The Best Christmas Gifts for Athletes, According to a Shopping Writer Who Works Out

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Forget dads: Athletes, it turns out, are some of the hardest people to shop for — particularly when you, as the gift giver, have absolutely no clue what the terms “tempo run,” “farmer’s carry,” and “lat pulldown” mean.

Whether the loved one in question is big into Pilates, just completed their first Hyrox race, or can’t stop talking about the number of triathlons under their belt at every holiday party (hey, it’s better than politics), one thing can be agreed upon: They’ll probably appreciate a wellness-oriented Christmas present more than, say, an assorted cookie tin from a local bakery (while they’re cutting? Are you kidding me?).

Not sure where to begin? That’s where I come in. While I can’t say I’ve ever so much as thought about running the New York City Marathon, I consider myself a highly active individual — or at least as active as one can be with a nine-to-six desk job. I’ve attended pretty much all the boutique fitness classes my city has to offer, find myself running laps around a reservoir in my neighborhood “just for fun,” hit the gym about six to seven times a week, and regularly crave the feeling of soreness in my abs.

I’m not a pro athlete by any means, but I can easily get into the mindset of one, which implies that I’m attuned to what this category of ultra-motivated individuals, and their “armchair” counterparts, might want for Christmas this year.

The Best Christmas Gifts for Athletes

From targeted supplements for enriching their meticulously curated diet to overachieving massage guns and full-fledged cold plunge tubs, these are the 25 best gifts for athletes that are guaranteed to make their day (and fuel those PRs).

For the Athlete Who’s Just Starting Out

Lululemon Women’s Fast and Free Trail Running Vest

If she has previously expressed interest in getting outside more often and hitting the trails, gifting this Lululemon running vest will demonstrate peak thoughtfulness. It’s chock-full of compartments that can house everything from hiking poles and water bottles to energy gels and a phone; as a bonus, the straps can be detached and utilized as hair ties. Genius.

Everlast Durable Heavy Punching Bag Kit

His last name might not be Balboa, but a man can dream. Urge him to cultivate a boxing practice from the comforts of garage, sweet garage, courtesy of this three-piece Everlast set that comes with a heavy punching bag, gloves, and hand wraps. (“Gonna Fly Now” theme song not included.)

Palladium Golf Putting Mat

And if your giftee is starting to spend most of his weekends on a driving range, show him you support this new hyperfixation with a portable putting mat for all levels. Practicing his skills solo will become as simple as unrolling that artificial grass and going to town on the contraption’s uphill ramp. Excuses? This bestselling gift for golfers hasn’t heard of ’em.

ClassPass Gift Card

ClassPass grants access to thousands of gyms and fitness studios around the country, operating on the basis of credits and an accompanying app. With a membership, I was personally able to hit classes like Barry’s, SoulCycle, and Solidcore: all in one week, while saving money in comparison to buying individual packages at each location.

This one’s for the fitness generalists out there who feel the most fired up when they’re surrounded by a dozen other sweating bodies, getting shouted at by an overcaffeinated instructor.

Bala The On-The-Go Kit

The fitness and lifestyle brand Bala knows a thing or two about designing workout gear women actually care about (and those pastel-forward color palettes have a lot to do with it). Jumpstart her mat Pilates journey with this Bala Bangles and Bala Bars set, available in weights from one to three pounds. Despite the pieces’ compact proportions, the burn will most definitely be alive and well during bicep curls, donkey kicks, and every move in between.

For the Athlete Who’s Obsessed With Supplements

BODi P90X Pre-Workout Supplement

Unleash his inner beast with BODi’s under-$40 pre-workout supplement, which comes in flavors like watermelon, fruit punch, and blue raspberry (there’s only one right answer, if Sour Patch Kids taught you anything) and is composed of caffeine, creatine monohydrate, beta-alanine, plus amino acids.

Lost me at “monohydrate”? Just know that this powder will equip athletes with sustained strength, energy, and focus during demanding lifts — increasing blood flow to the muscles and even aiding in their growth with consistent intake.

Grüns Immün Immunity Gummies

You can’t achieve real results in the gym if you’re getting sick all the time, something Immün — a sub-brand of the nutritional supplement giant Grüns — is all too aware of. Its 13-in-1 gummies, which can be bought in sugar-free or low-sugar iterations, are jam-packed with immunity-strengthening ingredients such as vitamin C, vitamin B12, ashwagandha, elderberry, and black pepper.

Ingesting one convenient pack a day correlates with additional outcomes like better digestion, greater energy, and a more stable mood. It’s true what they say: Health starts from the inside.

