Gift Guide for Ski Families
The turkey has been eaten, and the football has been watched. Now it’s time to turn our attention to snowy December and all the exciting holidays the next month has in store!
Finding the right gifts for your ski-loving family members can be tough. This year, Mark and I will share some of our tried-and-true favorites. We’ll also reveal the wintry items topping our own gift lists this season. Here’s our first collection!
Hanna Andersson’s “Ski Slope” pajamas are made for the whole family. Flannels or joggers, full sets or separates, you’ll find comfortable options to suit every taste. With the entire site 50% off this Black Friday and many prints to choose from, the time to grab these cute, hard-wearing PJ’s is now!
Every member of our family owns this Swix boot bag. If our lodging has a washer and dryer, each family member can pack for an entire weeklong trip in his or her boot bag. The bag keeps your boots safe and secure, and you’ll find plenty of extra room for all your on- and off-mountain clothing, too.
There are glove people and there are mitten people. I am a mitten person. When my well-loved Hestra gloves packed out after several seasons, I made the shift to Hestra’s Fall Line mittens and haven’t looked back. I like keeping all my fingers together for maximum warmth, but Hestra also makes a 3-finger style for those wanting a little more dexterity. Quality materials and sustainability are top priorities for this family-owned Swedish company, and my toasty hands have been the benficiaries of their craftmanship for over a decade.
Ski moms are hardy, but we like pretty things, too! This pendant and earrings from Dayna Designs are subtle, sterling reminders of our favorte way to spend winter days.
With the right layers and good quality socks, it’s rare that our kids compain about cold on the hill. One day last season at Okemo, though, brought next-level, foot-freezing temps…and some first-ever tears. These neoprene Bootaclava boot covers offer an extra layer of toe-insulation (and a last line of defense against serious, single-digit chills).
Our family’s first season passes were issued before our local mountain shifted to RFID pass-scanning technology, so lifties needed to see our passes every time we hopped on a chair. Because around-the-neck lanyards pose lift-entrapment risks (especially for little ones), we needed a different solution. These goggle strap pass holders were it! Even now, when almost all the mountains we visit use RFID, we’ve found that little kids and chip scanners don’t always play nicely together. Sometimes, kids forget which pocket holds their pass, inadvertently cover their pass with pocket-loaded snacks, or they’re simply too short to line up with the scanners properly. Noggin-mounted passes help shorties speed through lift lines without gumming up the works.
Much of our family’s on-mountain communication relies on cell phones, but it’s never fun to dig out a phone or unearth a smartwatch in sub-freezing temperatures. No one likes peeling off a mitten and liner and fishing a cellphone from an interior chest pocket just to read, “K.” Enter Wildhorn’s Alta drop-in headphones. These bluetooth headphone chips offer over 10 hours of battery life, are Siri-friendly, and drop right into a helmet’s ear flaps. With their help, I can hear important texts (and unimportant ones) without interrupting the stoke. For music listeners (keep it low, and watch out for the kids), sound quality reviews are A+, too!
Our family spends a lot of time unloading gear from our vehicle and booting up in ski hill parking lots. As anyone who’s done this knows, handing skis down from the rooftop box and leaning them against the car is a dicey business. One step on the running board or a gently closed car door can send everyone’s equipment clattering to the ground, dinging carefully sharpened edges and scratching car paint on the way down. Enter the SnoStrip! This magnetic holder adds a little stability to carside equipment at the beginning and end of your ski days.
Want to stay warm on the hill? Don’t let the cold air in! Close-fitting balaclavas fit under ski helmets, containing flyaway hair and providing close-fitting coverage all the way down the neck. When tucked into the collar of base and midlayers, balaclavas slam the door on chills that can ruin an otherwise perfect ski day. Check out all the colors on these adults and kids balaclavas from Blackstrap!
Mark crafted our wall-mounted ski rack out of wood, but, if he hadn’t, this Ultrawall model would have been our solution. With room for ten pair of skis plus poles, its simple, easy-to-mount design has room for everything in your expanding equipment quiver.
Curious about our skis, clothing and other personal gear? Check out our online gear closet for more information on what works best for me, Mark, and the kids. We’ll have more gift ideas dropping throughout the weekend, so stay tuned!
