Liz + Kristen’s 10 favorite holiday picks this year

As we close out the year (phew, what a year it’s been, we wanted to devote our last episode of Spawned 2021 to cool picks of the week. Holiday style.

Whether you still have time to grab one last-minute, or you want to bookmark them for holidays, and other celebrations  in the coming year, take a listen to hear what we’re loving and why, and find all the links below to our our favorites.

1. The facial care products including the Soft Peel Exfoliator from Aloisia Beauty

2. The Dolly Parton Jolene “welcome” mat

3. Hygge gifts that Christina discovered, including the heated throw blanket (Liz loves hers!) and a few favorite scented candles.

4. The hilarious (and useful!) mute button for Zoom calls, in our roundup of wonderful tech stocking stuffers.

5. The new memoirs from Dave Grohl and Mel Brooks, which you can grab from your local bookstore.

6. Great British Baking Show winner David Atherton’s new cookbook for kids + a pair of our favorite elbow-length oven mittens that helped us get our kids in the kitchen more.

7. A relaxing subscription gift like the Calm app, Audible, or Libro FM.

8. An experience gift like a MasterClass course that someone can take alone or together with you. Lots of ideas for that right here.

9. The personalized basketball we tracked down in this guide for personalized gifts for kids of all ages — maybe pair it with some courtside WNBA seats?

10. DEFINITELY not least of all, please consider a gift to any charity that’s close to your heart — we’re especially noting Donors Choose right now. Because kids need a whole lot of extra support at school these days, and caring teachers shouldn’t be going through awful things to scrounge for the money to pay for their student’s basic supplies.

Listen here (or on your favorite podcast app), and be sure to subscribe to Spawned so you never miss an episode. And hey, if you want to send us a holiday gift that’s totally free? Leave us a kind 5-star review. It’s a nice thing to do, costs you nothing, helps other parents find us, and hey, we all could use more positivity in the world.

In fact, while you’re at it, leave some nice reviews to any podcasts you adore, especially the smaller independent ones. ‘Tis the season for giving, right?

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Something we can all use these days: Elixinol offers award-winning CBD products that can help with everything from sleep to stress, thanks to high-quality, USA-grown hemp derived from the cleanest extraction method.

Their Sleep Good Night Capsules pair CBD with plant-sourced Melatonin, and support optimal sleep, promote calm and relaxation, and help keep your circadian rhythms in tune. And their Calm Stress Support Capsules can help you stay cool, calm and collected — more of that, please.

Be sure to check out all their products  especially with this limited time special offer:

Save 40% off sitewide at Elixinol.com for a limited timewith code COOLMOM40

From the folks who bring you the popular Remind app for parent-teacher-student communication comes Remind Tutoring, at the perfect time. With lots of kids struggling to get the help they need in math Remind Tutoring offers one-on-one, live, online coaching that’s just like sitting around the kitchen table with a favorite teacher.

Classes range from elementary math for second graders, to high school classes like AP Calc and AP Statistics. They’re affordable, easy to schedule (or postpone, if needed), and best of all, you can get the first class free.

Check out the Remind Tutoring website and get your first class absolutely free when you sign up through this link. Subsequent classes are just $40 a session.