It feels as though 2025 has gone by too quickly, but it's already December, the days are getting short, and there's a bracing crispness to the air. Holiday season is the busiest part of the year at Pen Boutique, and, if it's a hectic time for you, too, I'm here to help if you need gift suggestions. I love pens, so I always want to share the excitement and joy that they bring me, and I bet a lot of my readers feel the same way. It's a hobby that helps you slow down a little, focus on beauty, be introspective, but also reach out to others and make connections. Even for people who don't go "down the rabbit hole" and get immersed in collecting, pens are a useful and special gift that shows your recipient that you think they deserve a nice writing instrument that elevates their day. It's easy to find great gifts at Pen Boutique, even for people who aren't into fountain pens!
Before you start this article, I just want to warn you that I've included so many suggestions, it was impossible to do true "illustration" style photos like in most of my articles, so, instead, I got inspired one day when the store was closed and created a number of photo spreads with lots of different festive pens and accessories. Be sure to read the photo captions to see what I've featured, because there are lots of great products included that aren't necessarily discussed in the rest of the article! Have fun, read on, and feel free to jump around to whatever catches your eye.
Gifts to Introduce Others to Fountain Pens
Each year at Pen Boutique, we see more and more new people excited about getting started with their first fountain pen, including young teens, high schoolers, and college students who love exploring fountain pens and expressing themselves through their collections. Using a fountain pen helps improve not only their handwriting, but also their grades, as the act of physically writing notes with a pen, rather than digitally, helps you retain the information better. Pen Boutique owner Leena's daughter, Shriya, who is now a senior in college and will soon embark on an amazing career in finance, has told me many times that this is one of her study secrets!
A starter fountain pen is the perfect gift for any young person in your life with whom you'd love to share your love of writing, whether it's a child, grandchild, niece or nephew, family friend, church friend, helper, or neighbor. It's also a great gift for co-workers or friends who have expressed interest in your pens, and as a "Secret Santa" gift at work! To help your recipient take good care of their pens, you can even throw in a pen sleeve to protect their new writing companion.
[Featured: Fun "No! You cannot borrow my pen" and "Down the rabbit hole!" pen sleeves from Rickshaw, Yak single pen box in red, Pen Boutique Maryland Blue crab pen holder, Pilot Varsity in purple and red, Platinum Preppy in purple and green, Limited Edition Platinum Preppies, and Sailor Compass Tuzu Adjust in limited edition Red. The cute and useful crab is strong and stable enough to support anything from a lightweight Varsity to the Montblanc Moctezuma!]
My top recommendations for starter fountain pens are:
- Pilot Varsity
- Platinum Preppy
- Pilot Kaküno
- Pilot Explorer
- Lamy Safari or AL-Star
- Pilot MR/Metropolitan
- Sailor Compass Tuzu Adjust
-
TWSBI Eco
The Pilot Varsity and Platinum Preppy are the easiest and least expensive way to spread your love of fountain pens. They write surprisingly smoothly, and are an especially great choice when you aren't sure if they'd like or be willing to take care of a fountain pen. They are good for both young people and adults. A lot of our customers buy a Pilot Varsity in each color and give them to their kids or grandkids, or hand them out to coworkers! I remember many customers coming in last December and buying handfuls for stocking stuffers or to give out to their friends.
Pilot Varsity is a disposable fountain pen that only costs $4.00 and comes in seven fun colors. The ink color matches the pen.
The Platinum Preppy is also very inexpensive at $7.00, but can be refilled with Platinum ink cartridges, or used with a Platinum converter and bottled ink. The Preppy features a "Slip & Seal" mechanism that prevents the pen from drying out even if it's not used for a long period of time, and I've had many customers tell me it truly works and that they rely on their Preppy even though they own more expensive fountain pens, too. It comes in a variety of colors and nib sizes, each with a matching ink cartridge, and there is even a Limited Edition Preppy with different cool colors/patterns inspired by traditional Japanese artwork, for a few dollars more. (All the limited edition pens come with black ink and a fine nib, regardless of color.) The limited edition Preppy designs are only available for a short time, so those make an especially special gift and are fun to collect! This year's version is Wa Kingyo (Edo-Monogatari).
