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Culture & heritage · 12 guides

Gifts for Every Family at the Table

Every family has its own holidays, its own group chat and its own very strong opinions about rice. These guides celebrate the gifts that fit right in: the kitchen workhorses, holiday must-haves and game-night classics our families actually reach for, from Lunar New Year and Diwali to Noche Buena, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.

A festive holiday table with tamales, hot chocolate and papel picado
AI illustration (Higgsfield), styled for inspiration.
A note from us: these pages are written with love, and the jokes are the kind we tell about our own families. If a line misses, or you'd add something your family can't live without, send us a note. We read every suggestion and update the guides.

Pick a family

Nochebuena table with tamales on a clay platter, a pot of hot chocolate with a wooden molinillo, a molcajete of salsa and papel picadoGifts for Your Mexican Family That Survive the Tamalada (and Tía's Review)Tamalada-tested gifts for moms, tías and the whole familia.Noche Buena table under a glowing capiz star parol with a rice cooker, purple ube cake, pancit and calamansiGifts Your Lola Will Actually Use (and Not Save in the Plastic)Parols, rice cookers and ube for the titas and lolas.Lunar New Year table with stacked bamboo steamers, a wok, red envelopes, mandarins, a gongfu tea set and mahjong tilesLunar New Year Gifts That Win the “No, You Take It” StandoffLunar New Year picks that survive the polite-refusal dance.Korean family dinner table with many small banchan dishes, a tabletop grill pan, gochujang and a karaoke microphoneGifts for Your Korean Mom That Pass the “Why Did You Spend Money?” TestK-BBQ, banchan and noraebang gifts that Umma will allow.Diwali scene with glowing clay diyas on a brass tray, a flower rangoli, a steel masala dabba of spices and cups of chaiDiwali Gifts That Won't End Up in the Re-Gift CupboardDiwali gifts built to dodge the re-gift cupboard.Tết morning table with a phin filter dripping coffee over condensed milk, a bowl of phở, red envelopes and yellow apricot blossomsGifts for the Family Whose Coffee Is Stronger Than Your Life ChoicesPhin coffee, phở bowls and Tết-ready picks.Party buffet with a large pot of smoky jollof rice, suya skewers, a bowl of chin chin and folded ankara fabricGifts That Can Survive a Nigerian Party (and the Jollof Debate)Jollof-ready, party-proof gifts for the whole crew.Sunday dinner and Kwanzaa table with a wooden kinara holding red, black and green candles, cornbread in a cast iron skillet, dominoes and playing cardsGifts for the Cookout, the Card Table and the Family Reunion T-Shirt CommitteeCookout, card-table and Kwanzaa picks with real history.Italian American Sunday dinner table with fresh pasta drying on a rack, a hand-crank pasta machine, a pot of red sauce and a moka potGifts Your Nonna Will Only Mildly CritiqueSunday-gravy gifts that survive Nonna's review.Cozy Irish kitchen table with a pot of strong tea, soda bread on a board, a cream cable-knit Aran throw and crystal glassesGifts for Your Irish Family (Tea Strength: You Could Stand a Spoon Up in It)Barry's, Aran knits and the 45-minute goodbye.Hanukkah table with a brass menorah of lit candles, golden latkes with applesauce and sour cream, wooden dreidels, gelt and a braided challahHanukkah Gifts for Eight Nights (and One Very Opinionated Bubbe)Menorahs, gelt and latke gear for all eight nights.Parranda table with glasses of creamy coquito and cinnamon sticks, a wooden pilón with mofongo, tostones, a caldero of arroz con gandules and a güiroGifts for Puerto Rican Families Who Think Christmas Ends in Mid-January (It Does)Coquito, mofongo and parranda-ready gifts.

Coming next: Japanese American, Cuban American, Dominican American, Polish American, Haitian American, Persian American, Arab American, Ethiopian American, Jamaican American, Greek American, Salvadoran American, Colombian American. Tell us who we're missing.

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