In this edition of The Gift, we dish on what we’re bringing to all our parties this summer. Plus: the best karaoke machines, the margarita machine you didn’t know you needed, and tomato-shaped candles.
Have you heard? Americans are partying less. My hope for you is that your summer bucks this trend. That you spend your longer days sipping Champagne and shucking oysters poolside; or spilling out onto fire escapes dripping from hours of sweaty dancing; or shutting down the park alongside the fireflies with your sugar-high children and a gaggle of their friends and their friends’ parents. However you like to party, I hope you get an abundance of it over the next few months. It’s good for us.
And my challenge for you? Bring the party. I don’t mean metaphorically with your sparkling personality — I mean it quite literally. Beyond the obligatory bottle of nice booze or other thoughtful hostess gift you tote to your summer soirees, bring a gift for the guests. Something procured for the sole purpose of being a little bit silly, of upping the fun. A few years ago, I would have found this cringe: What I bring to a party should show how sophisticated and well-mannered I am! A lovely bottle of wine. A trendy tin of fish.
But I have happily reached the blissful point of my 30s where I no longer feel the need to prove I’m a grown-up, and, like I mentioned, we’re in a bit of a partying crisis. As Ellen Cushing argued in The Atlantic at the beginning of this year: It’s all of our responsibilities to fix it. If coming together to have a blast, to let our guards and our inhibitions down, is a collective muscle weakened by a years-long pandemic that forced us into isolation, well, we may need a little help building it back up. And as I have learned time and time again in this job, it’s surprising how helpful the right product can be in solving a somewhat existential problem.
Here are nine things Wirecutter journalists say have fundamentally changed the trajectory of a party they’ve been at. Stock up, then get out there. Go! Live a little. Not all heroes wear capes, but a few do, in fact, wear temporary tattoos.
- Something absolutely ridiculous: This pie face game has made our editor-in-chief Ben Frumin’s past several family holidays “extremely memorable and fun.” Think of it as a tableside dunk tank: Wind up a dollop of whipped cream and pie yourself in the face. Hilarity ensues.
- A portable dance party: A karaoke machine needs little explanation for its party-bringing abilities. One of our favorites is small enough to carry around in one hand, has a disco ball on top, and comes with some delightfully silly vocal effects, too. At just $40, it would make a pretty great gift for that one friend whose basement or kitchen you somehow always find yourself gathered in.
- Mood lighting: Not everyone will appreciate someone walking into their home and changing the light bulb (so tread lightly, I suppose), but arguably nothing feels more Capital-P-Party than a room washed in various changing hues. Think of a smart bulb as the 2025 equivalent of bringing a bouquet of balloons: an instant signal to all that the mood is festive. We’d go with our favorite, which stood out in our testing for being easy to set up and affordable.
- A DIY water cooler: In terms of raising a party’s overall vibes, the work of a novelty cocktail-making gadget is often less about the quality of the actual drink and more about playing the role of a skillful host: introducing strangers over a shared interest and leaving them together in the kitchen to figure it out. Does it need more ice? Are we just eyeballing the tequila here? But in our testing, we found that this gigantic Margaritaville mixer and the Bartesian Duet — a Nespresso-like machine that uses prepackaged capsules to make cocktails at the push of a button — actually manage to both entertain and make pretty excellent drinks.
- Be the costume department: In my unofficial newsroom-wide poll, every person who has recently come into contact with a temporary tattoo at a party has had a better experience because of it. I’m eyeing this Richard Scarry jumbo party pack from Tattly, a brand Wirecutter’s kids experts have touted for being notably long-lasting. And this adorable little flash tin would make a great gift and even comes with a tiny sponge for easy application.
- A little glitter goes a long way: For perhaps the same reason temp tats work, so too does glitter, says deputy editorial director Maxine Builder, who swears by this little case of holographic body glitter as a surprising unifier: “The trick of throwing a party is convincing people that tonight is different. Otherwise, you’re just meeting people for drinks,” she says. “Slathering some glitter on your face is a shortcut to executing that magic. Plus, I’ve found ‘You want in on this glitter?’ to be a surprisingly successful ice-breaker.”
- A good old-fashioned game: As our hobbies expert, my colleague James Austin has spent hundreds of hours trying to teach people games. So when he tells me one is “dead simple to teach and learn” — the single most important factor in a party game — I listen. The bluffing card game Skull, he says, is all of that and also very, very fun to play. Says James: “I brought it to a bachelor party where I only really knew the groom, and it was such a hit, we played it probably a dozen times over the weekend. And then a bunch of the groomsmen brought it to the wedding to play.”
- Print pictures instantly: An instant camera is an OG party trick for a reason: Walk around, capture the joy on your friends’ faces, and then produce a permanent, tangible reminder of it on the spot. This lightweight mini photo printer embodies that vibe, but lets your phone be the camera. You know that moment, peak party, when someone giddily saddles up to you to show you the adorable or hilarious moment they snapped while you were a room over? Now imagine printing that memory for them instantly in saturated, creamy colors, to take home like a little goodie bag. That, folks, is how we keep the party vibes going: hanging them on our fridge as inspiration for the next.
