Gift guide 2025: 14 New York City gifts under $100

Holiday shopping season is fully, forcefully upon us, and while it can be both expensive and overwhelming, undoubtedly, it’s also always a fun excuse to scour New York City businesses for hyper-specific, hyper-local gifts to snag for every person on your list.

With that in mind, we’re back with another official New York Groove Gift Guide this year, and because pretty much all of us are snowballin’ on a budget, we’ve kept this year’s list to items priced $100 and under, most of them much cheaper than that. 

We’ve got the goods for transit nerds of all ages, caffeine addicts, cinema buffs, pigeon appreciators, and more:

Simp, $25

We’ve all been there: you can’t get a text back to save your life, so you do anything else to take your mind off your bleak love life. In the case of Jack, the protagonist of Simp, he tries to clear his head with a simple Citi Bike ride, but nothing goes according to plan. More than just a tale of love gone wrong, Simp is a fun piece of physical media as it’s illustrated and produced exactly like the kind of board book you would get for your toddler, even though the book itself is for adults (babies don’t understand the pain of being left on read by whoever you think is The One). Don’t think too hard about whether you want it, only 50 of these were even made!

Ugly MetroCard Sweater, $72

The MetroCard is finally, finally heading off to the Great Train Yard In The Sky, years after we were supposed to be totally done with swiping. If you still can’t let go of the bendy yellow card and you don’t take the L train enough to see the digital ads that still advertise the new ability to buy a MetroCard with a credit card, you can surely find some solace for your pain in this sweater that features the card itself and blue snowflakes.

Grade A tea towel, $14

Getting an A grade on your health inspection take a lot of work; but buying this tea towel from the city's official store let's anyone grade their own kitchen without any of the hassle. But if you have signs of vermin infestation or food left out below 165 degrees fahrenheit, please still consider shutting your own kitchen down.

Reminder: our holiday party is in two weeks! Details here:

Independent cinema membership, $50 - $90

One thing we’re not currently suffering for in New York City is a lack of independent movie theaters, which is nice. If you have a friend who’s constantly going “Oh shit did you see what’s playing” at one of our many arthouse theaters, help them avoid bankruptcy by gifting them a membership to a place like BAM ($85), Anthology ($75), The Museum of the Moving Image ($90), IFC Center ($75), Film Forum ($75) or Metrograph ($50). Maybe they’ll even take you to a movie as a thank you.

The City chip clip, $8

Keep your chip bag closed so your money doesn’t fall out; this cheeky nod to The City’s role in the Eric Adams’ extended corruption universe storyline this year makes a perfect stocking stuffer for any local news fan (or Katie Honan fan) in your life. 

Brooklyn Bridge mini blocks, $10.95

The perfect gift for the lil’est would-be engineer in your life (or just a Lego-loving adult), courtesy of the always-excellent gift shop at the Museum of the City of New York. It’s up to you whether you also want to regale the young recipient with stories of just how many workers died during the construction of the real-life bridge.

Pigeon sculpture by Mother Pigeon, $85

You may remember “Mother Pigeon” for her role as an activist in protests against pigeon theft and abuse earlier this year, but she’s also an artist, and her handmade felt renditions of her most beloved birds are currently for sale at Leroy’s Place in Brooklyn (which, by the way, stocks a whole host of unique offerings from local artists and is a great place to start if you’re stumped on gifts).

Holiday Cocktails class at Astor Wines & Spirits, $89

We love an experiential gift that doesn’t involve adding more stuff into our cramped apartments, and if that experience comes with both booze and a new skill, well, all the better. Among their rotating series of classes on offer, worker-owned Lower Manhattan staple Astor Wines & Spirits is offering holiday cocktail-making classes on Dec. 15 and Dec. 18, at which attendees learn the history of holiday tipples and get a hands-on chance to craft three different festive drinks. Honestly, maybe buy two of these so you can tag along with whoever you end up getting it for.

Staten Island Ferry ornament, $10

We’re suckers for New York-themed holiday ornaments, and isn’t it time to add a miniature Staten Island Ferry to your tree (or, we guess, to the tree of some lucky gift recipient). This one comes straight from the source; the Staten Island Museum.

New York Public Library vintage-inspired tee, $30 (member price $27)

The New York Public Library is always a reliable source of excellent city merch, and this year, we’re especially partial to this ‘70s-looking mustard tee, featuring repurposed images from old ads and vintage stamps. 

Porto Rico coffee sampler, $39.99

When in doubt, some kind of local food or beverage option is a classic option, and for your caffeine-addicted loved ones, it doesn’t get much more classic than Porto Rico, which has been a family run New York City business since its founding in 1907, and reliably offers up some of the best beans the city has to offer.

Large bamboo palm, $95

Every apartment looks better with some greenery in it, but not every apartment provides much in the way of natural light to keep said greenery alive. Enter this bamboo palm plant from beloved Grand Street staple Dahing plants, which can survive in low light, and is marked as pet friendly as well. Even your friend who’s convinced they’ve got a black thumb can do well with this one.

Vintage New York print, prices vary

This is a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure option, but the Museum of the City of New York has a huge array of vintage New York City photos and prints for sale, from classic Currier & Ives scenes to a 1930s automat to a watercolor of George Gershwin at work in the 1920s.

The Communist Manifesto, $13.95

The forecast say it's going to be a RED CHRISTMAS thanks to incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani and his sicko radical communist ideas like "New York is nice and people should be able to afford to live here." Give the gift of the definitive Marxist text to anyone who needs to be ready for the new world order, comrades; or at least more educated on Marxism than anyone who uses that word on Fox News. As funny as it would be to buy this book on Amazon, you should grab a copy at lefty Brooklyn publisher Verso Books (or any indie bookseller).

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