I am shopping for a 13yo boy, my short list is: hiking boots and/or drone. Your son sounded similar to my nephew. The hiking is something we could do together, and is outdoors, may facilitate travel. Drone is more on his comfort zone, and is something I am interested in.

A friend told me, teenagers want VISA cards to be able to shop online.

My son is a little older, but here's some ideas.

Is he into dressing yet or cologne? I never thought my DS was until my sister got him cologne and he loved it. This is light and won't gag you. : ) It is a big hit.

https://www.amazon.com/Acqua-Giorgio-Armani-Toilette-Ounces/dp/B000E7YK5K?th=1

My DH sometimes has to dress up at school and he liked ties that reflect a hobby (aviation), dress shoes and a dress navy blazer.

I always get him a page a day calendar related to things he likes (travel, trivia, this year it is a foreign language one)

Tickets to a sporting event, play, concert. I got my son tickets to see his favorite TV show this year.

Has he done any Lego Robotics? They can be geared to any age. This is from the NYT Holiday giving guide (which you may also want to look at)

https://www.nytimes.com/guides/gifts/holiday-gift-guide/best-robot-kits

Turntable/Vinyl could easily fill just about any budget.

Team sports or concert tickets

trip/tickets to see a special museum exhibit or show in NYC, Chicago wherever your nearest big city.

He has a drone and he has that cologne - from your tip last year I think:) Tickets and travel are great ideas, but don't fill the Christmas day busyness void.

The turntable is a possibility - he is very interested in music. I'll look into those.

The Lego Robotics is cool - he never made that leap when most kids do, but maybe he would be interested in building one now.

oh, i see your point, something to play with on the actual holiday

I know nothing about it, but my son (he is a sr in HS) asked for "The Secret Hitler" board game. He played it at school and thought it was neat. fwiw

His cross country team loved that game this season - I'll look for that. Good idea! And thanks for that New York Times link - I think I'm going to get my niece that sketchbook project - how cool is that? And I think my DH would love that electric handwarmer - his hands are ALWAYS freezing. I'm still looking!

Maybe you have a store in your area like Science Safari? You could wander around in there and look for some sort of kit, or project, maybe something new to him? Or if you have a science museum nearby? I have a nephew a good bit younger, I am going to go to the school supply store, which has loads of educational fun stuff. It's more intended for educators, but it's open to the public. By any chance do you have a planetarium?

What about an Electronic Chess Set? My husband is a master at Chess, and he loved his beginning in his early 20's. I know there's Chess on the computer of course, but this would be more of a gadget type of toy.

My boys who are both in their 30's, get a toy every year.

A kit to make his own instrument?

A Honda Ruckus (scooter) or a Honda Grom (smallest motorcycle, 200 lbs). A lot of kids love those, and they ride together, a lot of fun.

If he's into music maybe a subscription to Sirius XM radio, he can't play with it much on xmas day, but he could set it up and explore the huge variety of music (comedy and talk radio too) available. We love ours, not having commercials is great as is having it at home on a dedicated satellite and in the car on the app, you can use the app at home too, but I only use it when my fav channel, The Loft, has been bumped (like right now). Not only do they have music of all genres, but they incorporate interviews into programming on quite a few channels. Also agree about the turntable, my 19 year old dd has one (and all of our old albums!) and loves it, it's retro cool, and my dd and her friends are all about retro.

With his piano and photography/editing interests, I wonder if he would have any interest in playing with recording music, arranging, etc. Finale, Sibelius and Pro Tools are the programs my son has used. He got Finale while in high school and used it through undergrad but is now working primarily with ProTools. Microphones got added of for recording what he plays (Blue desktop was the first one we got-- but that can vary by use).

What about a cornhole game or giant Jenga? (he can be get coompetetive by the time he heads off to college) Or something like these?

https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/build-your-own-marble-coaster

https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/awkward-family-photos-movie-caption-game

And this for a stocking stuffer: https://www.uncommongoods.com/product/super-magnetic-putty

That website has a lot of fun ideas -- you might find some others you like better.

I asked for help a few weeks ago to find this toy my grandson wanted and lascatx found it (thanks again!). It's called the 3doodler and they have them for kids and for older folks, too. Kind of like a 3d printer only you create things with a pen. You put sticks of plastic into the pen, like a hot glue gun and it comes out the front in a soft melty form that you use to build things. I have had a great deal of fun with my grandson, helping him create things.

This is an idea book for older kids/adults and doesn't include the pen, just to give you an idea of what it is. You have to order the pen and supplies separately. This site has some other cool stuff.

3doodler-project-book

Pen -Older kid/Adult version

eta: I swear I had written an idea about a jigsaw puzzle of a place he might love to visit; perhaps with plans for a trip. But it's not here, so I'm adding it now.

