2024 Holiday Gifts for Scientists

Are you on the hunt for the perfect holiday gift for the scientist in your life? Or maybe for yourself? (You’ve earned it!)

From functional office decor to stylish science-themed accessories, our guide rounds up some of the best gifts for scientists.

Perk up the lab and office

Help them de-stress between experiments with a quirky chicken coop, ocean zen garden, or calming desktop kinetic sculpture.
Organize the textbook collection with planter or stained glass mushroom bookends.
Get a sugar rush with a lab emotional support candy jar.
This adorable crochet desk plant needs no watering.
Stay ahead of deadlines with a desktop perpetual calendar.
Let colleagues know when you’ll be back at your desk with an office doorknob tassel sign.
Pack your lunch in this cloth lunch bag.
Marvel at your very own brick toy model lab or 1/12 scale mini lab with all the details.

Spark some joy around the –80 with these red blood cell morphology fridge magnets or mini potted succulent magnets.
Be stylish and safe with these cat eye lab safety glasses.
Record the latest results in a molecular biology lab notebook.
Mark your place with a colorful bacteria bookmark or a bookmark that lets you record your to-read list.
Keep track of your keys and badge with a DNA lanyard.
Plan experiments and plot results quickly with a 96 well plate sticky pad.
Upgrade to a tie-dye lab coat (or get the whole family involved in science with lab coats for dogs/cats and dolls, for the young scientist).

Spruce up your notebook entries with genetics washi tape or stickers, like these cute pipettes or a cheeky CRISPR Cas-9 reference.
If you like enamel pins, there are plenty of choices: GFP , nucleobases, “lab cats,” and cell culture media.

For the biochemists, have a molecule of interest custom-embroidered on a hat.
These gold or silver pipette earrings are a classy nod to benchwork.
Go semi-formal with this Drosophila melanogaster tie
Rock a pair of flow cytometry socks for a bit of flair.
See how many ways you can wear this scarf featuring real photomicrography of cytoskeleton.
Cozy up in a pastel pipette or “RUN PCR” crewneck
Showcase your inner cell culture nerd with a desktop gift set.
This gold plasmid ring is timeless.
A colorful petri dish brooch will stand out on a lab coat.
Tie your hair up for the lab with this beaker claw clip or DNA hair pin.
Lounge in this antibody Hawaiian style button-up shirt.

Learn a beautiful and simple printmaking method with a cyanotype kit.
Wrap your gifts with mitochondria, cell biology, or DNA themed wrapping paper.
Bake cookies for the lab with this qPCR serial dilution cookie cutter.
If you’re into the fabric arts, check out these lab rat and microbe cross-stitch patterns; micropipette and scientist crochet patterns; and white blood cell and bacterium knitting patterns.
Make your own swag with this electrophoresis gel fabric.

Hang a beautiful stained glass double helix suncatcher on the window.
Turn off the lights to see this glow-in-the-dark knitted antibody plush in action.
Challenge your lab mates to a game of Ecologies.
Grab a coffee refill in one of these fun mugs: color-changing blot mug, immune cells mug, custom publication mug.

Looking for more inspiration? Be sure to also check out last year’s Connect to Science gift guide and subscribe to our bimonthly newsletter to receive updates on articles like this one and a free digital care package, including an extended gift guide, holiday cookie recipes, and paper snowflake templates.