Ancient Nutrition Women’s Vitality Capsules

Experts concur that women and men have varying nutritional needs, based on differences in hormonal profiles, muscle mass, and other factors. Ancient Nutrition’s whole-food capsules target the former demographic, paving the way for stronger bones, consistent bowel movements, and fortified immunity.

The culprit? Its concoction of organs, glands, and superfoods is also “designed… to support women’s liver, thyroid, and adrenal health,” per the product description. While grass-fed bovine uterus sounds utterly unappetizing, rest assured that consuming this supplement will be an enjoyable experience — with major payoff.

Rookie Wellness x FP Movement Exclusive Raw Creatine Powder

Creatine, but make it It-girl–approved. This FP Movement–exclusive release is vegan, gluten-free, and caffeine-free, coming with 30 servings and 500 milligrams of creatine monohydrate per serving. Regular creatine supplementation is linked to improvements in strength, brain function, and even mental health for women, so treat this as a present that will keep on giving: more than a Cheesecake Factory gift card can say for itself.

Liquid I.V. Hydration Multiplier Hot Chocolate Hydration Powder Packets

The ultimate stocking stuffer just dropped, and it’s Liquid I.V.’s holiday-edition hot chocolate hydration bundle. Made of real cocoa, each packet promises to “warm up and sleigh those dry winter days”: powered, as it is, by a science-backed formula of electrolytes, vitamins, and nutrients. Delicious and practical, especially after one too many boozy eggnogs, this is a supplement every athlete wishes for, even if they’ve yet to tell you as much.

For the Athlete Who’s Known to Skip Rest Days

Therabody Theragun Relief Massage Gun

Pushing your body to the limits? Acceptable, so long as recovery days are baked into your routine. If the athlete in your life is not on good terms with rest, encourage them to rethink this approach — and let Therabody’s top-rated massage gun be a conduit to the change.

The FSA-eligible gizmo deals with aches, helps with range of motion, and works through knots. It’s sold with three attachments for various areas of the body and pressure preferences.

The Pod Company The Ice Pod

Cold plunging is hot right now, and chances are, the athlete on your list is dying to engage in contrast therapy without having to set foot in a spa. The Pod Company’s Ice Pod makes cold-water immersion accessible — requiring no special plumbing setup or fancy installation.

Getting as cold as 39 degrees, the tub has an 84-gallon capacity, comfortably fits one person, and boasts five layers of military-grade insulation, because their crazy rituals deserve nothing less.

Nike x Hyperice Hyperboot

After launching last year, Nike’s collaborative recovery boot with the brand Hyperice was immediately embraced by pro athletes and weekend warriors alike. Harnessing heat and air compression, the innovative shoe gently massages overworked feet, boosts joint mobility, and warms up the muscles, all while being incredibly easy to calibrate via a compatible app.

Helio Cure Helio Glow Panel

The clinically proven benefits of red light cannot be overstated, and this top-of-the-line red light panel from Helio Cure maximizes its effects by emitting the “highest density of the deepest healing wavelengths.” The product remains stable thanks to a floor stand and can complement already-existing habits like full-body workouts, nightly TV show marathons, or light morning stretches on the patio.

Blackout goggles and reading glasses are part of the package (hair growth, inflammation reduction, and fine line elimination shouldn’t come at the cost of vision loss, after all).

HigherDose Serotonin Soak

The company behind the internet’s go-to sauna blanket has come out with a magnesium-fueled bath soak that soothes, calms, relaxes, and remedies soreness — every athlete’s base desires. An apple cider vinegar inclusion, too, secures a more pH-balanced skin barrier, while that mixture of essential oils replicates a spa environment for less than $40. Pro tip: Buy the soak in a refill size, which has a higher volume.

For the Athlete Who Can’t Part With Their Fitness Tracker

Hume Health Hume Band 2.0

The Hume Band 2.0 isn’t your typical fitness tracker. Deemed a “longevity wearable,” it focuses on early disease detection by measuring bodily metrics like biological age, blood oxygen saturation, heart rate variability, the pace of aging, and more — before repackaging the data into actionable insights.

AllTrails Premium Membership

If their preferred mode of staying active has more to do with a forest than with a StairMaster machine, they’ll be delighted — and touched — by a gift subscription to the hiking app AllTrails’ Premium tier, which unlocks perks like unlimited map downloads for offline use, wrong-turn alerts for when every tree and trail marker starts looking the same, and in-depth condition reports.

It’s not a health-tracking device per se, but AllTrails will still keep tabs on every step, positioning the platform as, arguably, an even more reliable companion. Happy trails!

