Top 10 Best Gifts Teen Boys 2015
Gift Ideas for Teen Boys: 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18
Thinking about gift ideas for a teenage boy? If you're looking for the best gifts for that hard-to-please male teenager, one word comes to mind and that word is: COOL! Yep, when you're a teen boy, it's all about what's in and what's out.
Choosing a present that will come across as a cool gift to the teenage boy, yet that will preserve his innocence (and safety), is truly the challenge. We've done our best to strike that middle ground in this 2015 Gift Guide for Teen Boys.
If you want to spend a bunch, you can always get the latest electronics, a new iPod or PlayStation 4; these are cool. Or you may be able to spend your money even more effectively if you know something about your young man. If you know already what direction his inclinations are taking, you can give him something that will help him on a quest he has already begun.
Your teen's inclinations and best gift ideas might be in the areas of:
- Music
- Sports
- Gadgets
- Photography
- Adventure
Here are a few specific ideas that might suit him, depending on what kind of boy he is. What do you think? Vote in the poll at the end of the article.
1. An iPod
Teen boys love music. Gadgets and electronics that store and play their favorite tunes are probably at or near the top of their wish list.
iPods are not cheap, but are worth the money, and will be used and appreciated for a long time. Plus, a variety of iPods are available (including discontinued versions if you don't need the cachet of having the very latest thing). The current 16GB iPod Nano can hold up to 30 hours of music. If you are on a budget the iPod Shuffle ($60) is another great choice for the teen who loves music. Like the iPod Nano, it comes in silver, slate, purple, pink, yellow, green, and blue, and can be clipped to his clothing. (Don’t forget to include the earbuds or headphones or some other way to get the music to your ear.)
If the teen already has an iPod, an iTunes gift card maybe a cool choice so they can download new music, it's a great way to get a teenager exactly what they want without having to know what that something is!
2. Fender Starcaster Starter Kit
If your kid wants to play guitar, you may be able to hold him off for a while with a thrift-store acoustic, but most kids nowadays consider "real guitars" to be electronic. This Starcaster kit is a good choice for a beginner, with medium-jumbo frets for easy play.
3. Outdoor or Indoor Basketball Hoop
One the best presents I ever received, as a kid, was a portable basketball hoop. It was one of those units where you fill the base with sand. It had a break-away rim, and we could lower it to dunk the ball. I got it from my uncle Jack when I was in junior high, and it lasted me all the way till I went off to college.
If you are dealing with a kid who was always hurling balls into the landscaping as a little kid, and is always shooting baskets--into the trash, into the laundry, a full-sized basketball hoop would be great, if he has a driveway or other space in which to install it. The next best thing, and more affordable, would be an over-the-door hoop.
4. Portable Ping-Pong
Does he want to play table tennis but you don't have the room for an official size table? Go crazy and attach the ping-pong net to any type of table: square, rectangle or round. As long as it's not more than 75 inches wide or 1.75 inches thick, it's game on! Good for at home or traveling.
5. Nerf Stuff
Nerf battles are harmless fun for teens. Nerf began by making sports balls that didn't break windows or furniture because they were made from "nerf" material ("non-expanding recreational foam").
A posssible difficulty for today's gift-giver is that Nerf now is more than just a ball, it's a whole constellation of accessories, vests, "guns," "ammo," and so on, often leading to a neighborhood arms race. You will want to check with your teen's folks to find out whether he has already started his collection of shooters and shootable things.
6. A Remote-Controlled Helicopter
Most teen guys love radio remote controlled vehicles.
Have you seen some of the new RC vehicles out there nowadays? They are absolutely amazing. New multi-channel helicopters, rock-crawling trucks, boats, tanks, hovercraft, remote control cars that feature laser tag, airplanes, sharks—you name it, they make it!
In the video below is the Syma S108G Marine Cobra Helicopter, based on the real gunship AH-1 Super Cobra helicopter used by the Marines.
7: Starter Camera
If your teen is at all interested in capturing beautiful images, the cameras they make nowadays, even the bottom-of-the line Canon ELPH or something similar, will give him a lot of pleasure. If he's familiar with cameras, he probably knows what advanced features, if any, he wants or needs. Just be sure that the package you purchase includes an SD card (that's how the camera stores the pictures), a way to get the pictures out of the camera (USB cable with a card reader), and a way to charge up the camera (most likely a rechargeable battery that comes with the camera).
8. LEGOs
LEGOs for older boys like teenagers? You betcha! LEGOs are not just for little kids.
Even colleges and universities encourage LEGO use. In fact the Lego Learning Laboratory in the Wiesner Building at MIT includes a huge selection of LEGOs for students to select from. Legos support creativity.
9. Books
Boys like books, though not necessarily the same books you might like. Books offer absorbing and transgressive adventures. You may be able to find an inexpensive coffee-table book with pictures illustrating his particular interests (for example, sports, world scenery, animals, wars, musicians, graffiti).
Here are some novels that teenaged boys have especially enjoyed.
- Holes by Louis Sachar. Hilarious book about an oppressive juvenile prison.
- The Giver by Lois Lowry. A teen escapes from a dystopia where the adults pretend death, sex, and bad weather don't exist.
- The Book Thief by Markus Zusack. Narrated in Holocaust times from the point of view of Death, who likes to read.
- A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess. A vicious delinquent teen is "cured" by electric-shock therapy--or is he?
- Hatchet (and other books) by Gary Paulsen. City kids thrust into the great north woods learn to survive.
- Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. A teen cosmopolitan genius tangles with international criminals.
- The Amulet of Samarkand (and the rest of the Bartimaeus Trilogy) by Jonathan Stroud. A demon helps out an incompetent teenage wizard.
- The Lord of the Rings trilogy by J. R. R. Tolkien. Every home needs this; it's part of our cultural history now, even though Middle Earth never existed. Three good movies, three even better books.
10. Extreme Sports Lessons
Do you have a teenaged guy who's into the new wave of extreme sports sweeping the world?
Extreme sports enthusiasts aren't always easy to shop for; much of the gear is very technical. You may not know what skiing gear he wants or is ready for.
Then again, if he is already showing interest in skiing or another extreme or gravity sport, you can give him lessons. That way he can interact with gravity or nature in the company of someone more experienced, and perhaps make friends as well as acquire skills. You can find out who in your area gives reputable lessons or camps in, for example:
- Skateboarding
- Snowboarding
- Skiing
- Mountain biking
- Spelunking
- Motocross
- Kayaking
- River running
- Rock climbing
- Mountain climbing
He will probably come back alive, and immensely more knowledgeable!
Give Us Your Opinion
So, What Is the Best Gift for a Teen Boy?
TEENS: Feel free to chime in with your own suggestions at the bottom of this article!