Teenager Technology Gifts

I hate to think about it, but the holidays are right around the corner and the other night my wife turned to me and asked, "Any ideas on what we are going to get the kids for Christmas?"

Since my kids don't read my blog, I figured a quick post to give you ideas of great gifts for the teenagers (or adults) in your life might be helpful.

These are one guys thoughts about it and I'd be curious to hear what you think.

Most links are affiliate links. I've got to pay for my gifts somehow! :)

Photography is a great creative hobby and if your child has or wants to get into it beyond using their phone it might be time to give them their first camera.

My suggestion would be the Samsung NX500 as a perfect starter camera that they won't outgrow quickly and it can grow with them with a variety of lenses.

I'm a Samsung Imagelogger so my opinion here is influenced, but I truly love the camera and my kids enjoy shooting with it as well.

If they need a new phone (or you want to spoil them a bit) the iPhone 6s and the new DROID Turbo 2 are both great choices.

Either one of them will have enough power, battery life and options to keep them happy and typing away for hours on end. I've actually been drooling a bit over both of them.

Our whole family are fans of Sonos speakers and if your kids love music a Sonos Play 1 is the perfect addition to their bedroom.

It'll allow them to play music directly from their phone or a variety of online services and the sound quality is amazing. Best part for us parents? You can lower the volume directly from your phone!

For pure fun check out the Star Wars Remote Control Millennium Falcon "Drone" that looks to me to be a ton of fun to play with.

If your kids are like mine and love music playing when they take a shower, the AwoX LED Light Bulb with Integrated Bluetooth Speaker is a great addition to your bathroom. Once they got past the worry that it looked like a camera, our kids have loved theirs.

To help them with their homework have you considered getting them their own computer?

While laptops can be expensive, the line up of Chromebooks are affordable and we all know that Google continues to make their platform more powerful every day. I've even begun to see some of the teachers at our High School using the platform for kids to turn in assignments.

Finally, since we are all watching more content than ever before, you need some way to stream content to your televisions.

We own a Roku, Apple TV and Fire TV Stick and all have their pluses and minuses. Personally we watch mostly through our Xbox One that use to be only a gaming platform to us, but has become our living rooms entertainment center over the last year.

These should get you going with your shopping list and I hope you found something useful here.

By the way, since kids grow up and stop writing letters to Santa, I suggest you show them how to set up an Amazon Wish List. Even if the products they want are not sold by Amazon (yes these still exist) with a browser plugin they can add from any store. These can be shared with friends and relatives and makes for easy and quick holiday shopping.

What other tech gadgets might make great gifts this year? I'd love to hear your suggestions since I need to surprise my kids.

Disclosure: As a Verizon #VZWBuzz Lifestyle Blogger and #LifeOnFiOS Influencer, I’m given product and services in return for writing original digital lifestyle content each month. All thoughts, opinions and other nuggets of randomness are purely my own