PIOGA’s 2023 Holiday Gift Guide for Couch Potatoes!

The Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association celebrates the 2023 holiday season with a look at the most popular gift ideas for shopping made easy – from the comfort of your couch and the convenience of your computer, all delivered by Amazon. These items come from a gift list compiled by Good Housekeeping Magazine, and include something for everyone, with just about everything containing materials derived from oil and natural gas.

A customized neon sign, made by Ibaynawi, which can be ordered and made to spell a child’s or a family’s name, is near the top of the novelty gift list. The moldable neon material: acrylic, made from oil.

On the more practical side for men is a Wrangler long-sleeve fleece sweater that has racked up a 4.5-star review from more than 22,600 ratings on Amazon. Other than the zipper, it’s made entirely of polyester.

A “shape-shifting box” from Shashibo would make fidgeters and puzzlers happy. The sensory box contains 36 rare earth magnets and comes in nine different colorful and artistic patterns that can be transformed into 70 shapes – with the shapes made possible thanks to “premium injection-mold plastic” construction.

Good Housekeeping readers also put a Powerup radio-controlled paper airplane kit – controlled by an app on a smartphone – high on the list of unique gifts. While the user makes their custom plane out of paper, it flies thanks to a “near indestructible heavy-duty carbon fiber body that includes a nylon-reinforced nose and motor mount designed to withstand bumps, bangs and even an unexpected crash.”

An electric-powered portable micro-fridge from Frigidaire comes up as another novelty gift, providing a great way to keep lunch or six cans of a favorite beverage cold and stored on a tabletop or desk. The retro design harkens back to the bulky and classic look of metal refrigerators from the 1950s, but high-density plastic is its primary material, with oil-derived insulation packed between those two layers of plastic.

Older family members might appreciate a 12- inch magnifier made by Dizaul that pairs with a smartphone to project images and videos from the phone’s screen. It is also sold in an 18-inch model…and the lens for both is made of durable acrylic resistant to breakage from drops or similar mishaps.

One of the more unusual gifts on the list is the Pulidiki car cleaning gel or “car slime” that advertises as a solution to removing dust, crumbs and other material from small crevices and spaces in your car. The blob of gel can be stored for reuse and also removes dust and particles from computer keyboards. Needless to say, the gel and the storage container are made through oil and natural gas processing.

The Waitiee wireless 3-in-1 charging station guarantees to provide rapid-fire power to Apple Watches, Air Pods and cell phones and will run you less than $30. Like those devices, the station is made from high-density plastic and a synthetic anti-slip rubber base.

The Wanderfull Cross-Body Hydrobag makes the list among Oprah Winfrey’s favorites this year – consisting basically of a puffer jacket to store reusable water bottles while on the go. All of the product’s materials, with the exception of zippers and hooks, is made from the processing of hydrocarbons.

The same can be said for the Dodow Sleep Aid Device that claims to help almost anyone fall asleep quickly and naturally using light and guided breathing exercises. The battery-powered, disc-shaped device is made of hard plastic – which might survive being tossed across the room by an unhappy insomniac.

Any gift marketed as a “faux” product is likely to be made from a combination of polyester, nylon and/or acrylic material. The Mersea faux fur mittens would fit that description and were popular enough to be out of stock on Amazon a few weeks before the Christmas holiday.

The Drop Stop Car Seat Gap Filler also makes the list, noting as well that it was featured on an episode of Shark Tank. The device fits between a car seat and door to prevent keys, change and cellphones from dropping under the car seat and into hard-to-reach areas. A one-size-fits-all design, of course, has to be made of a product like neoprene, a synthetic rubber produced by the polymerization of chloroprene.

Next on the list is the Boogie Board Basics Reusable Writing Pad. The liquid-crystal tablet was developed by Kent State University researchers and first introduced in 2009. A touch of a button erases notes or drawings and provides users with a clean surface to write on, again and again. It is fair to say the pad’s “scientifically engineered materials” are all derived from oil and natural gas.

The 25th gift on the Good Housekeeping list – the Bizyboo Seek & Find Plush– is a hand-held scavenger hunt toy for children over the age of three, challenging them to find and match 25 different items hidden in the toy with those provided on a search card. The plush toy is made of polyester, and everything else, including the search card, is 100 percent plastic.

To be sure, there are a few gifts on the list that are primarily paper- or metal-based, but the overwhelming majority can only come from the processing of hydrocarbons.

THE FACTS:

In 2022, PIOGA looked at some of the most popular holiday gifts for kids, do-it-yourselfers and for enjoying the outdoors. Like this year, there was one constant in just about every one of them: they were manufactured from materials with oil and natural gas as their primary feedstock, allowing them to be lightweight, durable and relatively inexpensive. As we hang lights, secure inflatables and position snowmen and wise men this season, remember how much we depend on oil and gas to celebrate the season.

Click HERE to download/print PIOGA’s 2023 Holiday Gift Guide for Couch Potatoes!

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