My current top suggestion for a perfect introductory fountain pen is the Pilot Kaküno. It's an excellent inexpensive pen that would make a great first fountain pen or fun make-you-smile pen for a collector, and is only $14-20, depending on model. I recently got my first Kakuno, and love it! It's extremely comfortable, fun to use, and an amazingly smooth writer. Kaküno's nibs with cute friendly faces always bring a little extra happiness to the writer, the pens are specifically designed to teach new writers to hold their pen properly, and the packaging includes a wonderful introductory user guide! The new, dreamy Kaküno Madoromi Collection introduces a gold-plated version of Pilot's famously smooth steel nib, for an even smoother writing experience.
You can read all about the Pilot Kaküno, Explorer, MR/Metropolitan, and Prera (and why they make such perfect gifts) in my deep-dive article on Pilot's steel-nib pens.
The Pilot MR Collection is available as a rollerball or ballpoint in addition to a fountain pen, for those who would appreciate a nicer, but still budget-friendly, brass pen in a different format. A great gift idea is to pair an MR fountain pen with a matching ballpoint or rollerball to give your recipient options. 
[Featured: TWSBI Eco in Plum with Onyx Trim, Pilot MR ballpoint in Retro Pop Green, Pilot Explorer in Red, Lamy Studio in Special Edition Dark Brown, and Pilot Kaküno in Cumulus White.]
The TWSBI Eco, Lamy Safari or AL-Star, and Sailor Compass TUZU Adjust are all excellent starter pens as well! The TWSBI Eco is a piston-filled demonstrator that encourages your recipient to have fun with ink, as they are able to see inside the barrel of the pen. They come in a lot of cool and interesting color variations, an excellent variety of nib sizes, and are very popular with our customers.
The Sailor Compass TUZU Adjust is an exciting 2024 release that you might not yet be familiar with. This pen has a standard Sailor steel nib, but it features a silver ring hidden under the cap, at the bottom of the grip section, which can be unscrewed to allow you to rotate the grip section and adjust it to best suit the way you hold your pen. Adjusting the grip is easy, and there are clear instructions printed on the box.
The idea is that if you are left handed, or hold your pen at any other unusual angle, you can compensate for this and make it easier to keep contact between your nib and the page, important for consistent ink flow. This makes using the pen both more comfortable and more enjoyable! The TUZU will soon be also offered in "Glassy" and "Forge" collections, with some very cool new colors!
The Lamy Safari and AL-Star are avant-garde classics that are functional, fun, and comfortable to use. The AL-Star follows essentially the same form as the Safari, which was introduced in the 1980s and has remained a cult classic ever since, but the Safari is made primarily from very strong ABS plastic, whereas the AL-Star is a more premium lightweight durable anodized aluminum. (The "AL" in AL-Star signifies aluminum.) They come in a huge variety of colors, and we currently have amazing closeout deals on many retired Safari and AL-Star colors (in ballpoint, rollerball, and mechanical pencil, as well as fountain pen!), so, if you are looking for a bargain, you have lots of options with Lamy! You can even make sets of matching writing instruments, or take advantage of one of the pre-made sets we've put together!
[Left to right: Lamy Safari in Pink Cliff, AL-Star in Dark Dusk, AL-Star in Lilac, AL-Star in Fiery, AL-Star in Autumn Pink, and Safari in Scarlet.]
The Lamy Studio is an excellent choice when you want a classy, interesting, and reliable pen that's a step up from the entry-level classics, but still sits below $100. I often recommend the Studio to customers who want to buy a gift that's nice but not too expensive, and that looks more modern and different than a traditional gift pen like a Parker, Sheaffer or Cross. My favorite thing about the Studio is the cool twisted clip that was inspired by an airplane propeller. The fountain pen version uses the same tried and true nib as the Safari and AL-Star, but, even if your recipient isn't into fountain pens, the Lamy Studio is a great gift choice, because it's another pen that's also available in ballpoint and rollerball, and all three variations have the stylish look and premium feel that raises this pen to the next level. The Studio comes in many different color variations so you can choose the perfect one. The rich and sophisticated special edition Dark Brown with subtle sparkle is even available in a fantastic gift set!
