Gift Guides>Holiday Picks

Though I send out inclusive Happy Holidays cards to a lot of people, I think this is an especially good year to also send a specific Happy Hanukkah greeting to our Jewish friends and family. Jewish Americans tend feel a bit overlooked in…

We always have the best time looking for cool tech stocking stuffers that go beyond the usual. And by usual, I mean batteries. Whether you're just kicking off your holiday shopping by going through our gift guides or almost wrapping thin…

This is a sponsored message from Dell It's now so easy to spoil yourself -- or anyone in your life -- with the gift of technology this holiday season. That’s because Black Friday has come super early at Dell . Meaning right now. Today! F…

We know shopping for the best tech gifts for teens can be pretty challenging, but in our experience, tech is pretty much always a hit -- provided it's age appropriate. And we've got that down! For more than 10 years now, we've been in on…

This year is definitely the year of the Santa tracker app. After, all, even the biggest Santa fans among us know that while he is vaccinated (so don't worry kids) we want to keep him safe -- and him, us. So we're avoiding the mall and tu…

If you're a fan of Paperless Post like we are, don't miss out on Paperless Flyers as a genius way to send out all your last-minute holiday invitations, school fundraisers, or to invite out-of-town family to the kids' end-of-year-recitals…

Who else is in the market for cool new video games for your families? Video games tend to get a bad rap, but I've found that picking the right game can actually foster connection and fun . So if you have an avid gamer in your family and …

For over a decade now (whoa) we've been sharing the best Black Friday tips to help you find the best deals with the least hassle. Now that Black Friday has turned into "Black Friday through Cyber Monday," which turned into an entire mont…

How magical are these snow globe Pop Sockets that I just discovered for the holidays? Yes, they perform the exact same function as regular Pop Socket grips in preventing dropped phones during selfies, but also, THEY'RE SNOW GLOBES. In ca…

This holiday season, I've been researching apps for holiday planning as one of many ways to make big holiday meals easier. Whether you enjoyed last year's COVID-mandated reprieve from big get-togethers , or you're just raring to baste an…

Valentine's Day is the next holiday, after Easter , Halloween , Thanksgiving , and Christmas , that will be affected by our new socially distant lifestyle. No sprinkle-laden, heart-shaped cookies in class. No gaudily decorated shoeboxes …

I've got some good news and some bad news about subscription box gifts this holiday: The good news is that there are tons of subscription boxes out there that you can order in time to gift for Christmas for just about anyone left on your…

I am not exaggerating when I say that I cried after watching a presentation about Apple's new, totally free, Make Your Holiday at-home family program . Our kids have been through so much, and whenever I think of all the companies that ha…

Of course we had to share these incredible Mandlorian gifts now that season 3 has been announced. I know I'm not the only one with kids who are still obsessed! In fact, our devotion may have gone beyond low key a while ago. So I've put t…

Every parent wants to know how to take better pictures, especially around Christmas. A few years ago I received the completely awesome gift of a DSLR camera, but I admit I haven't entirely learned how to use it properly. I've taken thous…

There are some folks on our lists who love tech gifts, but prefer the more practical tech gifts to the gaming systems or the entertainment consoles. Or hey, maybe they love both but just have some specific needs this year. If that's the …

Next up in our Holiday Tech Guide 2019 , we're sharing the coolest tech toys and gifts for tweens and big kids. We know that they can be tricky to shop for, so we've done the research for you (not to mention asked our own tweens and big …

Parents, the vague promise that Santa will come sometime while your kids are asleep just isn't working anymore. Our kids are too tech savvy. So, for those who are anxious to track Santa's every move this Christmas Eve, we've found three …

We know lots of folks are super into essential oils these days, and there are no shortage of cool wearables and gadgets (like these essential oil jewelry , for one) to help you take your oils with you. Well, beyond wearing it on your pul…

If you really want to make someone's holiday this year, consider splurging on one of these hot smart home holiday gifts that will functionally make their lives so much easier. From smart home assistants that can turn on the coffee maker …

