A jigsaw with a genuinely random cut
Cheap puzzles use a grid cut where every piece is nearly identical, which makes them tedious rather than difficult. A proper random cut is the difference between a good puzzle and a chore.
Gifts for puzzle lovers
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Jigsaws
Where quality of manufacture matters more than the picture.
A puzzle board or roll-up mat
Lets a big jigsaw leave the dining table between sessions. It is the accessory that makes large puzzles possible in a house that also needs to eat.
A wooden puzzle with whimsy pieces
Laser-cut wood with shaped pieces hidden in it. Expensive, slow, and the sort of thing a serious jigsaw person keeps rather than passes on.
A puzzle of somewhere they know
Their town, a map, a place they lived. It gets attention that a generic landscape does not, and some makers will print from a photograph.
Mechanical and group puzzles
For the hands rather than the page.
A speed cube that turns properly
Modern cubes are magnetized and adjustable and bear no relation to the stiff ones from decades ago. Even a casual solver notices immediately.
A puzzle box or a takeaway puzzle
Wooden or metal, solved once and then handed round. It suits people who like a problem they can hold.
A cooperative puzzle game for the table
An escape-room-in-a-box or a legacy puzzle game. It turns a solitary interest into an evening with other people, which is often the missing piece.
A dexterity or disentanglement set
Metal puzzles that live in a bowl on a table and get picked up by everyone who visits. Cheap and unusually durable.
For the table and the shelf
Everything around the puzzle itself.
A magnifier lamp for tiny pieces
For very large puzzles and small print. It removes the squinting that ends a session early.
A puzzle lamp or a daylight bulb
Sorting greys and blues under a warm bulb is why people give up. Daylight-balanced light fixes it entirely.
Sorting trays
Stackable shallow trays turn a chaotic table into a system. The one accessory serious jigsaw people recommend to each other.
A puzzle glue and frame kit
For the one they finish and cannot bear to break up. Glue sheets plus a simple frame turns it into something on a wall.
A puzzle mat that rolls up
It lets a half-finished puzzle leave the dining table without being destroyed. Anyone who has lost a puzzle to a family dinner understands immediately.
Words, numbers and logic
Cheap, long-lasting and easy to get right once you know the type.
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A cryptic crossword collection from a named setter
Solvers have strong preferences about setters, so ask which paper they do. A collection by a setter they like is months of evenings.
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A subscription to a puzzle paper or app
It arrives daily, which suits the habit better than a book that gets finished. Check whether they prefer paper before assuming an app.
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A book on solving rather than a book of puzzles
For someone still learning cryptics, a guide to the conventions is more useful than another set of clues they cannot yet parse.
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Good pencils and a proper sharpener
A small thing for a daily habit. Solvers are particular about pencils in a way that makes this an easy and well-judged gift.
Puzzles beyond jigsaws
Other shapes of the same pleasure.
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A logic puzzle collection
Nonograms, sudoku variants, logic grids. Absorbing and endlessly renewable.
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A wooden brain teaser set
Physical puzzles for a coffee table. Guests pick them up without being asked.
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An escape room in a box
A puzzle evening for two or four, finished in one sitting.
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A puzzle subscription
New puzzles arriving on a schedule keeps the hobby ticking over.
Gift countdown and order-by dates
Put in the date and see how long you have, and the last sensible day to order each kind of gift.
Save the date
We'll remind you about a month before it comes around, once a year.
How to choose
Puzzle people divide into fairly distinct groups and the gifts do not transfer between them. Jigsaw people, cryptic crossword people, logic and number puzzle people, and mechanical puzzle people want almost entirely different things, and the first job is working out which one you are buying for.
The other useful distinction is between puzzles done alone and puzzles done together. A thousand-piece jigsaw on a dining table is a household activity for a fortnight; a book of cryptics is a private one for months. Both are good gifts and they suit different people.
Nothing we make belongs on this page. What follows is what holds up, based on the difference between puzzles that get finished and puzzles that go back in the cupboard at the halfway point.
Questions
Good to know
What makes an expensive jigsaw better than a cheap one?
The cut and the board. Cheap puzzles use a grid cut where pieces are nearly interchangeable and the board delaminates; better ones use a random cut with a solid board, which is both more satisfying and more durable.
How many pieces should I buy for?
A thousand is the standard for an experienced solver and takes most people a week or two of evenings. Five hundred suits someone doing it occasionally, and two thousand is for people who have specifically asked for it.
What do I buy for someone who does the cryptic crossword?
Ask which paper they do, then buy a collection by that setter. Solvers have real preferences between setters, and a collection from the wrong one is noticeably less welcome.
Are puzzle subscriptions worth it?
For a daily solver, yes, the habit is daily and a book gets finished. Check whether they prefer paper or screen first, because that preference tends to be strong.