[Pictured: Lamy Studio in Special Edition Dark Brown.]
Pen Box Sets - The Easiest Gift
Speaking of sets, gift sets are wonderful because they are packaged nicely and come with everything you need to give an impressive and useful gift to your recipient. Most fountain pen gift sets come with a pen, ink, and converter, and some also include a matching pen case. Some sets package a fountain pen and ballpoint pen together, or combine pens with other types of writing instruments like a mechanical pencil. There are also sets that pair a pen and notebook, calligraphy sets with different nib options for your pen, and even sets of inks. Sets are a bargain because the items included would be much more expensive if you purchased them each separately. They also look great when wrapped!
These are some of my favorites:
- For new fountain pen lovers (or people you want to convert into fountain pen lovers!), the Lamy Safari, clear Vista (pictured below), and AL-Star boxed gift sets are ideal holiday gifts, because, like the Studio gift set, they include everything someone needs to get started in the world of fountain pens. Plus, these are just great pens to use and to collect in different colors.
- My favorite new addition to Lamy's lineup this year is the Safari Special Edition Multi Ring sets in All White Glossy or All Black Glossy. These sets don't include extra ink or a converter, but they feature a unique cap whose top showcases six consecutive circles in bright colors from previous special editions, and come with six different matching decorative rings that fit between the pen's grip section barrel. These can be swapped at will to personalize your pen or express your mood! This is such a cool idea, and I also love the thought of friends or siblings having matching pens, and each choosing a different ring color. You can watch my teammate Kristi's great Instagram video to see how it works! These sets only cost a few dollars more than a regular Safari, but provide a really neat twist. The larger flat boxes that they come in also look impressive as a gift and are easy to wrap!
- Lamy also has the ultimate gift for Harry Potter fans: the Lamy Safari x Harry Potter Special Edition 2025 gift set! This deluxe set comes in a beautiful box and includes all four Harry Potter themed Safaris, representing the four Hogwarts Houses, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Lamy's fun and clever Harry Potter themed Safari, AL-Star, and Nexx fountain pens are also available for purchase separately, and any of these would be a wonderful gift for fans of the Wizarding World, no matter what age!
- I highly recommend the Pelikan M200 series special edition sets: beautiful translucent Rose Quartz and new 2025 Apricot Achat. I love Pelikan M200 series pens myself and own several, which I use often. (You may remember me gushing about them in my Pelikan article.) Although not a gift set, the new 2025 Red Marbled M200 special edition is also gorgeous, and its rich red would be especially appropriate for Christmas!
- For Sailor lovers, the Sailor Seasonal Festival fountain pen and ink sets or Sailor Manyo fountain pen and ink sets would be an absolutely lovely gift. Each set comes with a delicately colored Sailor Professional Gear Slim fountain pen paired with a matching bottle of ink presented in an elegant gift box.
- The Visconti Van Gogh Collection is available as a fountain pen, rollerball, or ballpoint. The fountain pens are paired with a matching bottle of ink, and, while the others aren't exactly sets, all three styles are beautifully packaged in a box to match the Van Gogh painting they pay tribute to. Each one also comes with a matching bookmark. These handsome pens are very popular gifts for art lovers, and, because the color mixes are natural resin, each one is unique. To learn more about these beautiful pens, check out my blog article.
- Calligraphy pen sets are very popular gifts for people who have learned how to write calligraphy and for those you think would like to learn. We carry them in a number of different brands, in a variety of price points. These include: 1) Kaweco fountain pen calligraphy sets, 2) Lamy Joy fountain pen calligraphy sets (regular or aluminum version), 3) J. Herbin La Perle Des Encres Wooden Box Set (calligraphy dip pen with nibs and ink), and 4) the beautiful Graf Von Faber-Castell Tamitio black fountain pen calligraphy set.
