Big and small trips alike (including this Christmas), I never travel without it.
35. MacBook Pro M4
The MacBook Pro M4 is the most exciting laptop from Apple since it started using its own silicon. The new M4 chip brings the biggest performance gains we’ve seen yet, and it will help unlock the new capabilities of Apple Intelligence. That AI upgrade has also helped boost the value of the base MacBook Pro, which now comes with 16GB of memory by default.
36. Mac mini M4
The Mac mini M4 is easily the best value-packed computer Apple has ever produced. For $599, you’re getting one of the most powerful Macs ever made with a brand new M4 processor and 16GB of RAM to start. It’s more compact than ever to fit in your TV cabinet or even sit tucked behind your computer monitor.
37. iPad Pro OLED
The iPad Pro OLED has been our favorite technology marvel of the year. Super thin and super gorgeous, this is the thinnest tablet we’ve ever touched. It features the first tandem OLED screen ever that’s brighter than other panels of its kind. This tablet also packs serious power thanks to its M4 processor.
38. Grandpad tablet
As the iPad becomes more sophisticated, I’ve become more and more interested in the aptly named GrandPad for my aging loved ones. It’s a tablet with a simplified UI that’s designed for seniors with a companion app to help guide them remotely without you having to constantly ask, “What are you seeing on the screen now?” The GrandPad promises security and emergency-calling capabilities for extra peace of mind.
39. 98-inch TCL QM8 4KTV
When writing our PS5 Pro review on The Shortcut, we tested the 98-inch TCL QM8, and it truly made a difference seeing Sony’s specs bump between the PS5 Slim and PS5 Pro. This is TCL’s flagship Mini LED 4KTV and it does come in other sizes, including 65, 75, and 85 inches, but we went a bit overboard with this max size in NYC. The best part has been the 144Hz variable refresh rate (VRR) loved by gamers, along with the 5,000 nits of peak brightness that tops our favorite OLED.
40. UGreen NASync DXP6800 Pro
A single hard drive isn’t good enough to reliably back up your data if it fails, so we’ve become keen on investing in multiple-bay network attached storage. UGreen makes a series of fast and reliable NAS hubs – ranging from 2-bay to 8-bay drives – that won one of our IFA 2024 Awards. The redundancy factor of these drive enclosures keeps all of your data protected and connected.
41. Xgimi MoGo Pro 3
We’ve tested a lot of small, portable projectors at The Shortcut, but the Xigmi MoGo Pro 3 has to be the most versatile. This thermos-sized projector can produce a 1080p picture up to 120 inches in size. And even when folded, this projector can use its integrated 5W Harman Kardon tweeters to act as a party speaker.
42. PowerA Fusion Pro Wireless
Forget about the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller; the PowerA Fusion Pro Wireless is the pro controller we would recommend for most Xbox gamers. For the same price as Microsoft’s elite controller, you get a controller with anti-drift hall-effect thumbsticks, a gorgeous RGB backlight, four customizable back buttons, and a handy charging dock.
43. JBL PartyBox Ultimate
Give the gift of partying hard with the JBL PartyBox Ultimate. This massive RGB karaoke speaker is ready to be the centerpiece of your get-togethers with two 9” woofers, a 4.5” midrange, and two 2.75” tweeters. If 118 decibels isn’t enough to get the literal ground bumping, this speaker also supports Dolby Atmos spatial audio and dynamic RGB lighting to complete the party vibe.
44. Sony ULT Field 7
Sony upgraded its portable wireless speaker series in a big way in 2024, and the ULT Field 7 offers a base-boosting speaker that can still be toted around very easily. You can bring the party with you thanks to accent lights that synchronize to music and enough handles to be an effortless carry. At $300, it’s currently $200 off.
45. GE Lighting Smart Light Strips
Is your holiday literally shining bright with smart lights yet? GE Lighting makes indoor and outdoor smart light strips with new dynamic effects to match your holiday cheer. These flexible light strips can put on a light show controlled by your voice or set to a schedule via the GE Lighting Cync app. Beyond the holidays, these smart light strips work well behind TV frames and gaming monitors to become useful year-round.
46. Nintendo Alarmo
Are you still waking up to a basic smartphone alarm? Don’t sleep on what we actually use at The Shortcut: the “Nintendo Sound Clock Alarmo,” a $99 alarm clock that uses Mario, Zelda, Pikmin and other themes to wake you up. It even uses neat motion detection technology to ensure you haven’t fallen back asleep. Orders through the Nintendo Store are exclusive to Nintendo Online subscribers and start shipping again in January.
47. Nvidia RTX 4070 Super
The Nvidia RTX 4070 Super is the gift every PC gamer dreams of. It offers enough graphics power to nearly rival the RTX 3080 Ti and RTX 3090 at a very approachable $600. That makes it cost less than a PS5 Pro, but you get 4K gaming at max settings with at least 60 frames per second or even higher with DLSS 3 enabled.
48. Apple Vision Pro
The Apple Vision Pro is easily the most immersive and unique mixed-reality experience you can give to someone now. Whether you want a screen-less Mac setup or just want to put apps everywhere in your home, the Apple Vision Pro offers unique spatial computing you can’t get with anything else. There are also more VR experiences to have every day, such as watching immersive movies and interacting with virtual tabletop games.
49. Xreal One Pro
Expected in March 2025, these $599 smart glasses project a simulated 171-inch TV right in front of your eyes in a slim-and-light frame design. It’s ideal for airplane use and compatible with all of your favorite USB-C devices, from phones like iPhone and Android, to gaming consoles like Xbox and PS5, to PC gaming handhelds like Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X. We can’t wait to test it at CES 2025.
50. Kabata AI dumbbells
Do you even work out with AI, bro? We’ll wrap up our Christmas Eve gift guide update with something that’ll boost your New Year’s resolution plan: AI coaching dumbells. It takes the select-a-weight idea to a new level with a feature that its bankrupt rival Bowflex lacks: a truly smart app that tracks your reps. It’s $999 for early bird buyers, and since it doesn’t launch until March 2025, you have a three-month reprieve on that resolution.
Matt Swider is the Editor-in-Chief of The Shortcut, the #1 consumer tech publication on Substack. Matt, a technology expert with over 25 years of journalism experience, can be found on social media through X (Twitter), Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.
Kevin Lee is The Shortcut’s Creative Director. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam.
Adam Vjestica is The Shortcut’s Senior Editor. Formerly TechRadar’s Gaming Hardware Editor, Adam has also worked at Nintendo of Europe as a Content Marketing Editor, where he helped launch the Nintendo Switch. Follow him on X @ItsMrProducts.
Max Buondonno is an editor at The Shortcut. He’s been reporting on the latest consumer technology since 2015, with his work featured on CNN Underscored, ZDNET, How-To Geek, XDA, TheStreet, and more. Follow him on X @LegendaryScoop.
That you would recommend anything from a scumbag company like Adobe is despicable. Haven't you been paying attention to what they are doing to their user base?!? I'm amazed that you would do this without properly vetting the companies you recommend. Please remove me from your list.