I'm having a similar problem with my teenage son. We've always kind of had one "wow" gift from Santa and then the boring stuff like clothes, etc., were wrapped under the tree from me and dh. It has typically been something fun like a GoPro, or golf clubs, etc as he is a sports nut. This year, he provided me a gift list - three items of clothing from Billabong and a pair of expensive cleats. That's it. Oh and a $20 wireless headset to play Xbox with his friends. He was just chosen for an all-star game this Sunday and last night asked if I had gotten him the cleats and if so, could he wear them. They came today and Merry Christmas, he took them to the practice the team was having tonight. So not only do I still not have anything exciting for him, what would have been one of his gifts to unwrap he's already using. And I have the added bonus of his birthday being Jan. 4! For that he has already asked for tickets to a Caps game so I can't even use that idea for Christmas.

If he likes puzzles, that might be fun as Olychick suggested. Dd12 loves them so I get her one every Christmas and she and dh work on it together. I got her one for her birthday that was a scene from Paris, a place she can't wait to visit, and it had so many pieces that it still hasn't been finished but they are close. I bought this cool portable puzzle table for it also so it can be moved from the dining room table where they work on it when we are having company for dinner. https://www.amazon.com/Bits-Pieces-Spinner-Accessories-Sections/dp/B00O7WRR1M/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1513037388&sr=8-10&keywords=puzzle+table

Does he still like to build? What about a 3D puzzle? They come in some specialty concepts if you could find one to match a particular interest of his (eg, the Titanic, Eiffel Tower, train, The Hobbit, etc)

tps://www.google.ca/search?q=3+d+puzzles&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjl3a_5o4PYAhVKwmMKHSH4DFEQ_AUICigB&biw=1152&bih=565

3d puzzles are great!

An acoustic guitar? We have 2 that hang out in our family room, and both my sons (one a musician, the other not so much) have enjoyed learning to play. Their friends pick them up and play as well (whether they can or not!) Listening to them play is a nice break from the video games!

We ordered the Speak Out Game, hearing it is really funny, along with extra mouthpieces. Balderdash is the most family-game fun in our house: we never get through a whole game because we are laughing so much.

Also, we ordered beautiful metal prints from Costco of our kids playing their sport (decor for the wall in their rooms), but you can do a photo collage on a metal print of the kid and his friends. I thought about that....

We gave our musical son Sibelius last year, it was a big hit for him.

Your son runs x-country? How about snowshoes, if you are in the snowbelt? We did them asa a family gift years ago and upgraded as the boys grew. So fun!

By the way, if he's 15 you might want to pick up the book Creative Colleges I think is the title. It's a college resource book for schools with especially good programs in fine arts, performing arts, writing, etc. Some dedicated arts schools, some programs within schools.

And, we still give Lego! The Architecture series has been popular with the boys. Now that they are in college and beyond it's a single joint gift, more for fun, but they put them together on Christmas Day.

I just received another sharper image catalogue and thought of this thread when I saw the giant floor keyboard like the one in the movie Big. Might be a fun family gift. 102” long and $99

We ordered the Speak Out Game, hearing it is really funny, along with extra mouthpieces.

I just have to comment on this. Our family received this as a gift last year and I was appalled by it. I just do not get it. The game essentially entails putting pieces of plastic in your mouth, kind of like a dentist might use to take an impression. Then, with these devices in your mouth, you try to say something others can guess. (I may be off a bit here; I never even opened the box and it went straight to Goodwill). I thought it was akin to mockery of anyone with a speech disability. I just don't get it. I don't have any such disability or know someone who does, and I don't think I am particularly sensitive or PC but... really? What is funny about not being able to speak correctly? It did not help that the device is pretty darn ugly when worn (who wants to play a game looking like that anyway).

I am totally in the minority on this though, it is very popular on many sites.

I got the game Exploding Kittens for my family. Supposed to be fun, haven’t played it but we will all be home Christmas week and we like to play games when we have enough free time. I got another game too but ugh, can’t remember what it’s called!

I still get Legos for my 25 yo because he was such a huge fan of Legos and always asked for a huge kit every year until midway through his teens. I just get him a small Lego for his stocking these days.

I got all my kids (16, 22, 25) these weird sticker books, sort of a spin on the adult coloring books I think...you can search for them on Amazon. I think my 25 year old (the creative one) will get into it, not sure about the others but maybe! I’ll give them to them on Christmas Eve, since it falls on Sunday and could potentially feel like a long day since we have nothing planned until evening.

I always also get him a sketch pad and some fancy pens (he draws quite a bit, always in black ink).

Hmm. Maybe a Go Pro? No idea how much they cost.

All 3 of my kids also enjoyed making gingerbread houses from a kit last year. I might get them again for Christmas Eve Eve!

I want this ...But I'll have to settle with my son letting me use his !

Thank you all for getting the juices running. DS ended up coming through with some requests:) He decided to upgrade his music software and Star Wars reignited his lego interest, so there will be Lego under the tree again. Yay!

Also, if you haven't seen them, Happy Socks has some great socks.