Last, but definitely not least, the Montblanc Gift Set pairs a black Meisterstück Classique 163 rollerball and a red leather #146 notebook, for the ultimate in luxury and value!
Classy Classics
Speaking of classy classics, a Montblanc Meisterstück fountain pen, rollerball, or ballpoint make very special luxury gifts, and you can read my blog article on these pens (focusing on fountain pens, but also talking about Montblanc and Meisterstück in general) to learn more about why. Pen Boutique is one of the few remaining pen stores designated as an authorized Montblanc retailer.
The limited production Montblanc Meisterstück black 146 "Calligraphy" fountain pen with a Curved Nib would make an extra-special gift, and we still have a few of this extremely sought-after writing instrument in stock, after not being able to get it for a long while. The extremely smooth and fun nib is similar to a Sailor Naginata Togi nib, and allows a variety of writing styles and line widths, depending on the angle and the orientation at which the pen is held.
The Montblanc Starwalker is a great alternative for a Montblanc with a contemporary look, and you can read about it in my article from earlier this year. The new Northern Lights-inspired PolarGreen edition (and matching ink!) is especially appropriate as a wintery pen, and the Blue Planet and SpaceBlue are other all-time favorites.
Other wintery Montblanc pens include the Glacier and Winter Olympic Heritage Collection. Along with Olympic Heritage, the elegant Art Deco-inspired The Origin Collection (commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Meisterstück) is being retired, so this may be your last opportunity to purchase one of these special Meisterstück writing instruments.
The brand new burgundy red Meisterstück and Golden Hour fountain pens, rollerballs, and ballpoints are also especially beautiful, with a rich color that is perfect for the holiday season! These two collections are such a gorgeous edition to Montblanc's lineup, and I'd love to own either one!
[Pictured: Pilot Ishime in Hunter Green and Pilot Custom 743 in special edition US Exclusive Verdigris (my two favorite pens in my personal collection!); Montblanc Starwalker in Polar Green, Montblanc burgundy red Meisterstück ballpoint, and Montblanc Golden Hour rollerball.]
The Pilot Custom 743 and Custom 823 are classy Japanese classics that make ideal gifts at a lower price point than a Montblanc. They are two of the best serious fountain pens you can get for the money and are phenomenally smooth writers. They also both come in a beautifully boxed gift set on a satin bed with a bottle of ink. Last year, Pilot introduced the Signature nib option for the Custom 823, which is incredibly enjoyable to use and adds a beautiful touch of line variation to your signature. The Pilot Custom 743, which has 14 different nib choices, is second only to my Pilot Ishime as my favorite pen in my personal collection. The only difference between the Custom 743 and Custom 823, other than nib options, is that the 823 is a translucent vacuum-filler and the 743 is an opaque cartridge/converter filled pen.
The Custom 823 is available in Smoke, Amber, or new Demo Clear, and Custom 743 comes in either Black or Verdigris Green (pictured in the group photo above), a US Exclusive color only available for a limited time. Pilot's supply of this beautiful shade is nearly depleted, so, if you love the Verdigris Green, buying one is something you should act on now. Pilot's prices will also go up on January 1st, and both the Custom 823 and Custom 743 will raise in price by $40, so I'd buy one before that happens! You can read about both of these pens in my Pilot Pens by the Numbers blog article.
My article on Choosing a Graduation Gift Pen also has a lot of useful information on other excellent gift pens, and one of the other classics I recommend in that article is the Pilot Vanishing Point collection. Although it feels like a very modern design, Pilot's capless fountain pen made its debut over 60 years ago, in 1963, and was billed as the world's first retractable fountain pen. It remains one of the very few retractable fountain pens on the market, and is widely considered to be the best. It's Pilot's best-selling gold nib pen, and my own Vanishing Point Décimo, which I bought this summer, has become one of my new favorite pens.
