These great digital gifts will arrive just in time for Christmas
These great digital gifts will arrive just in time for Christmas
And just like that, Christmas is less than two days away, which is too soon for most items bought online to arrive in time. That said, you aren’t alone if you waited too long to start buying gifts this year, and you definitely aren’t alone in feeling guilty for considering digital gifts instead of something your recipient can unwrap. But here’s the thing: digital gifts can still unlock memorable experiences, be it movies, games, or music. They also let your giftee choose exactly what they want from the store, making them both convenient and versatile.
Below, we’ve curated a list of some of the best digital goodies that folks at The Verge have used or gifted. The list is curated by interests, too, so you can find the perfect present whether your loved one is into the arts, exercise, or something else entirely. That way, you’ll at least be able to gift something more thoughtful than an Amazon or Walmart gift card — even if those are still totally viable options in our book.
Gifts for film and TV buffs
Whether you’re shopping for a movie buff or an avid sports fan, there are a number of subscriptions that’ll grant your giftee access to a wide range of content. Below are some of the most popular, as well as a few catered toward anime diehards, horror lovers, and those looking for something more niche.
Disney Plus gift card
Where to Buy:
- A gift card to a major streaming service like Netflix (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart), Peacock (Peacock), or Paramount Plus (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart) is a good gift that’ll cater to all kinds of passions. On Netflix, they can spend their holiday binging KPop Demon Hunters and Stranger Things, while Peacock provides access to shows like The Paper, Parks and Recreation, and Poker Face. A Paramount Plus subscription, meanwhile, lets you dive into Dexter, Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, and the entire Taylor Sheridan universe — including newer series like Landman and the latest Yellowstone spinoff, 1923.
- A Criterion Channel gift card grants access to more than a thousand classic and contemporary Hollywood, international, arthouse, and independent films. It also features programming that spotlights directors, stars, genres, and themes, including a “15-minute-a-month film school.”
- For the anime lovers in your life, a Crunchyroll gift card provides access to hundreds of anime shows and films shortly after they air in Japan, including Jujutsu Kaisen, Blue Lock, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury. They can even use the gift to purchase Crunchyroll’s extensive collection of anime figures, vinyl records, and clothes.
Gifts for the gamers
If you’re not sure which type of games your giftee prefers, you can gift them an Xbox, PlayStation, or Nintendo subscription. Not only will these memberships grant them access to free digital games, but they also include perks such as online multiplayer and cloud saves, among other incentives.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (three-month sub)
Where to Buy:
- If your giftee is a PlayStation 5 owner, a PlayStation Plus membership grants them access to free titles and discounts every month, lets them play games online, and allows them to access cloud-based backups. PlayStation Plus memberships start at $9.99 a month, and you can subscribe directly via PlayStation or buy a subscription with a PlayStation Plus gift card, which is available at Amazon, Best Buy, and Target in denominations starting at $10 and going up to $250.
- Nintendo Switch lovers, meanwhile, might enjoy an annual subscription to Nintendo Switch Online, which starts at $19.99 a year (Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop). The membership lets giftees play more than 150 retro games released during the NES, SNES, and original Game Boy eras. They can also play online with friends, access cloud saves for games, and listen to their favorite Nintendo tunes via the Nintendo Music mobile app.
- If you’re willing to fork out extra money, you can also buy an annual Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription. In addition to offering all the same benefits as the Switch Online membership, it also grants access to Game Boy Advance, Sega Genesis, and Nintendo 64 games, as well as DLC content for select titles. One of the latest additions is that the newer Switch 2 Editions of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are included as free downloads for members. Individual annual plans cost $49.99 (Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart), while a family plan — which allows for up to eight accounts — is available via gift card at Amazon, Target, and Best Buy for $79.98.
- Alternatively, you could buy a gift card to a store like GameStop (GameStop), which is helpful if you don’t know which console your giftee prefers, or if you want to give them the option of buying accessories and games.
Gifts for the adventurers and globe-trotters
Is your giftee in dire need of a screen break? Fortunately, the internet is filled with travel-oriented gifts, ranging from the obvious — like airline gift cards — to national park passes.
