2016 Holiday Gift Guide

Image From NASA: courtesy of The Cassini-Huygens Project team.

For the past few years, the Women in Astronomy blog has posted a holiday gift guide in preparation for the vast array of holidays celebrated in December. The 2014 post included links to various shopping and blogging sites focused on science and empowering girls (many of which are still useful today), and the 2015 post focused on a gift giving guide from the creators of STARtorialist. Just in time for Black Friday and Cyber Monday, here's the 2016 Holiday Gift Guide, which is mostly links to help get the perfect gifts for the space fans in your life this holiday season.


A Mighty Girl has released a blog on the Top 50 Science gift for Might Girls, including space themed items such as a Solar System Puzzle, the Stomp Rocket Jr. Glow Kit, the Moon in My Room glow light, the Solar System Planetarium, and a Telescope & Astronomy kit.  Emily Lakdawalla from The Planetary Society has released her yearly blog on space books for kids of all ages.  Geek Warped has come out with The Best Astronomy Gifts for 2016, which includes Solar System Cookies, a Space Mission Sandbox Play Set, and even Galaxy Soap. Buzzfeed has a feature on 29 gifts that are out of this world, including something I purchased to help wrap all my gifts this year: Galaxy Duct Tape (which works great with Zazzle's Outer Space Wrapping Paper).  I unfortunately won't be purchasing anyone the Van Cleef and Arpels  astronomical watch, with accurate orbits of the planets around the Sun, due mainly to its staggering $245,000 price tag, however, the Catstronaut art print is within my price range.  Space.com has up their 2016 Space gifts Guide, and of course there's always the Starstuff section of ThinkGeek.  For all things NASA, Kennedy Space Center Visitor's Complex has an online store.

Zizou (owner of this blogger) highly recommends this Star Sky Night Light for the astronomy-loving cat in your family.  She also recommends never trying to use the Galaxy Duct Tape (center) while wrapping your cat.  Painting (background) and cat not purchasable...

Many recent conversations have included important charities that need support now more than ever before. This has included Planned Parenthood, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Human Rights Campaign, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN). The Eartheasy Blog featured a list of 10 High Impact Environmental Charities to give to, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, the Rainforest Alliance, and the Sierra Club Foundation. The World Wildlife Fund, focused on conserving natural resources, has an online gift center which includes adoptable buckets of stuffed toy species (who doesn't want to adopt a narwal, the unicorn of the sea?!?).

UPDATES:

March 2017 from The Year in Space Wall Calendar.
Get your copy today!

The Year in Space Wall Calendar is a bit different from the average space calendar: it's larger, has more information and images, and it also includes profiles of key people related to each monthly topic. And the calendar features profiles of many of the amazing women from our fields! The 2017 calendar features profiles of Alice Bowman (Pluto), Carol Raymond (Dawn/Ceres), Carly Howett (Cassini), Farisa Morales (Spitzer), Shardha Jogee (Edge-on Galaxies), Chryssa Kouveliotou (Magnetars) and Eileen Collins (Shuttle Discovery).

There's also a great IllumniScarf LED Constellation Scarf from Shenova, which is stunning for winter time!  It's fleece, 72 inches long, and a much needed bright light on those brutally cold winter days (and it's a great safety feature after sun set)!






I'll work to update this as more lists become available...