It’s the holiday season again and here we are with our annual round-up of Christmas Gift ideas for the Editor. As always, use this as a guide for what to gift to the editor in your life or send this to your loved one as a gentle suggestion as to what you dear editor might like to have in and around the edit suite.

This list has been running for over a decade now. It’s often imitated but never duplicated so browse at your leisure: 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Stream Deck +

What would this list be without a new hardware control surface. The Stream Deck + is the next evolution of the legendary Stream Deck button console (complete with it’s tiny LCD screen buttons) and it’s basically an 8-screen Stream Deck with 4 knobs. Pretty simple really. At $200 it’s expensive enough you might not buy it for yourself so it’s the perfect gift to get from your loved one! The new piece of hardware just hit the market last week so it’s brand new and you most likely don’t have one!

LG OLED C2 line

We’ve featured high-end grading monitors before in this list, but if you’re not doing serious color grading but still want a very good, decently accurate, and just plain gorgeous monitor, then the current LG OLEDs are a great choice that feels like a nice balance between cost and performance.

Keep an eye on sales and you can pick one up for under 4 figures depending on the size. And remember, in your edit suite, you don’t need the biggest monitor you can get.

Fluval Spec aquarium

Years ago I linked to a jellyfish tank as a good Christmas Gift for an Editor (that’s real Jellyfish, not the shared storage one) but I never actually owned one. This year I want to recommend an small aquarium for the edit suite. And you can’t do much better than the very stylish Fluval Spec aquarium kit.

The Spec comes in sizes ranging from 2.6 gallons up to 16 gallons. But I think the perfect size is the 5 gallon model as you can do some nice aquascaping in there without it being a major commitment to both shelf-space and normal aquarium care. I came to have an aquarium sort of by default when my son’s aquarium hobby when from one tank to five tanks. I now can’t imagine my home edit suite without soothing sounds and sites of a freshwater aquarium. After all, the edit suite can be a stressful place so why not let an aquarium reduce that stress a bit!

Desktop Hand Massager

As editors, we sure do use our hands a lot. How about a desktop hand massager to ease some of that tension? Disclaimer, I’ve never used one of these but a while back I bookmarked this article about a desktop hands massager. That article ends up at a Japanese site about the product.

But to my surprise (not really) there are quite a few desktop hang massagers out there! How about these: Sharper Image has one for around $150. And Lunix has their LX7 touchscreen hand massager for around the same price.

Steenbeck Film Editing lapel pin

This little gem was making rounds on Twitter a few weeks ago. It’s incredibly cute and I can’t help but wonder who made it. Unfortunately, it seems that the eBay store where it was coming from is now sold out but you could keep an eye on it.

But a Google search reveals possible availability of the $13 item here on a website called Official Exclusive. I don’t know anything about that site so research first and buy at your own risk. In fact, they have a ton of great enamel pins so maybe that is their thing!

Color Bars Tapestry

What would the Christmas Gift Ideas for the Editor be without something color bars related? If you like your color bars big then a color bars tapestry might be just the thing you need. I envious this on a far away wall, away from your grading monitor or perhaps in the break room.

This seller has various sizes, ranging from 34×40 inches for $21 (these are sale prices) up to 88×104 for $60.

Color Theory Poster

This one might be more for the motion graphic designers in the crowd but perhaps all of us as long as it’s not in view when color grading. For $8.00 an Etsy shop will sell you this really cool color theory poster.

Now, note this is an “instant download” so it’s just a file, so you’ll have to take it to your local print and framing shop and get it printed and framed so in the end it’s going to cost a lot more than $8.00. But it’s still pretty cool.