New Year Gifts for People Who Refuse to Set Resolutions

January gifts are almost always instructions. A planner, a habit tracker, a water bottle with hourly markings, a book about becoming disciplined. All of it says the same thing: you, but corrected.

Some people would rather mark the turn of the year by admitting that time is passing and having a drink about it.

The one about celebrating anyway

Until the Lights Go Out is a flamingo skeleton at a party with cake, balloons and two painted signs: "I'll celebrate until the lights go out" and "life is a limited edition". As a New Year piece it says the true thing without turning it into a task.

The one about time

The Creation of Temporary Things has a mouse reaching for a strawberry, hands entering from outside the frame and the words "sugar can't stop time, but it helps". It is caught mid-moment and never resolves, which is a more honest picture of a year than any calendar.

Save Point 11:59 is one minute before midnight, permanently.

Instead of a resolution

The Collector's Club at 7,90 euro a month, or 47,40 euro for six months as a gift, is a small good thing arriving every month of the year without anyone having to keep a streak going.

For starting the year with a wall

People rearrange their homes in January far more than in any other month. A hand-signed print at 35 euro or wall art from 22 euro lands well in the week everyone is moving furniture around.

Cheap and immediate

Printables at 9,90 euro, stickers at 3,90 euro, and the free phone wallpapers, which is the one genuinely painless January change: a new lock screen instead of a new personality.