For our next Tech Holiday Gift Guide, we're sharing our favorite stylish tech gifts. Admittedly, they're some of our favorites to give, and receive. Hint hint. We've rounded up 10 stylish tech gifts that are perfect for someone who loves…

Next up in our Holiday Tech Gift Guide 2018 , we're featuring cool tech toys for tweens and big kids. Hey, we know first-hand how hard older kids can be to shop for, but having consulted with them we're pretty sure these tech toys, gifts…

If you're like us and have an abundance of geeks to buy for this holiday season, you'll appreciate these awesome, affordable geeky gifts under $20 for the holidays. Whether they're into Star Wars, Stranger Things, Dr. Who, or just losing…

If you're stuffing those stockings that have been hung by the chimney with care, we've got the coolest tech stocking stuffers for everyone on your list this year, from really affordable tech accessories to a few splurges. And trust us wh…

The Portable North Pole app and website is hands-down our favorite way for kids to get a chance to talk with Santa. And this year, it's back with new features that make it better than ever. For kids who are clever, curious (and maybe a l…

The gingerbread house just got a 2017 makeover thanks to this clever Super Mario gingerbread house we found at Michael's. Seriously, how fun is this? Related: The coolest craft gifts for kids You get everything you'll need to put togethe…

I've seen lots of different photo ornaments that you can make or order, but none like this clever DIY tutorial for iPhone photo ornaments we found at Chica Circle, created by Elba at Live Colorful. And hooray, it looks like even us not-s…

When I've served my turn as room parent for my kids' classrooms, I've really tried to give the teachers what they'd actually like as a gift from the group. But, a completely sentimental, tear-jerker gift is always a nice touch too. Becau…

No firewood or matches needed, just a TV or computer screen and these videos featuring your favorite super heroes' fireplaces . You'll get hours and hours of a crackling fire in various settings, from The Guardian's space ship to Tony St…

So what if it's the day before Christmas Eve? That's plenty of time to grab a fabulous gift for anyone still left on your list. (Or, maybe everyone if you're just starting). We put together a bunch of solid last-minute tech gift ideas yo…

One of my family's favorite holiday traditions is the night we tuck our kids in bed, sneak downstairs and make hot chocolate to go, then get them up and load in the car to drive around the city looking at Christmas lights. But the worst …

As we get closer to Christmas and Hanukkah (eep!) we thought we'd close out our 2016 Holiday Tech Gift Guide should help you out since it's all about last minute holiday tech deals and discounts. Yep, those of you procrastinators and bus…

We love finding swanky, stylish tech gifts for the men in our lives, and this year we're swooning over this cashmere Bluetooth beanie we spotted at Neiman Marcus. Concealed, wireless headphones are built in to the hat, designed to fit ov…

We've tried a lot of Christmas apps over the years (like, lots), and let's just say a good Santa app is hard to find. We've narrowed it down to these 5 fun Santa apps that we think your kids will love. You can track Santa's flight on Chr…

Next up in our 2016 Cool Mom Tech Holiday Tech Gift Guide , we're sharing 15 of our top picks for cool travel tech gifts. Whether you've got a business traveler on your list, a college kid coming home on holidays, or just family members …

We love finding cool custom photo gift, because hello, we're moms! We're sentimental like that. But also, they make great gifts because they demonstrate that some real thought and love went into creating it, even if it doesn't cost a for…

Who ever thought that one day, the fine art of thoughtfully handwritten, artful notes would be considered punk? Well, the husband-wife team behind Punk Post is who. And they are determined to bring handwriting back in the coolest way pos…

Looking for the best Black Friday online deals? We've got them, because we're all about shopping in our pajamas today and spending a little more time with our families. Or leftover stuffing. Or possibly both. Keep in mind, these Black Fr…

Well, we've seen Pride & Prejudice for zombie fans , Pride & Prejudice for doodlers , and Pride & Prejudice for babies too young to know books as anything besides delicious teething toys. So I can't say I'm entirely surprised that someon…

Ah, remember the days that you'd run to Blockbuster Video Christmas eve to find there was like one copy of Silent Night, Deadly Nigh t left and that was pretty much it? No more! We asked our staff and our Facebook fans for their favorite…