If you would like to give your recipient an extra-special Vanishing Point, choose a "luxurious and silent" Vanishing Point LS, rhodium plated Vanishing Point Stripes, Black Birchwood or Red Birchwood wood Vanishing Points, or the breathtaking Vanishing Point Raden collection. This holiday season, you can also give a limited edition Vanishing Point: either the sophisticated Link Midnight or the sparkling 20th Anniversary Décimo (the first-ever limited edition Vanishing Point in the slimmer Décimo size)! These two limited edition pens are both very cool and will sell out quickly, so they would make especially memorable gifts!
[Pictured: Vanishing Point Link Midnight limited edition. I love its cool texture!]
Pictured below is the Pilot Vanishing Point Stripes, along with Montblanc Sartorial 1 Pen Pouch, Montblanc Extreme 3.0 notebook, Ink Archiving Book from Dominant Industry (from my personal collection!), Leonardo Supernova limited edition in Jonathon Brooks' Primary Manipulation 5 resin, Sailor Professional Gear in Christmas Spice Tea, and the Pelikan Souveran M600 Red/White Stripe special edition, on sale at a special closeout price! There are so many wonderful festive and classy pens, it's hard for me not go overboard mentioning way too many, but I love these for the holiday season.
Many other limited edition pens also come breathtakingly boxed, sometimes with a bottle of ink and gorgeous pen case. We have a large variety of exceptional limited edition pens to choose from; feel free to call our customer service (410-992-3272) for advice if you need help picking one out. Customer service is open Monday to Friday, 9 AM to 5 PM Eastern Time.
So Many Stocking Stuffers
On the other end of the spectrum, I had a lot of fun thinking of Pen Boutique stocking stuffers. These small gifts would also be great as little presents for friends at work or school.
[Pictured: Compact and cool Kolo Tino ballpoint and fountain pens in Raw Aluminum and Acrylic San Marzano Red, Kaweco Liliput in beautiful Blue, Fisher Space Pen in Laquered Brass, Benu Pixie in Icy Violet and Aqua Glow, Pen Boutique Maryland Blue crab pen holder, Kaweco Sport in Red and Kaweco Sport Piston Filler in Solo Navy.]
The Lamy Pico and compact Fisher Space Bullet Pen ballpoints are both cool and so useful. I was showing some customers the Pico in the store and they all went nuts when they saw how the pen starts out as a tiny capsule when closed, then springs open to full size when you click the back. When they asked in amazement, "How does it do that???" I just said, "Magic." I love both the bright neon colors and the more stealthy ones. (This year, we also have the Special Edition Ruthenium Pico LX, a beautiful and elegant new premium version of this little marvel. It comes in a larger gift box that isn't stocking stuffer sized, with a matching pen sleeve, and is perfect as a full-fledged holiday gift.)
The Fisher Space Pens are also incredibly compact when closed, and feature a pressurized ink refill that works in all kinds of adverse conditions, like on greasy surfaces, underwater, upside down, and in extreme weather. Plus, if you happen to go to outer space, you definitely need one for writing there.
The new Faber-Castell Avori ballpoints are both elegant and eco-friendly, with clever packaging that would be perfect as a stocking stuffer. I love their sleek Scandinavian-inspired design, faceted shape, and six soft, stylish two-tone shades. The plastic parts are made from 92% recycled plastic, and are offset by a metal top third in a slightly different shade, and a metal clip in an additional complementary metallic accent shade. You can learn more about them on Faber-Castell's website.
I also love the Faber-Castell Metallic Highlighter Textliners, which come in a box of eight, with cool shimmery colors. This is such a pretty gift, and so useful, too! Same with the Faber-Castell True Gel Pens six-pen set, which looks like a little container of jewels. They are perfect for both kids and adults, and we have special prices to help you save on these.
[Pictured: Faber-Castell Poly Gift Set, Grip fountain pen in Silver, Metallic Highlighter Textliner, True Gel Pens set, Sparkle Pencils, and Avori ballpoints in Peace of Mind and Dreamweaver.]
