Our holiday gift guide is full of the year’s best stuff

This collection of 12 D&D-inspired minifigs comes packaged with at least one unique accessory each, and they’re the perfect addition to any campaign.

The Govee TV Backlight 3 Lite is an easy way to add accent lighting to your living room that reflects the on-screen action. Composed of a sensor and light strip, the Backlight 3 Lite is available in three tiers based on the size of your set — i.e., the length of the backlights required — supporting TVs that range from 40 inches all the way up to 85 inches.

If you want a controller to use with your Steam Deck, whether it’s docked or on a stand, you have many options. The Deck supports most controllers that connect via Bluetooth or USB. This includes controllers you may already have laying around if you own consoles, like those that control the Xbox Series X, PS5, or Nintendo Switch, and more.

There are multiple reasons why the Arctis Nova Pro Wireless is one of the best gaming headsets you can buy. It’s comfortable, it looks like a set of high-end headphones, and it sounds incredible. What’s more, the Arctis Nova Pro base lets you plug in two audio sources (say, your PS5 and PC) at once, and you can flip between them with the push of a button.

The story of a boy with a vivid imagination and his best friend (a stuffed tiger, naturally) defined many a childhood. This four-volume paperback box set — also sold as three hardcover books — features every Calvin and Hobbes cartoon that appeared in syndication from 1985 until Bill Watterson’s retirement in 1996. Use the on-page coupon to save $41.66 on the hardcover version at Amazon.

While competition has stiffened with powerful portables, Valve’s delightfully chunky Steam Deck is great for playing even the latest AAA releases on the go. Having the Steam store at your fingertips means you’re never far from another tempting deal or demo. And if you’re OK with paying more, the new Steam Deck OLED features a gorgeous OLED screen and longer battery life.

Intended as a guided tutorial to building your own decks, the Starter Collection includes 387 cards, a trio of booster packs, and a bunch of cool accessories.

The single-volume hardcover includes 30 color illustrations, maps, and sketches (all produced by the author) sprinkled throughout its 1,248 pages. Inside, you’ll also find a pair of removable fold-out maps of Frodo’s journey and of Middle-earth produced by J.R.R. Tolkien’s son, Christopher.

The latest version of the D&D Player’s Handbook features a lighter rules introduction and streamlines character creation, making it more welcoming to new players.

This lovely tile-laying game is enchanting, easy to pick up, and great to keep around for chill game nights. Specific tile patterns and complete sets earn you points, but wasting tiles can set you back. Once all the tiles are gone, the player with the most points wins.

The first Dragon Age title in nearly 10 years, Dragon Age: The Veilguard places a renewed emphasis on combat, but still carries the hallmarks of BioWare’s role-playing roots.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom puts the eponymous princess front and center after Link gets lost in a mysterious rift. Despite the shift in protagonist, this game shares a lot of DNA with modern Zelda titles.

This dedicated remote player lets you play your favorite PS5 games anywhere in the house over Wi-Fi, or stream about 120 PS5 games without a console. The Portal maintains DualSense’s key features, such as realistic haptics and adaptive triggers.

The Meta Quest series continues to be one of the best entry points into VR gaming, and it also includes a free copy of Batman: Arkham Shadow.

If you’re all in on game streaming, the 4K Fire TV Stick is a great way to play Xbox games through Game Pass. This bundle has everything you need to get started: the stick, a gorgeous Sky Cipher Xbox controller, and one month of Game Pass Ultimate.

Mechanism corners the niche market on mounts for the Steam Deck, extending all the way to a lap-friendly pillow. The Gaming Pillow utilizes the Deckmate’s clever attachment to let your Steam Deck be angled toward you just right, so that it’s both comfortable to look at and to use.

Grid makes shadow box-style art pieces from the authentic, dissected remains of your favorite gaming gadgets, including the classic Game Boy, the original PlayStation DualShock controller, and more.

Love Letter packs all of the spicy drama and intrigue of Bridgerton into a deck of just 16 cards. Similar to Coup, Love Letter is a game of secrets as you attempt to deduce the contents of other players’ hands and uncover the single princess card among them.

The creators of Persona have created a high-fantasy epic with a lot of loving nods to Hieronymus Bosch. It’s one of the year’s best, and if you’re the sort who likes maximum playtime with each purchase, you can be sure that Metaphor will provides dozens of hours of intrigue.

