This is the gift that started it all!  I received a Realistic DX-360 shortwave radio for Christmas after reading about shortwave radio in Boy's Life magazine.  I spent many night listening to stations like Deutche Welle, VOA, and HCJB,  I loved hearing from and about other people and places around the world.  Soon after, I was studying for my amateur radio license so I could talk to people around the world too.  I learned basic electronics through studying for the ham radio license exams.  From there, I decided that I wanted to make electronics my career, so I went to college to become an electrical engineer.  Nearly 25 years later, I'm still in love with all things radio. 

I think the best engineering gift I've received from a friend was help on my project. I know it's cheesy to say that, but I was in desperate need of help in implementing ROS on my Raspberry Pi 3B+ to use a LiDAR A1 with HectorSLAM. My friend who had already graduated, and who was working at the time, invited me to his place, worked with me over-night (after coming back from work), worked over my protests for him to go sleep till we fixed the issues, and then went straight back to work the next day.
But if you want the answer as a good gift for anyone, I guess a development board would be the best. (Arduino, ESP32 & RPi comes to mind first, or maybe something specific depending on the friend)
Alternatively (as small meetup/drop-in gifts) I guess those random stuff like jumpers, JSTs, crimp connectors, resistors & caps (the common ones), etc are most welcome by any maker since you always need them and you always forget to buy them.

In my collection, I have the following raspberry models.

One RPI Zero-W

Two RPI 3B

one RPI3B+

Two RPI 4B

One RPI 3A+

I gave one 3B to my father's friend's grandson, who is in grade 8.

He knows much about mobiles but He had not much idea about computers. Not at all about Linux.

So I invited him to get started and install Raspbian on an SD card and to start a little bit. He is now able to get the tasks a bit.

More than a gift of Raspberry, a new person needs care and info. to how to get started working on them!!

My go-to gift would be an HQ camera with Lenses.!

Happy holiday friends,!

I just wish that I could received some of those kits so that I could help (teach) students in here and encourage them to learn more about the importance of Rapsberry Pi in this modern world that would be my gift for them. Stay Safe every one! God Bless

It is a very useful list and it is very hard to wish only one so i also wish for

"Raspberry Pi - Pi400 - All in One Raspberry Pi, Keyboard and Mouse Computer"

Happy Holidays to all!

Sandeep Dwivedi

That's a cool idea!

I fried some of those SMDs while trying to solder thin copper wires and make a LED chain. Copper strip, saviour. Thanks.

Hey! that's my strategy for SMD leds as well!

That's a good gift idea

Our friends son Oliver has just turned eleven. He hasn’t really shown any interest in making things as yet but we thought that an Arduino UNO and a Seeedstudio Grove starter kit would be an excellent present to get him motivated. The Grove kit is really easy to use and gets you started straight away making things blink and move.

Hopefully the kit will sow the seeed (pun intended) that will grow into a budding engineer.

Every electronics maker needs a good soldering iron