15 great gadgets to give this Christmas 

Flexispot ESD1 standing desk, £799.99
A healthier 2023 beckons, perhaps, if I reduce the amount of time I spend slumped in my office chair and get on my feet. The ESD1 caters to my musical needs, with a keyboard shelf and space for speakers, and it rises to standing height at the touch of a button. Goodbye sedentary lifestyle, it’s been nice knowing you. flexispot.co.uk

Grado Statement GS3000x headphones, £2,195
It would be foolish to assume that every gadget with prominent wooden features is of high quality, but this one certainly is. Grado’s flagship model is fashioned from cocobolo, which it describes as “teeming with emotion”. This may overstate the properties of a piece of wood, but it’s undeniably beautiful. grado.co.uk

Sega Mega Drive Mini 2, £104.99
Based on the design of the second-generation Mega Drive (known as the Genesis in the US), the Mini 2 is an affordable blast of ’90s nostalgia. The games console comes with 60 pre-loaded, from the marvellous (eg, Golden Axe II, Phantasy Star II) to the not-so marvellous (eg, Night Trap, widely acknowledged as one of the worst of all time). amazon.co.uk

Bad Dog Designs Humbug Nixie clock, £279
From fridges to phones to boilers, we’re surrounded by winking digital clocks. But one more can’t hurt – particularly if it contains six antique East German Nixie tubes, each emitting a sumptuous neon glow. The Humbug combines retro style with modern features (multiple colour modes, optional WiFi) and, against all odds, is handmade on a farm in Staffordshire. bad-dog-designs.co.uk

Smeg x Dolce & Gabbana “Sicily is my Love” citrus juicer, £499.95
One of my most humiliating experiences of the past year was when I put my back out while squeezing a lime. If I had owned this appliance, with its Dolce & Gabbana Sicilian-inspired print, I could have saved myself a great deal of pain and anguish. shop.smeguk.com

Engino GinoBot Premium, €239.99
My childhood friend Edward Leigh owned a Big Trak, the futuristic sci-fi toy of the ’70s, and I was jealous. This programmable GinoBot, however, can be transformed into a walking hexapod, a line-drawing car and an excavator, and ownership will make Edward Leigh sick with envy. About time. shop.engino.com

Computer Engineering for Babies by Chase Roberts, $33
Having recently become a father, I’m a sucker for anything that promises to transform my offspring into some kind of genius. This cute interactive book/gadget will prepare my child for a successful career in Silicon Valley, while I do my best to ensure that they also have a sound grounding in ethics and morality. computerengineeringforbabies.com

Renpho Shiatsu foot and calf massager, £199.99
As I enter my sixth decade, every part of my body is obviously racked with stress and tension. I seek solace in a gadget with multiple heat and kneading settings that promises a comprehensive shiatsu seeing-to. renpho.uk

ACS PRO17 earplugs, £149
After decades of attending loud concerts and not giving a hoot about the impact on my hearing, it might be time to do something about it. These earplugs cleverly attenuate the sound across all frequencies: not merely blocking the music out, but turning it down. acscustom.com

C85 triple CD box set, £22
For those of us who spent our teenage years listening to John Peel’s BBC radio shows under the duvet after lights-out, Cherry Red Records has been re-releasing many of those long-forgotten lo-fi gems. This compilation of the alternative sound of 1985 combines the little-known (The Noseflutes, Pigbros) with the now famous (The Stone Roses, Primal Scream). cherryred.co.uk

Brionvega Radiofonografo, £11,800
Before the bluetooth speaker came the hi-fi, and before that came the “music centre”, of which this is possibly the most lavish example. Launched back in 1965, the original AM/FM radio and turntables are now augmented with a wealth of modern features. brionvega.it

Moog Etherwave Theremin, £799
Mr Léon Theremin invented the instrument that bears his name by acident in 1920, while he was developing a burglar alarm at a research centre in St Petersburg. Synthesiser wizard Moog has now launched a theremin based on the circuitry and design of the original, enabling a new generation of musicians to make ghostly noises while waving their arms about. moogmusic.com

Gingko Lemelia light, £29.95
As a consequence of becoming a dad, I find myself stumbling about in the dark while attending to the plaintive cries of a small person. This dinky light will reduce the incidence of stubbed toes: it stands 6cm high, emits a soft glow and turns on and off with a tap. gingkodesign.com

Brompton Electric P Line, from £3,695
The lightest electric bike Brompton has ever made: just 12.7kg, plus an extra 2.9kg with the battery pack attached. It travels 70km on a single charge, moves at a nippy 25kmph and folds up in less than 20 seconds – although I’d issue a proviso that it takes substantially longer on first go. brompton.com

Bibliomaniac by Robin Ince, £16.99
When a national tour with his radio partner Professor Brian Cox was postponed due to the pandemic, Robin Ince didn’t put his feet up. He embarked on a tour of more than a hundred British bookshops, and then wrote a book about it. I’d highly recommend visiting an actual bookshop to buy one. toppingbooks.co.uk