America the Beautiful National Park Pass
Where to Buy:
- A GetYourGuide gift card provides an easy way to take advantage of guided tours and fun tourist attractions at various destinations around the world, allowing your loved one to swim with sharks in Cape Verde or explore volcanoes like Italy’s Mount Etna (when it’s not erupting).
- For aspiring polyglots, a Rosetta Stone membership makes it easy to learn French, Arabic, Japanese, and other languages from the comfort of home. Along with lessons, memberships come with helpful extras, including speech recognition tech to get the accent just right. At the moment, Rosetta Stone is offering hefty discounts on a number of plans, with the 12-month tier for one language starting at around $143 ($96 off).
- Finally, a gift card to a rideshare service like or Lyft (Amazon, Best Buy, Target) or Uber (Amazon, Best Buy, Target) — the latter of which is also good toward Uber Eats — will come in handy when they need a ride to the airport or a way home if their New Year‘s Eve plans include popping a few celebratory shots.
Gifts for health and wellness fans
For health and wellness enthusiasts, many services offer a wealth of streamable fitness classes to help them get fit at home. Other gifts can help your giftee practice self-care and lighten their load with meditation or massage. Below, we’ve listed out a range of options that’ll help your recipient take care of both their body and mind.
Peloton gift card
Where to Buy:
- A gift card for Headspace, a popular mindfulness app, offers members access to hundreds of expert-taught meditations, each designed to help them relax, sleep better, and improve their mental health. A gift subscription will run you $38.99 for three months, or you can save by getting 12 months for $48.99 ($21 off).
- Fitbit Premium subscriptions start at $9.99 a month or $79.99 a year (33 percent off) and are available to all, even if your giftee doesn’t own a Fitbit (though they’ll be able to enjoy more in-depth metrics if they do). A membership comes with thousands of guided and customizable workouts, which cover everything from martial arts and dance to meditation. Fitbit also offers guided programs covering topics like nutrition, along with the option to work one-on-one with a professional health coach for an extra $54.99 a month.
- For those who prefer in-person classes to virtual, a gift card that goes toward a ClassPass subscription will let your giftee try out thousands of gyms and fitness studios in their local area, not to mention nearby salons and spas.
- If your giftee is too busy to prepare healthy meals every day, a gift card to Blue Apron, HelloFresh, or any meal prep service that offers a healthy selection of meal kits will be very welcome.
Gifts for foodies
Whether they’re a diehard foodie, a wine connoisseur, or a caffeine addict, the internet is filled with subscriptions and gift cards for all types. Below are just a few of our favorites.
Eater Wine Club
Where to Buy:
- A Sur La Table gift card (Sur La Table, Kroger, Staples) is a great gift for the beloved chef in your life. They can use it to buy whatever they need for the kitchen, as well as to take online cooking classes in which live instructors help students make everything from chicken piccata to tiramisu. Classes start at $39 per household, and each lasts 90 to 120 minutes.
- For those with a sweet tooth, Goldbelly’s monthly ice cream subscription allows them to enjoy up to six pints of ice cream or 24 ice cream sandwiches a month, all of which are sourced from small creameries all over the country. It’s a pricey subscription, however, with a three-month plan going for an eye-watering $298.95. You can explore other subscription types, too, from BBQ to New York City staples, or get a gift card so your recipient can order whatever they’d like.
- Counter Culture roasts delicious bags of coffee sourced from all around the globe. If you’re lucky enough to find them in local stores, well, lucky you! For coffee lovers looking to try their next great bag of beans, grab a gift card that can pay for a one-off order, or enroll in the company’s subscription service that sends coffee to you as frequently as you’d like.
- Sometimes, it’s better to leave the cooking to somebody else. For foodies, a gift card to a food delivery service like DoorDash (Amazon, Best Buy, Target) lets them nab some crab rangoons from their favorite Chinese restaurant without leaving home.
Gifts for music lovers
Whether your giftee is a musician or just loves to unwind with music, there are plenty of digital gifts catered toward their interests. We all know about Spotify gift cards (Amazon, Best Buy, Target), but there are also other streaming services that you can gift as a subscription, some of which we’ve highlighted below.