We're big fans of Santa around here, as you might have guessed. What, us risk making the naughty list? Never!) So if you're looking for some fun Santa apps to help bring the big guy to life on your phone, tablet, or laptop and make belie…

With only a few days until Christmas, we want to make it really easy for you to finish up your holiday tech gift shopping with some last minute holiday gift ideas. In other words, no need to drive yourself crazy -- or drive yourself to 1…

If your kids' Christmas music playlist is already feeling worn out, we've got a great tune for you to check out, with the funky Santa Flying In Your Sleigh , by singer-songwriter Todd McHatton . And it's free! The song contrasts a young …

Sometimes I need just a little quiet at home over the holidays, you know? And since my kids are app-crazy anyway, they always think it's a treat to find cool new Christmas apps for kids that they haven't tried yet. While we have a few fr…

While we always share the coolest advent calendars on Cool Mom Picks each year, though none might be quite so 21st century as the genius, photo-a-day Hubble Telescope Advent Calendar . Visit the Atlantic online each day for a new, remark…

Sending holiday photo cards is as much a part of our holiday season as sugar cookies, sparkling lights, hot cocoa, and chestnuts roasting on an open fire -- or at least listening to Nat King Cole croon about it. I always look forward to …

Recently, we were thrilled to find Take Back Halloween , an amazing site for women (and girls) hoping for a few more Halloween costume options besides "sexy nurse." Or sexy anything, really. I loved seeing this Ada Lovelace costume which…

This being the year of the emoji , of course someone was going to rock the emoji pumpkin carving idea in a big way. What's better, is that it's BHG and they're making it easy for you to follow along with a whole bunch of cool, free emoji…

With an average of 300 emoji reportedly tweeted each second, it's time to give into our graphical language overlords; our long-standing means of written communication has officially reverted back to the days of hieroglyphics and cave dra…

If you've got a valentine or special person who deserves a card but isn't spending the day with you this year, Paperless Post is always one of our go-to destination for the best ecards online. They've got thank you notes, invitations, an…

I'm much more of a silly card kind of girl than sentimental, which is why I'm digging these funny Valentine's Day cards that are made just for tech lovers, social media users, or well, anybody who owns a smartphone. Isn't that everyone t…

It's true that Tinder has a reputation for being a hook-up app, but hey, people have met on it and fallen in love, or at least, heavy like. And if that's you, well this Valentine's Day card is for you Internet lovebirds. This hilarious c…

This past week, I've received holiday cards with perfectly styled children smiling on them, as well as wildly creative cards using sidewalk chalk or album cover art, like the holiday cards we featured in our Creative Holiday Photo Cards …

It's Christmas! Time to sip some cider or egg nog and enjoy the age-old tradition of playing on the iPad with your kids. Ha. Even though the technology is so not what we had as kids, these fun Christmas apps are getting us in a festive m…

You might think that we'd have all of our shopping finished, but even we keep running out of hours in the day. So we've gathered all the details on holiday shipping deadlines from a bunch of our favorite online retailers -- some techie, …

My daughter came home from school last week, begging for a video chat with Santa. How very 21st century. But what was more surprising was that my ever-practical, Elf-on-the-Shelf-mocking, not-believing-in-Santa kid flip-flopped! And I ow…

While we love finding cool gifts for kids under $15 that don't seem like stocking stuffers, there's something to be said for finding actual awesome stocking stuffers that won't break the bank either. It's not easy though when you've got …

Oh my geeky friends, not just any old holiday card will do, especially if you're taking the time to write it, stamp it, and send it in the actual mail, which is why I had to share these 3 geeky holiday cards I found that gave me a much-n…

Need to add a little oomph to your Christmas decorations? Want your gingerbread house to be the one that makes all the others jealous? Going for the win in this year's Ugly Christmas Sweater contest? You may need a little bit of help wit…

Our family Christmas tree is never going to be pictured in a design magazine, and that's not just because I let the kids do the decorating. I like to let my family's personality shine through our ornaments, which means all of those kid-c…