More fun small things:
1) Colorverse Mini inks. If you buy 3 or more, you can save 50 cents a bottle.
2) Fun Rickshaw or simple and classy Pen Boutique pen sleeves to protect your pen.
3) Pocket-sized Field Notes notebooks come in so many great designs. The National Parks series is especially nice, as is The Birds and Trees special North America Edition. I also love the fun and cool Streetscapes limited edition sketchbooks, with four “coloring book” architectural illustrations that wrap around the front and back covers of these 4-3/4" × 7-1/2" books and allow you to color cityscapes from New York, Miami, Los Angeles, and Chicago!
4) Small notebooks from Japanese brands like Stalogy, Hobonichi, Apica, and Maruman Mnemosyne (A7, B7, or A6 sized), are always useful, and your recipients will appreciate the fountain pen friendly paper! The Editors' Memo Pad from Stalogy, an exciting new brand for us, seems like an especially cool stocking stuffer, as do the beautiful Hiroko Kubota: Another Night of Falling Star Sparklers notebooks from Hobonichi!
5) Hobonichi's fun accessories are the perfect way to make Japanese stationery lovers in your life smile. There are cool Makoto Matsubayashi postcards, lots of stickers, pencil boards, stamps, and more.
6) The Pilot Parallel is very fun to experiment with. This inexpensive writing instrument comes in six wide flat nib widths and can be used for calligraphy and to create spectacular lettering or art effects.
7) The Monteverde Tool is the perfect stocking stuffer or small gift for anyone in your life who loves clever and useful gadgets! This helpful companion is sort of like the Swiss Army Knife of writing instruments, and is available as a mechanical pencil, ballpoint pen, fountain pen, and inkball pen (rollerball that uses fountain pen cartridges). It's an all-in-one writing instrument, screwdriver, ruler, level, stylus, and more! Check out my blog article and you'll see why this is such a great gift.
8) You know what I always want in my Christmas stocking? The Col-o-ring ink testing cards! These tried and true cards are perfect for swatching all your favorite inks, and I've been using them for over six years to help keep track of my gigantic ink collection. They have been rigorously tested to prevent feathering, bleeding, or show-through, and are great with fountain pens, glass pens, dip pens, cotton swabs, and even paintbrushes. The heavyweight, slightly toothy paper shows off your inks properties beautifully, including sheen, shimmer, and shading. Wearingeul also offers popular and fun ink swatching cards and notebooks made with heavyweight paper that showcases your inks' true sheen, shading, and color variations, and Colorverse's lovely new ink-friendly Coloring Sheets are a creative and functional way to swatch your inks while revealing beautiful ink-resistant designs!
9) These may be slightly large for a stocking (depending on size of your stocking!), but the Punilabo Pen Cases in the shape of cute animals are super popular for both young people and the young at heart. They are also excellent for pencils, paintbrushes, makeup brushes, or other small supplies. There are five new designs this year!
10) Another fun and useful thing I'd love to find in the toe of my stocking: ink cartridges! For Pilot pen lovers, shiny silver Iroshizuku cartridges boxes are so pretty, they almost look like Christmas ornaments themselves. Sailor (proprietary for Sailor pens), Montblanc, Graf von Faber Castell, Pelikan Edelstein, and J. Herbin (all standard international, which fit many different brands of pen) are also especially good brands that have nice packaging.
11) Retro 51 pens or pencils also make perfect gifts because you can really get creative matching the subject to your recipient's favorite interest. They come in tubes with eye-catching designs that often match the theme, and are the perfect size for a stocking. These high-quality writing instruments write wonderfully and are very popular with our staff. For inspiration, check out my blog article where I talked about the Buzz and others. A lot of the Retro 51 pens also have matching Rickshaw pen sleeves, for the ultimate gift pairing! We are having big sales on a lot of the Retro 51 rollerballs that are collaborations with the US Postal Service, a nice tie-in to sending holiday cards. The beautiful limited edition Hanukkah and "Merry and Bright" Christmas pens are especially perfect holiday gifts!