Apple Music
Where to Buy:
- For the audiophiles out there, a Tidal gift card (Walmart, PayPal, Best Buy) is great because it lets them stream music at the highest audio quality. The ad-free service starts at $10.99 per month and lets giftees enjoy support for lossless FLAC audio, Dolby Atmos Music, and Sony’s 360 Reality Audio formats. If they happen to be a DJ or aspire to become one, paying $9 a month extra grants them access to the so-called “DJ Extension,” which provides a high-quality catalog of more than 110 million songs they can mix with popular DJ software and hardware.
- If you know somebody who’s always wanted to learn to play the guitar, a Fender Play subscription can help them do so thanks to a continuously updated catalog of hundreds of instructor-led video lessons. You can gift them six months for $49.99 or 12 months for $149.99.
- Lastly, a Ticketmaster or StubHub (Amazon, Best Buy, Staples) gift card is a present that lets your loved one buy a ticket to see their favorite musicians perform live.
Gifts for the bookworms
Obviously, you could just gift a bibliophile a book, and they’d probably be happy. But what if you don’t know what your giftee is into or simply want to give them more options? In that case, a gift card to their favorite bookstore or a subscription to something like Kindle Unlimited — which grants members access to millions of ebooks and select audiobooks — is a good idea. That said, we’ve rounded up some of our favorite alternatives below.
Audible Premium Plus (one-month subscription)
Where to Buy:
- For fans of Marvel and DC comics, as well as manga like Fairy Tale, a Comixology Unlimited subscription is perfect. For $5.99 a month, they’ll be able to enjoy over 45,000 comics and graphic novels, not to mention more than 2,400 manga titles from their phone or tablet. Subscribers also get discounts on select digital books.
- You can also gift a Book of the Month membership, which currently starts at $59.99 for a three-book plan. The company curates a small selection of five to seven bestsellers and classics for members every month, making it easy to quickly choose something to read.
- If your giftee prefers to pick up books from a brick-and-mortar bookstore, a gift card to Barnes & Noble (Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Best Buy) might be a good idea. For those who want to support local bookstores, there’s also a gift card for Bookshop.org.
- For those who prefer traditional newspapers and magazines, you can gift a subscription to The New York Times or The Washington Post, or publications catered to specific interests like Cosmopolitan and National Geographic.
Gifts for the creatives
Movie buffs and bibliophiles are easy to shop for, but what do you get the creative type? It’s actually not that hard — just buy them something to help them create, whether that’s an online course or access to a new tool. Below are a few subscriptions and gift cards that creators will love, all of which you can buy at the last minute.
Skillshare (three-month subscription)
Where to Buy:
- A MasterClass membership — which normally starts at $10 a month but is currently 50 percent off for all tiers — provides access to classes taught by world leaders and other subject matter experts, including screenwriters, musicians, and business experts. Going for a Masterclass Plus or Premium subscription allows concurrent viewing on two or six devices, respectively, and also unlocks offline viewing.
- An Adobe Creative Cloud subscription ($69.99 a month) is a great gift for aspiring and experienced creative professionals alike, one that provides access to popular tools like Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, and InDesign. Adobe doesn’t yet support gifting subscriptions, so you’ll need to create a new account or log in to an existing account your recipient may have. You can also purchase digitally redeemable Creative Cloud subscription codes from partner retailers like Best Buy, which has a 12-month plan on sale for $579 (about $200 off) right now.
- If you know somebody trying to learn how to code, a subscription to the coding educational platform Codecademy ($29.99 a month) can help them build their portfolio with online courses, a community, fun events, cheat sheets, and other resources. There’s even a $39.99-a-month plan for those looking to change career paths, which offers all the above, plus technical interview help.
- For giftees into arts and crafts, a Craftsy membership (normally $123 a year, but just $1.79 for a limited time) grants access to more than 2,000 live and on-demand classes led by experts covering everything from baking and cake decorating to woodworking and painting. Members also get to connect with other crafters in the Craftsy community and attend live events.
Gift cards for pretty much anyone
Amazon gift card
Where to Buy:
- Sometimes the best gift card is one that’ll give your giftee a ton of options, especially if you’re having a hard time figuring out what they want. Gift cards from major retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, Walmart, and Target are perfect in these situations, namely because they’ll let your giftee choose whatever they like from a wide range of departments.