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Maybe this year, you beat the holiday frenzy with gifts unlike the rest. Maybe you finally floor that one person no one knows how to shop for. Maybe you treat yourself to a shirt covered in isopods, pop a bag of citrus rinds, and just chill.
Complete with gifts for animal lovers, armchair travelers, fashionistas, and people who desperately need to crush something, this assortment is sure to please—assuming your people are as fantastically unusual as ours. May this list contribute a small delight to your year, and to that of someone you love. Welcome to Atlas Obscura’s 2024 gift guide.
Wild Life
An Explorer’s Guide to Living Wonders
Our brand-new bestseller, Atlas Obscura: Wild Life, is a parade of the planet’s most surprising and superlative flora and fauna. Brought to you by the authors behind the Atlas Obscura series, our incredible guide to the high weirdness of our natural world will inspire even the most avid nature-lover.
Gastro Obscura
A Globe-Trotting Feast for the Mind
Among insatiably hungry adventurers, this gorgeously collaged encyclopedia is as irresistible as a bowl of hard candy on a coffee table. Gift someone this whirlwind tour of more than 500 unique dishes, ingredients, and culinary traditions from around the world—just don’t be surprised when they want to travel with you.
Crush It
Sublimate destructive urges by pulverizing corn, coffee, cheese, nuts, spices, coconut, and more with this heavy-duty, cast-iron grinder produced by a Colombian family business that began in the 1930s.
All Packed
Each region of Portugal is cleverly represented by a delicacy packed in this “suitcase.” Not into organized tours? Let tinned fish, olive oil, honey, cake, and chocolate be your guides.
Lucky Charm
Is there a more fitting companion piece to Wild Life than this lil’ guy? The pink fairy armadillo is found only in the scrublands of Argentina—and on your wrist!
Swiss Mix
André’s Swiss Heritage Gift Box
From Engadiner torte to Leckerli cookies, this collection is filled with traditional Swiss confections that are hard to pronounce, but easy to love. Plus, it’s big enough to begrudgingly share.
We Ball
If there’s another competitively fitting companion piece to Wild Life, it’s a long-sleeved reminder that, “If you can’t handle me at my rolly-est, you don’t deserve me at my poly-est.”
Bittersweet Symphony
This Italian-style aperitivo makes life feel like a retro video game. Chinotto, juniper, red currant, kola nuts, allspice, orris root, and vanilla are all found in Superclasico. Alcohol, however, is superfluous.
Instant Fancy
With the help of this fine powder, cocktails, still water, and carbonated beverages alike become entrancing elixirs, glimmering hurricanes, and magical potions. It’s odorless, tasteless, and, most importantly, ethereal.
Laundry Obscura
The Definitive Guide to Clean Clothes
Learn how to get blood and rust out of your garments using beautiful watercolor illustrations and wise words from a dry-cleaning father-and-son duo based in Manhattan. Not creepy, practical!
Citrus Candy
You know yuzu, but have you met amanatsu, iyokan, kawachi bankan, or setouchi lemon? The world of Japanese citrus is vast, and this assortment offers a variety of rare rinds.