There’s a brilliance to Unmatched, wherein each set is its own self-contained starter kit featuring famous heroes versus villains, which can then be mixed and matched into other Unmatched sets to get very weird battles. We’re fans of Cobble & Fog — with Sherlock Holmes, Jekyll/Hyde, the Invisible Man, and Dracula — but it’s hard to go wrong with any of them.

This may not have been the big Nintendo hardware announcement we wanted this year, but those that have picked it up really enjoy this nightstand buddy. This alarm clock plays Nintendo sounds to wake you up, getting more intense if you snooze through the alarm.

This perfectly sized 1,497-piece Lego set pays homage to Steven Spielberg’s classic movie, and goes one step further by providing a decorative stand for when you want Bruce the shark to take a break from all the destruction.

There are so many Easter eggs in this 3,093-piece set that’s based specifically on the recent X-Men ’97 animated revival. Our favorite? Seeing Gambit’s power at Lego scale.

This scale model replica of the Xbox 360 is full of fun details. In addition to a replica copy of Halo 3 and the 360 controller, this model console features a fully modeled interior with lights and a working disc drive.

The Odyssey G8 is a slick, curved, 34-inch gaming monitor that features a 175 Hz refresh rate at a 3440-by-1440 resolution. The FreeSync-compatible monitor can also access a variety of streaming services via its built-in gaming hub.

The iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit is equipped with 64 individual bits and other handy tools to mod or repair virtually any controller or handheld.

In one of Polygon’s favorite party games, players are tasked with guessing where one of their teammates thinks a clue lands on a given spectrum (i.e., hot/cold, need/want). Endlessly replayable and great for large groups, Wavelength is a riotous test of how well you understand the ways your friends think.

Any self-respecting sci-fi fan should read (and reread) James S.A. Corey’s award-winning series. Set in a future where a mass conspiracy threatens the already rocky peace among the colonized solar system, The Expanse is a sweeping space opera with complicated political machinations and even more complex characters.

Kirby has been many things and used many weapons to defeat foes (including his own voracious appetite), but this adorable plush dares to ask the question: What if Kirby had a gun?

A must-own handheld for any retro gaming enthusiast, the Analogue Pocket is easily the best way to play cartridge-based Game Boy games natively without the need for emulation.

Nintendo’s latest Switch and Switch OLED bundles offer $79 in free goodies, including Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and a full year of the Nintendo Switch Online membership, granting you the ability to play online and to check out a growing library of classic NES, SNES, and Game Boy titles.

The simple but engaging gameplay in poker-based deck builder Balatro makes it way too easy to say “just one more game,” and has become absolutely flush with free content since launch.

This year, Sony has bundled the new, slim digital version of the PlayStation 5 with a free copy of NBA 2K25.

If you love the responsive, bouncy, and endlessly creative spirit of Mario 3D platformers, you’ll love Team Asobi’s PS5-exclusive game Astro Bot.

You can rent or buy most movies through digital services, but nothing beats actually owning your favorite films on 4K Blu-ray. Panasonic makes the best disc players around for watching them at their best quality.

This ready-to-play set includes two 60-card decks that serve as a great entry point into MTG and also works as a sampler to one of the newest Universes Beyond expansions. It’s such a great fit that we’re surprised it took this long to happen.

It’s no secret that this is one of the most comfortable gaming chairs you can buy, and that’s before you use its complimentary memory foam head pillow. The plainer designs are great, but if you’ve got the budget, you can also splash out on fancier upholstery and esports brand colors.

The only thing better than a durable, braided USB-C cable is one that can charge two gadgets at the same time. This 2-in-1 cable can adapt to the wattage necessary to recharge other gaming and non-gaming devices at their fastest-possible charging speeds, too.

Authored by Polygon’s Susana Polo and a number of Polygon contributors, Year of the Ring pulls together our yearlong editorial package revisiting Tolkien’s work and Peter Jackson’s epic film adaptation.

The Oatmeal creator Matthew Inman turns the stress of having intrusive thoughts into a fun card game where players try to play therapist, which goes horribly by design.

If you’re searching for a compact, yet powerful 14-inch gaming laptop, we think this year’s Zephyrus G14 is as good as it gets.