Holiday Gift Guide 2015

Entertainment & Experiences

November 18, 2015 - by Metro Staff

The Rap Yearbook

Ohh, Barracuda!

San Jose Barracuda Tix, $20+

San Joseans love the Sharks, but tickets to an NHL game can be pricey. Fortunately, hockey fans on a budget can grab a pair seats at a Barracudas game for under $50. The Sharks' farm team play at the Tank and can be just as fun to watch. (NV)

Some Dope Vinyl

Records, $1-$50

Needle to the Groove, San Jose/Fremont

The Analog Room, San Jose

Vinyl sales are riding high, and San Jose has a number of places for audiophiles and collectors to pick up platters. For new releases, check out the bigger stores—like Streetlight Records and Rasputin. For a more unique crate-digging experience, and to hunt down those hard-to-find gems, head to dustier spots like Needle to the Groove (in San Jose and Fremont) and The Analog Room. (SL)

Little Book Worms

GiftLit: The Cressida Collection, $45+

Kepler's Books, Menlo Park

In addition to their annual holiday book catalog, this iconic Peninsula book shop offers the "GiftLit" program. Select a collection compiled by Kepler's staff, and then choose three, six or 12 months of books. Each month, a new book will be sent to your bookworm. The Cressida Collection is for babies through toddlers. (SL)

LAN Party

AFK Membership, $56/Mo.

AFK Gamer Lounge, San Jose

This is more than $50, we know. But we entered our cheat code. A membership to AFK Gamer Lounge means unlimited access to the restaurant and bar's LAN center, permanent happy hour prices and other discounts. It's $75 for one month, but drops to $56.25 per month if you buy a full year. (SL)

Silver Screen

Four-Ticket Gift Certificate, $24

Stanford Theatre, Palo Alto

Stanford Theatre shows classic films—from early talkies through the Golden Age of Hollywood—as they were meant to be presented. A real-live person plays the theater's Wurlitzer organ before and after 7:30pm showings. For $24, you can get a four-ticket gift certificate for the movie buff in your life. (NV)

All The World's A Stage

Live Theater Subscriptions, $35+

TheatreWorks, Mountain View/Palo Alto

San Jose Stage Company, San Jose

Both The San Jose Stage Company and TheatreWorks Silicon Valley offer gift subscriptions good for the rest of their 2015-2016 seasons. Through the holidays, The Stage will be running The 39 Steps, based on Alfred Hitchcock's famous murder mystery movie. TheaterWorks opens Emma on Dec. 2, a musical adapted from Jane Austen's eponymous novel. (SL)

Get Out Alive

Escape from the Time Travel Lab, $29

Real Escape Game, San Jose

For the puzzle fiend on your list, Real Escape Games has added a new locked-room challenge to their San Jose slate of experiential puzzles: Escape from the Time Travel Lab. This time, players face the threat of spatiotemporal distortion if they can't unravel the clues and unlock the exit. (SL)

Recycle Bookstore

The Rap Yearbook $18.95

Paper-bound books have lost their stronghold over the written word due to the literary digitalization movement. But some books need to be held. The Rap Year Book features intricate illustrations, graphs and charts as it breaks down the most important songs of the last twenty-five years. It's a thorough history lesson disguised as a landmark musical evaluation disguised as a picture book. (JF)

A Child's Quest

'Echo,' $20

Hicklebee's, Willow Glen

The staff of Hicklebee's, a quaint bookstore in downtown Willow Glen, chose this children's book as their book of the year. It follows the life of three children maneuvering the turbulence of Nazi Germany. It makes an ideal gift for those 10-years-old and up. (CC)