Garmin fēnix 9 Smartwatch

Meet Garmin’s latest rollout: the fēnix 9 watch that flaunts state-of-the-art endurance tracking capabilities, offers advanced performance data for more than 100 types of sports, moonlights as an LED flashlight and navigational tool, as well as features a speaker and mic for on-the-go voice messaging.

Gauging how efficiently you’re recovering and when it’s best to get back in the game, the smartwatch is found online in a slew of colors and band materials.

Garmin HRM 600 Heart Rate Monitor

Don’t click out of Garmin’s website before adding this premium heart rate monitor for runners to cart. Pairable with Garmin smartwatches like the pick above, the running accessory sheds light on form, pace, ground contact time, and further specs. It will allow them to become more intentional with their training while making you the gift giver of the year (sorry, Santa).

Spalding TF DNA Smart Indoor/Outdoor Basketball Bundle

Different kind of tracker, same nitty-gritty athletic analysis. This basketball from Spalding provides real-time feedback encompassing “makes, misses, swishes, shot locations, distance, heat map, consistency, shot situations… release time, shot arc, and spin rate.” The overarching goal? To refine shot accuracy and set the stage for more confident games.

For the Athlete Who Deprioritizes Sleep

VIO2 Skin+ Skincare-Infused Mouth Tape

The circa-2022 brand VIO2 is known for its patented, partial-coverage mouth tape that promotes nasal breathing and subsequently benefits oral health and oxygen absorption at night, sometimes even going so far as to cut back on snoring. Already skin-friendly to begin with, VIO2’s viral mouth tape recently received an upgrade, in the form of a version that’s steeped in hyaluronic acid, vegan collagen, vitamin E, and CoQ10 — hydrating the area in question almost as effectively as a lip balm.

Deeper sleep and a nourished pout? Consider it a two-for-one investment.

Nuropod Device

A dysregulated nervous system often stands between an athlete and their potential. This handy device from Nuropod, though, proposes a solution.

It’s a vagus nerve stimulator that works by sending electrical impulses to one of the nervous system’s largest nerves — which reaches the skin’s surface via the outer ear and is connected to the brain. The vagus nerve is crucial to a body’s “rest and digest” processes, anti-inflammatory response, and vital functions like breathing, heart rate, and digestion, so an underperforming one is tied to chronic fatigue, sleep problems, headaches, and bloating, to name just a few symptoms. By way of Nuropod’s electrode-clad earpiece, it can be nursed back to health.

Natrol Sleep & Restore Gummies

Falling asleep faster and staying asleep longer will help them put their best foot forward in the waking hours. And while melatonin supplements aren’t the sexiest Christmas gifts out there, trust me when I say: Snoozing like a baby beats everything. That’s exactly what I experience every night after chewing two of Natrol’s Ultra Sleep gummies and turning off the lights.

Loaded with magnesium, the neurotransmitter GABA, tart cherry, chamomile, and more sleep-assisting components, the drug-free product will act as their last sweet treat of the day (with their last thought of the day being about you, of course).

White Lotus Beauty Premium Acupressure Mat

2026’s trendiest holiday gift just might be a bed of nails (erm, an acupressure mat). Contrary to what Nancy Meyers might think, this is what women want, and the wellness buy’s magic is rooted in its ability to prompt blood flow, alleviate muscle stiffness, trigger endorphin release, and naturally transition users into sleep. This Nordstrom selection stands out from the crowd because of its three moving parts: the mat itself, a neck pillow with matching plastic spikes, and a storage bag for travel.

Therabody WaveRoller

Last but not least, there’s nothing quite like a little foam-rolling action right before heading off to bed, and Therabody’s WaveRoller is the undisputed leader in this category. Blending normal rolling with vibration therapy across five intensity settings, the high-traction, high-density object doles out speedier muscle recovery as compared to competitors.

Warning: They’ll rave about it so much, you’ll be tempted to buy your own.

About the Author

Stacia Datskovska is a senior commerce writer at WWD, also contributing to Rolling Stone, The Hollywood Reporter, and Billboard. Previously, she worked at Elle Decor as an assistant digital editor, covering all things luxury, culture, and lifestyle through a design lens. Her bylines over the past five years have appeared in USA Today, Baltimore Sun, Teen Vogue, Boston Globe, Food & Wine, and more. Datskovska graduated from NYU with a bachelor’s degree in journalism and international relations. She regularly reports on the best gifts to get anyone in your life — from the fitness freak to the hard-to-shop-for father.