12) Last but not least, Shriya's favorite: the Sailor Compass Shikiori Markers, available in 20 beautiful colors modeled after the famous Sailor Shikiori fountain pen inks. Each dye-based marker is double-sided with both a fine tip and a brush tip, and you can layer them or blend the colors with a wet paintbrush. They are so enjoyable to experiment with, and sure to bring out your creative side!
Ink Lovers' Dream
One last suggestion: ink! Ink gift sets and special inks are a dream gift for the fountain pen lovers on your list. Ink is a fantastic gift idea when you don't trust yourself to pick out a pen, or just to make an ink lover very happy. It's also the perfect thing to pair with a gift pen when you really want to wow your loved one. An ink set is something that people rarely splurge on for themselves, so it's extra-special to receive.
There aren't as many ink sets around this year, but we do have beautiful sets from J.Herbin, Colorverse, and Monteverde (including the Color Changing Ink, which is unique and fun to use creatively). All of these are very nice and feature lovely ink color choices.
The Diamine Inkvent Calendar set is also incredibly fun if you're a fountain pen ink lover, and is joyous to open during December either as a family or alone. This year's Teal Edition is Diamine's most innovative Inkvent calendar yet! This advent calendar -style set comes with 25 small bottles of ink and 25 windows to open, so you can be surprised each day. All the colors are new releases and consist of a curated palate of Standard, Sheen, Extreme Sheen, Scented, Shimmer, Shimmer & Sheen, Chameleon, Pigment, Pigment Shimmer, and Pigment Chameleon style inks. (Chameleon is a very cool type of shimmer ink, where the color changes depending on the angle of the light.) That's a lot of variety, and I'm quite intrigued that they have added pigmented inks to the calendar, after releasing the new Diamine Forever pigmented ink line earlier this year.
I highly recommend buying the calendar for a little treat each day. At 12 ml, the bottles are small, but large enough to fill your pens many times in the year ahead. (The average converter will hold between 0.6ml and 1ml of ink, and the average piston filler fountain pen holds 1.2 to 2.5ml of ink.) There is also one special 30 ml bottle for the 25th day. The Inkvent colors are released much later in the year in large 50ml bottles, and those individual bottles are also a great choice for a holiday-themed ink.
We also have limited quantities of the Colorverse 2025 Colorvent Ink Calendar! This limited edition calendar is in high demand and is selling very quickly, so I don't know if we will have any left by the time this article publishes. If you click on the link and there are some still available, don't wait to order, because there are very few remaining. The top three inks from this calendar, by popular vote, will be released in individual Special Edition bottles next year. We recently received the 2024 winners, Christmas Star Glistening, Pulsar Pulse, and Milky Way Glistening, and one of the colors sold out in days! All three are gorgeous.
The perfect accessory for an Inkvent or Colorvent calendar (or any other inky experimentation) is a dip pen like the Sailor Compass Hocoro dip pen with interchangeable nibs, Colorverse Shuttle nib holders and nibs in mix or match brass or aluminum, Pilot Iro-Utsushi dip pens in wood or resin, or elegant J. Herbin glass dip pens. Dipping fountain pens takes a lot of time to clean the nib and feed in between each ink, so, if you're testing a large number of inks, this can be tiring and time consuming. Dip pens are easy to clean. All you have to do is rinse the nib in water.
I also think the Sailor Dipton and Dominant Industry Calligraphy inks would be perfect little holiday gifts or stocking stuffers to pair with dip pens, even for someone who isn't into fountain pens. These extra-shimmery and extra-sheening dip pen inks, very popular in Japan and Korea, aren't safe for use in fountain pens, but they are so beautiful and inspiring! Sometimes it's fun just to get creative and play.
Other Ideas When You Don't Know What To Get
There are countless additional options in the world of pens, and it's best to come into the store to browse if you want to pick out a unique pen in another category. A sales associate can help you narrow down the options if you need help, or a customer service representative can assist you if necessary when you order online.
