The 2026 Holiday Gift Guide: Luxury Gifts for the Design Lover’s Home

When they already own the good sofa and the good speakers, give them something that moves. It could be time spelled out in words, the phases of the moon or a message spinning into place.

QLOCKTWO: time, written out

Designed by Biegert & Funk and handmade in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Germany, a QLOCKTWO lights up the words of the time: “IT IS HALF PAST SEVEN.” The EARTH 13.5 is the bedside version, with an alarm and a Night Touch mode that keeps it dark until you tap it. The EARTH 45, formerly the CLASSIC, is the design icon, and its magnetic front can change later. The MOON 90 turns 14 prisms to show 28 phases of the moon. For the wrist there’s the QLOCKTWO W: a 38 mm word watch with no buttons. A natural turn of the wrist lights it, and it runs for up to ten days per charge.

Vestaboard: messages with motion

A Vestaboard isn’t a screen. It’s thousands of physical flaps that spin into each message you send from the free app. The Vestaboard Note (from $1,099) shows 45 characters from 2,880 flaps and sits on a shelf or hangs on a wall. The Red Dot Award-winning Vestaboard Black and White (from $3,499) show 132 characters from 8,448 flaps, and Vestaboard says they’re legible from over 50 feet.

Go deeper: how to choose a QLOCKTWO · the Vestaboard guide

Kinetic art, crystal-glass game tables and fire you can gather around. These are the gifts a home is remembered for.

ClockClock 24

From the Stockholm studio Humans since 1982, ClockClock 24 (from $7,900) is a kinetic sculpture of 24 analog clocks. Their 48 hands swirl through patterns, then line up once a minute to show the time as digital numerals. It measures 90 × 40 cm. Each one is individually numbered, hand-assembled in Stockholm and comes with a certificate of authenticity. The Black with Golden Hands edition is the most dramatic.

Impatia game tables

The Filotto Classic is a professional billiard table in low-iron crystal glass, built on a three-piece Italian slate bed with Simonis cloth. The Lungolinea Wood is an Olympic-size ping pong table: a glass top on a solid wood base, with four rackets included. The Scivolo Wood brings shuffleboard into the living room in 9 ft or 12 ft. For a one-of-a-kind table, the Elie Saab × Impatia Plissé is cut from Brazilian Patagonia marble that Elie Saab hand-selects for each table (price on request).

Fire

AK47 Design’s Moon is a wood-burning fire pit that doubles as log storage and a low table. EcoSmart Fire’s Gin 90 Chat comes with an ethanol or gas burner, in concrete or teak. See all AK47 Design and EcoSmart Fire.

For new homeowners, a statement light is the gift that turns a house into theirs. Nobody buys it for themselves in the first year.

Hammerton Studio lighting is handcrafted in Salt Lake City in artisan glass and metalwork. The Gem Pendant (from $1,095) hangs a faceted handblown crystal shade from a slim integrated-LED fixture. It works over an island, a vanity or a bedside table. The Gem Ring brings the same glass to a dining room. Each piece of Mesa glass is drawn from up to five pounds of molten glass. Aalto and Rock Crystal recast the starburst in geometric and quartz-like glass, and Blossom shades are hand-blown so no two are quite alike.

From Tom Dixon, the Melt Pendant is a mirror when it’s off and glows like hot-blown glass when it’s on. The Beat Fat is brass hand-beaten by artisans in Northern India.

Gift the choice. Chandeliers come in many sizes, finishes and glass colors, so many people give the idea and then bring the new homeowner in to choose. We’re glad to help with sizing for their ceiling and table. Start with our Hammerton Studio introduction.