Elf on the Shelf does nothing for my kids at all, but top the little fellow with this free printable Minecraft head , and now we're talking. I assume that a Minecraft Santa Elf on the Shelf would monitor their screentime and would make s…

Jack Frost nipping at your nose? Perfect time to gather 'round the fire and get merry, toasty and bright. No need to load on the logs, though. These flames are coming from your computer. Oh, yes. Yule Log 2.0 is back for a second season,…

This is a sponsored message from RadioShack With the holiday shopping season officially here, finding the perfect holiday tech gifts doesn't have to be harder than hitting your local RadioShack , where they've stocked their shelves with …

Having now been undead for a bit then back again, we can tell you being alive is much more fun. We'll take Mini Reeses over brains any day. Or wait, maybe both? ( Hey, you got peanut butter in my cerebellum... ) If you want to have fun w…

Thanks for hanging with us throughout 2013. It has been such an honor for us to have such an amazing, smart, challenging, savvy community. We're excited for everything 2014 holds for us--and for you. Happy New Year! -Kristen, Liz, and Te…

Here's hoping your gadgets come fully charged, your cords stay untangled, and you get a little time to play with your new toys until the kids try to take them from you. Merry merry, to cool moms and dads everywhere. -Liz, Kristen, & Team…

If you have some serious LEGO appreciators in the house or you never got around to the perfectly posed group family photo for the annual holiday card, we have you covered. With the DIY LEGO minifigure family holiday ecard . If you--and y…

Yesterday, our editor Liz Gumbinner had a blast visiting GMA Live to discuss 5 picks for hot holiday tech gifts under $100 --and take a selfie on air, Kardashian-style, with the adorable and charming Ginger Zee using one of her cool gift…

Chestnuts roasting on an open… laptop? Yep, there's now a techie alternative to the traditional yule log for those of us who can't, for whatever reason, enjoy a real fire. It's a Yule Log on your computer. And there are dozens choose fro…

My son has told me at least four times today exactly how many days away Christmas is. I think you could say the countdown is officially on. So, I'm going to set the default home screen on our kitchen computer to Google's Santa Tracker —a…

I'm not kidding you when I say that every year, I plan to do one of those cool advent calendars with little toys or candies in every counting-­down window, and every year, I don't follow through. (Sad face.) That's why this adorable adve…

I've always loved Kikkerland Design, because guaranteed, every time you click over you'll see something you never noticed before that you kind of have to have. Or at this time of year, that you have to give to someone else. Then hope the…

We hope you're having a wonderful, peaceful, joyous Mother's Day filled with lots of love. And if you don't see this today because you're totally unplugged? We wouldn't blame you one bit. -Liz, Kristen, and everyone at Cool Mom Tech [via…

Dear Mom: You worked hard to make opportunities for me. You still do. So I'll honor you this Mother's Day with a gift that helps make opportunities for other mothers and their kids. Bonus: This personalized giving option happens entirely…

I love finding interesting gifts for camera lovers that aren't necessarily $500 lenses. The retro camera candles I recently found made me super happy, and now here's one more gift that's doing the same--just in time for Mother's Day. Flo…

This year, my husband and I decided to have a low key Valentine's Day, which is perfectly fine with me since I'm busy printing hundreds of last-minute classroom valentines for my kids. I'm probably still going to buy a little gift becaus…

QR codes can do a lot of fancy things, like providing exclusive information or great discount codes for lattes. But I happen to love them best when they're wearable in silver and gold, and carrying a secret message just for you. The QR C…

If you're like me, you have a love-hate relationship with auto-complete and autocorrect, which have given me giggles and conversely, near heart stops when I see what pops up as I type. Or um, accidentally send. Oops. But my feelings for …

Merry Christmas cool techie mamas and papas! May your families be happy and healthy, may your home be magically cleaned by fairies tonight, and may all your tech gifts come with batteries pre-installed. Enjoy your day, and we look forwar…

It's the home stretch for us Christmas revelers, and if you're anything like me, 'Twas the night before Christmas" is a holiday tradition. And if you're like me, you still have a check list of "to do's" that rivals Santa's tonight. That'…

