That’s because the list of needs, wants, and “please can we” requests coming from all corners of an agency can feel endless on a good day - and try as you might, finding the right gift for the marketer, designer, or developer in your life can be a challenge.

That’s why we instead choose to see the holidays as a fun and festive celebration of giving, and there may be no better time than the present (hey-o) to reward those marketers, designers, and developers for being so nice all year long.

From desk decor to “you shouldn’t have”, the Altos team has got you covered this holiday season. Here’s a look at what’s exciting our teams this year - take a look and you just might find the right stocking stuffer for any agency superstar.

Gift Ideas For Developers

Figuring out what to get a developer for the holidays can seem like an especially tricky task - especially if their christmas list is all in code.

This year save yourself the hassle of returning unused snake habitats (wrong Python, my bad) and find a gift any developer will love from the minute they run unwrap.exe.

$: USB Rocket Launcher - For “Project Management”

Move over, Nerf guns. Leave it to the dev team to take office projectiles to a new level with this desktop mortar launcher. With 360-degree rotation, easy USB plug-ins, launching and aiming software, and a whopping 6-foot firing radius, this rocket launcher may just be the solution to office boredom - or, potentially, the key to the dev team’s dominance in their corner of the office.

$$: USB Hub - For Scrupulous Website Testers

Why limit yourself to only the four USB ports built into your desktop? With this mighty 49-port USB hub, your dev team can test websites right to the brink of their capabilities - all while keeping all those other desktop tchotkes (see above) charged-up without ever missing a beat. No promises on having the right USB cords for everything, though.

$$$: Drone - Because Money Ain’t No Thing

Finally, a way for the screen-savvy to take to the sky. Built for serious flying through even more serious weather, this tough-as-nails drone makes those wimpy plastic ones in the kid’s section look like true toys. Grab the controller and hang on to your hats (and, of course, observe all local and federal airspace and aviation laws - those are Santa’s to break.)

Gift Ideas For Marketers

All those horrible holiday ads you’re already sick of seeing? Yeah, you can thank marketers for that - and after a month of planning, writing, and launching holiday campaigns, it’s not uncommon for the marketers in your life to feel just a little bit over the holidays by the time the party rolls around.

That’s why we’ve put together a list of gifts sure to make even the most carol-weary marketers sing holiday praises when the big day comes.

$: The Brand Deck - To Shake Things Up

For all the time that marketers spend poring over new strategies for getting the word out to the masses, sometimes it’s refreshing (and smart) to take a step back to the basics. This simple card deck lets “players” organize ideas from a brand level, so you can really nail down Who You Are, Who You Are Not, and where there’s room for refining. Feeling bold? Check out the NSFW pack.

$$: Vine Box - For Counting Down The Days

Advent may be well on its way already, but with a calendar like this we won’t mind catching up. Pretty much every marketer we know is a fan of a good drink now and again, and this drink-by-numbers adventure makes for the perfect lead-up to whatever celebration you may have ahead. Just please, pace yourselves.

$$$: L16 Light Camera - For the Agency Instagrammer

Feel like you need to add a whole new level of “oomph” to your Insta shots? Want to rock the social media imagery and video on all your accounts? This powerfully-built, go-everywhere, 16-lens handheld camera may just make your social media team the coolest on the block. Get my good angles, please.

Gift Ideas For Designers

If you’re shopping for a designer, we wouldn’t fault you for spending more time thinking about the wrapping paper than the gift itself. But at the end of the day, that wrapping paper is going to be carefully peeled back to reveal a real gift underneath - and what’s waiting there needs to really jump out and make an impression.

Here’s a list of favorites directly from our designers, breaking down some of their most desired must-haves to keep things looking fresh straight through until next year.

$: Wireframe Card Deck - For When You Need To Go Analog

Even with a team full of “digital naturals,” our designers sometimes like to take a step back and lay things out old-school style. These handy analog wireframing cards make it easy to lay out, swap, rearrange, and nix site design elements without having to stare at a screen. Really takes you back to the meaning of “drag and drop.”

$$: Foggy Nebl Planter - For Keeping The Green

When the ground outside is all frozen under gray, white, and slush, it can be nice to have a little taste of the tropics to focus the brain. This evocative and serene planter traps a plant’s natural humidity to create a warm, misty pocket all its own - because every designer needs something mysterious to gaze into between projects.

$$$: 3Doodler Pro - Because Some Designs Need to Leap Off The Page

We like to encourage our designers to add some dimension to their designs, but we never expected them to take it quite so literally. Enter the 3Doodler Pen, basically a handheld 3D printer mixed with a pen to transform design ideas into real, 3D reality before your very eyes. And because it can draw in a variety of media (metal, poly, wood, etc.) your designers can go nuts bringing their ideas to life.

A Little Added Inspiration

Still looking for a little holiday guidance when it comes to gifts fit for a modern agency? Here’s a nice grab bag of some of our favorites - perfect for coders, marketers, designers, families, loved ones, and pretty much anybody with an agency connection.

• A standing desk mount - Go Fancy or Keep It Cheap
• Raspberry Pi Model 3 - For the Tech Tinkerer
• These Sweet Socks
• A Treehouse subscription - For the Up-and-Coming Coder
• A Piece of Green - To Keep Things Fresh Around The Office
• Oblique Strategies - To Challenge Those Creative Types
• Typographic Ticket Book - For Your Font Enforcer
• A Mug Warmer - To Prevent Cold Caffeine
• Personalized Pint Glasses - To End The Week In (Branded) Style
• Awesome notebooks for the writer
• B&O Earbuds

Seriously Though, Happy Holidays

Whether you decide to splurge on big presents for the designers, developers, or marketers in your life, or you choose to just keep things small and sentimental, the real gift is having a team that’s there for you when you need them. We count ourselves lucky for just that reason.

We may not all celebrate quite the same holidays this time of year, but all of us here at Altos are happy to have such an amazing team to keep things moving forward all year long. Thanks so much to our clients, our friends, and to you for helping us make it through another awesome year.

Happy holidays, and see you in 2019!!!