It’s getting close to that time of the year when Santa fills his sack with lots of techie gifts for the good little geek boys and girls, and we’ll be waiting eagerly for the latest-model phones, tablets, gaming consoles, Bluetooth speakers etc to come tumbling down our virtual chimneys on Christmas Eve.
But when Santa arrives back at the North Pole after delivering all his gifts, will there be anything waiting for him under the tree? Who’s going to deliver presents to the Claus household? And what do you give to the man who can make literally anything in his own workshop? As a sort of thank-you to Father Christmas for bringing us lots of tech toys over the years, we’ve compiled a list of gadgets he and Mrs Claus might like for Christmas, and some the North Pole’s famous power couple might even find useful in doing their very demanding annual job. Now the only thing left to work out is, how do we get down Santa’s chimney?
Montblanc Digital Paper
€890 montblanc.com
When it comes to luxury Christmas presents, you can’t go wrong with a Montblanc pen, and when it comes to luxury tech, you’re on to a winner with the Montblanc Digital Paper, a tablet that is guaranteed to take your writing and note-taking to new heights. Seldom has a blank page seemed so exciting and full of promise. For Santa, who has been writing his naughty and nice list in a musty old leatherbound book using a rusty old quill pen for so long now it’s become almost a part of him, this could be a game-changer. The tablet is made from lightweight aluminium for easy toting, and comes in three deluxe colours, mystery black, gold and cool grey.
The Montblanc Digital Paper is compatible with iOS 15 or higher and Android 14 or higher and has a storage capacity of 64gb – so start scribbling that novel over the Christmas hols. The real beauty, however, is in the writing, and that’s thanks to a digital pen with three interchangeable and replaceable tips – linen, smooth and matt – allowing you to vary your writing and drawing style to suit whatever type of document you’re working on.
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The pen comes with haptic engine – which I believe is a good thing – and a pressure sensitivity level of over 4,000 – also, I believe, a good thing. Integrated magnets allow for the addition of a folio cover and to dock the digital pen for charging. The Montblanc Digital Paper Folio (€200, montblanc.com) comes in a supple calf leather and in four colours: black, ink blue, mastic and Antarctica grey. Give this to Father Christmas and he’s sure to put you right up at the top of the nice list.
Shark PowerDetect robot vacuum and mop
€589 harveynorman.ie
It’s amazing the lengths people will go to in order to avoid having to do the vacuuming or mop the floors. Scientists and engineers have been working for years trying to perfect a robot to perform both of these onerous tasks, spending endless nights in the lab while their partners have to stay at home and do the housework. Why don’t they just get the mop or the vacuum cleaner out and get on with it – it’ll only take a few minutes.
After a busy Christmas, however, the last thing the Claus family wants to do is get out the mop and the vacuum cleaner, and Santa’s little helpers are pooped after making all those presents, so they’re no help at all. So, they’ll welcome the arrival of the Shark PowerDetect robot vacuum and mop at the North Pole. The Shark PowerDetect is designed for hassle-free hands-free cleaning, with a base that holds clean water, and captures all the dirt and debris, for up to 30 days. It’s got built-in dirt detect, edge detect and floor detect, so it can navigate all the obstacles and awkward spaces around the house with ease, boosting cleaning power and suction as needed.
With its NeverStuck technology, the machine will never mop itself into a corner or get stuck under a sofa or Christmas tree or find itself struggling to get over a deep-pile carpet or around a pile of undelivered presents. Let’s face it, the boffins have worked hard to perfect this chore-dodging technology – so you might as well put it to good use.
Nintendo Switch 2
€469.99 store.nintendo.ie
It’s no surprise to hear that Santa is a secret gamer, and he likes nothing better after a hard Christmas Eve circumnavigating the globe than to settle in by the fire, get out the old-school video games and while away the holidays playing Super Mario and Donkey Kong. However, Santa’s old Nintendo Switch is starting to feel the wear and tear, so it may be time to update his gaming tech. But how do you create a game console that is both a modern upgrade and a throwback to the good old days of gaming?