Waking up on Christmas Eve with the stress of needing a couple more gifts for those "hard to buy" people is no fun at all. So, let me play Helpful Elf by telling you about a great last-minute, charitable gift that will fill your recipien…

Before kids, we looked forward to spending our Christmas holidays catching up on every Oscar-contender in the theater. Now though? We're more likely to stay home and watch the Christmas classics, or sharing our own childhood favorites wi…

It's December 1st and despite pulling together some of the very best printable advent calendars out there, we're out of ink. And I'm out of time if my back-up plan was to purchase something great online. Thankfully, like a Christmas mira…

If you've mustered enough energy from yesterday's all-out turkey fest to hit the stores today, we're sure you'll be snagging some incredible Black Friday tech deals. But since it can be a little overwhelming to keep track of all the disc…

I'm all for baby Halloween costumes that are quick, clever, and possibly made by someone else. (Let's face it, you'll be lucky if a baby lets you get one good picture in before melting down.) And that is why I'm all over this awesome R2-…

We're all longtime fans of Pingg , the free ecard site with their designs created by independent artists and designers. It's been a while since we checked in, and now they've got so many cool new options especially for any summer parties…

We've covered virtual cupcake baking apps and even cupcake ATM machines . But if you love cupcakes (and, really, who doesn't?), here's the killer iPad app you've been waiting for. The Food Network Cupcakes! is pretty much the best thing …

From the bottom of our hearts, we want to wish you the happiest of Mothers Days. Whether you found yourself with a new Kindle today, or just the cutest ever crayon drawing of "Momm" we hope you're doing something wonderful. As for us, th…

We love how diverse families have become and we definitely recognize that the typical Mother's Day card might not meet everyone families needs. Luckily, we found a site with free Mother's Day e-cards that acknowledge all kinds of moms an…

Pat the Bunny is a baby book staple in most households, including mine, where I got at least three copies at my baby shower. After all, it's one of the very first interactive books. So not surprisingly he's finally gone digital with a fu…

My fellow geeks, we are a truly persnickety bunch, especially when it comes to social media. It takes a lot to earn our Likes, even more to earn our Shares, and a truly hilarious and Tina Fey-esque miracle to merit a DM. These cards? Tot…

Valentine's Day cards for your beloved geek can be hard to come by, especially if you don't want a 24-pack of tear-off Lego/Star Wars figures saying, "Valentine, you're the Obi-Wan for me!" This Etsy shop may have one of the most chic co…

Raising a virtual glass of champagne to all the cool parents of the world, wishing you a happy and healthy 2012. -Liz, Kristen, Beth and the Cool Mom Tech team.

May your day be merry and bright...and maybe even internet-free. If such a thing is possible. Starting tomorrow, we'll be back all week with our top tech pick of 2011! In the meanwhile... Happy holidays ! Liz, Kristen, Beth + the whole C…

One of the highlights of our year was putting together our second annual tech gift guide . But we understand that you might still be looking for that perfect tech gift, which hey, we totally get. We're busy moms too. So to help you out w…

For the geek who has everything, we've finally found the alpha and omega of custom gifts. Anyone can have a star. Anyone can have a diamond (at least, a little one). But now you can name a unique mathematical theory after your special so…

Does your dad have an Einstein 'fro? Does he spend spend his day in a lab coat? Is he an aspiring inventor, a dork, a science teacher, a science homework helper, or just the kind of guy who loves Think Geek t-shirts? Then chances are he'…

From Liz, Kristen, Beth, Christina, and everyone at Cool Mom Tech, we wish you a peaceful, happy, wonderful day, filled with good family, good food, and hopefully not too many plastic clamshell packs to have to pry open. And thanks to al…

We're having such a great time working with Best Buy here on Cool Mom Tech over the last week. (You have been entering our gift card giveaways , right?) In fact, a few days ago, our co-founder Kristen headed out to her local Best Buy to …

The holiday cards are starting to trickle in and it's always such a treat to receive greetings from dear family and friends from near and far. With each one, I'm reminded that we need to get moving on ours as well (as opposed to our Happ…