[Featured: Diamine Inkvent bottle, Wearingeul Glitter Potion (a fun and beautiful solution you can add to any ink to transform it into a shimmer ink), Lamy AL-Star in Whitesilver (also available in a great gift set!), Faber-Castell True Gel Pens set, Punilabo Fox pen case, Pilot Iroshizuku cartridges, Visconti Homo Sapiens fountain pen, Pilot Custom Heritage SE fountain pen in marble red, ST Dupont Line D pen, sparkling Lamy Studio Dark Brown fountain pen, Pelikan M200 series fountain pen, and Visconti Van Gogh in Red Vineyard (available as fountain pen, rollerball, or ballpoint, each in a stunning gift set).]
Remember, even if you love fountain pens, you don't have to get your recipient one. First think about whether they'd really enjoy and appreciate a fountain pen. If not, there are many beautiful ballpoints and rollerballs that can still elevate their writing experience!
Here are a few final ideas for that hard-to-shop-for person. (You know, when you aren't sure about their pen taste and you don't know what they already have.)
For a fountain pen lover, fountain pen friendly paper is very welcome. I recommend our new Leuchtturm 1917 notebooks, Midori, the wildly popular Hobonichi notebooks and planners, or the stunning Italian Kartos writing sets, all of which feature premium paper that is especially compatible with fountain pens and ink.
I love the Dominant Industries Ink Archiving Book (I have one, and I love the paper, and how creative it is!), Midori Leather Grain Notebook (which features both lined and blank paper in the same notebook!), Midori Diary with Embroidery Bookmark Cat, and Midori 5 Year Diary in Black or Red!
[Pictured: Hobonichi Weeks "Squirrel’s Moving Day," Kartos Italian stationery, Midori 5 Year Diary, Apica Premium CD Notebook in Red, Midori Diary with Embroidery Bookmark Cat, Hobonichi stickers "Yumi Kitagishi: Daily Life of White Cat," Hobonichi Sticky Note Roll, Stalogy Editors Memo Pads (lined, plain, and grid), Sanby x Hobonichi Techo One Piece Rotating Stamp, and Lamy AL-Star in Fiery.]
A bottle of pen flush is always useful, and splurging on fancy inks like Montblanc, Iroshizuku, Jacques Herbin, or a Colorverse two-bottle duo is a special treat.
For the Montblanc lover, what about Montblanc desk accessories, leather goods, pen cases, cufflinks, or notebooks?
Pen Boutique's store exclusive Yak Leather pen cases are available in many different sizes to fit all kinds of pen collections. We have some beautiful new colors in the 24-pen size! I love the soft Crazy Horse leather, which patinas as you use it.
And, for people who have everything, I recommend...
1) A handcrafted David Oscarson pen, 2) the Montblanc Patron of Art Limited Edition 888 Moctezuma fountain pen, and 3) the breathtaking Namiki Yukari Royale limited edition Maki-e Golden Rose fountain pen (currently the most expensive pen in our store!).
[Pictured: Penlux Masterpiece Grande Christmas Edition fountain pen, Namiki Yukari Royale limited edition Maki-e Golden Rose fountain pen, the slim and elegant Pilot Grance fountain pen in Pearl White, Pilot Custom Urushi 845 fountain pen in Vermillion (on my wish list!), and TWSBI Eco Fountain Pen in Irish Green with Onyx.]
I never know where to stop when suggesting good gift ideas, so I hope this article didn't overload you with information. If you need any assistance, please visit our store, or ask our friendly customer service team for assistance! I hope your holidays are as stress-free as possible and filled with joy, love, and beauty. And if you are in the area, please come to our three wonderful store events this December: we will be welcoming back Bill Pearcy representing Pilot/Namiki December 5th and 6th, Ken Jones from Yafa Brands on December 13th, and Scott Hammer sharing Sailor and Kolo December 19th and 20th. I can't wait to see Bill, Ken, and Scott, and hope you'll be able to join us!
-Laura P.
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