The Nintendo people think they have pulled it off with the Switch 2, the next evolution of the Nintendo Switch. The Switch 2 has been hailed by Esquire as the “grown-up version” of the original Switch, with hugely improved gaming system, bigger screen and more useful and intuitive controls. And it comes with exclusive new games including Mario Kart World (€509 for the Switch 2 with Mario Kart World – definitely worth it). The 1080p screen supports HDR, and the Joy-Con 2 controllers can double up as a mouse in compatible games. In fact, why should Santa wait until he gets back from his worldwide present deliveries? He can bring the Nintendo Switch 2 with him on the sleigh and get some game time in while Rudolph handles the navigating.
Shark CryoGlow LED face mask
€349 arnotts.ie
In a scene from Bugonia, the latest movie from director Yorgos Lanthimos, Emma Stone can be seen lounging by her swimming pool wearing an eerie glowing white mask over her face. This is of course an LED face mask, designed to help smooth out wrinkles and blemishes, and soothe tired skin after a hard day at the corporate coalface. Do they actually work? I’m a bit sceptical, but there’s no doubt that they’ve become a hugely popular beauty accessory, and the Shark CryoGlow promises to light up your skincare routine with a combination of LED light therapy and Shark’s trademarked InstaChill Cold Technology to cool down those tired eyes after hours of staring at screens and generally being a busy and very important executive.
It might also help soothe skin that’s been blasted by high-altitude winds while whizzing around on a sleigh on Christmas Eve. The mask is universal-sized, and has four treatments “inspired” by dermatologists: under-eye revive mode, better ageing mode, blemish repair mode and skin sustain mode. It comes in two colours – Blue Frost and Lilac Chill – and includes remote control with LCD screen and USB-C charging cable.
Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra smartphone
From €1,219 samsung.com
You might think smartphones are no use in the North Pole, as there’s probably not very good mobile phone or broadband coverage way up in the Arctic ice. But you’d be wrong – Santa has ways of magically getting a connection (and if all else fails, Rudolph’s nose can work as a wifi hotspot), although to be fair, he’s still using an ancient smartphone from the days when the model numbers were in single digits, so he’s long overdue an upgrade. And the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra might just blow his Christmas socks off.
Besides its power and performance, the phone is also the most advanced AI pocket companion you can find right now, with built-in Galaxy AI allowing you to perform a whole range of tasks quickly and efficiently by simply asking Google Gemini AI. The S25 Ultra can also seamlessly crossover between various apps, making life run more smoothly. And the AI also can bring you personalised daily briefings so you can stay on top of everything you need to know as the day goes on. That way Santa can be sure he won’t forget he has to load up the sleigh on Christmas Eve.
The phone also has super-advanced camera features, and extended battery life, and storage starts at an ample 256GB (€1,219), going up to 512GB (€1,339) and all the way up to 1TB (€1,599). The S25 Ultra is encased in tough titanium and gorilla glass, but it’s nice and light, and comes in five colours, jetblack, silverblue, black, grey and – the one for Santa – whitesilver.
Apple iPad Pro
From €1,129 apple.com
Running a busy toy workshop and co-ordinating delivery of gifts to every girl and boy on the planet requires a lot of processing power – no surprise there. And no surprise to find that Apple’s latest iPad Pro is well up to the task. With its advanced M5 chip, the iPad Pro is fast and furiously efficient, bringing performance and productivity up to new levels, speeding up AI tasks and making workflows flow even more smoothly.
Its AI is powered by Apple Intelligence, which promises to simplify everyday communication, with new features to help you stay focused on the task in hand without having to deal with all the distractions that usually plague users on screen. You can also eliminate distractions in your photos, using the Clean Up tool to remove gurning photobombers or randomers in the background spoiling the view. You can widen the creative possibilities even more by adding the Magic Keyboard (€349) and the Apple Pencil Pro (€149).
