Thursday, December 6, 2007 | by nathan

You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out, Kid

I’ve been having a bit of trouble lately with my Christmas gift-buying. Sure, Christmas is only marginally about the presents, but the fact is that I look forward to this time every year in part so that I can give people I love wonderful gifts. This year, however, I’m having a bit of trouble, which has been mitigated in part by a few places around the web that I thought I’d share, just in case you’re having the same trouble I am, especially with those pesky stocking stuffers or secret Santa gifts:

Place The First: Think Geek

I’ll be the first to tell you that this website probably isn’t for everyone, but I think that if you’re looking forward to giving someone that smile they get when their stocking is filled with something unexpected and delightful - if not terribly useful - then you definitely must check it out. Highlights include the 8-bit tie:

ThinkGeek has some fantastic selections of toys and gadgets for the do-it-yourself-er, but also some wonderfully useful things for the rest of us. My personal favorite - and something I’d be both delighted and terrified to receive on Christmas Day - is Clocky:

Here’s what the product page says about Clocky:

This little wonderful wheeled alarm clock started as an engineering student’s project. Having trouble waking up herself, Gauri Nanda developed Clocky to shriek annoyingly and effectively, waking you up. The fun doesn’t end there, kiddies. It leaps off of your night stand, and drives around your room, making random turns and racing away from your grasp. Now you have to get out of bed and hunt the little bugger down to turn it off.

Now, okay, that’s terrifying, right? But also, if, like me, you have the *tiniest* little bit of trouble waking up, it might be kind of nice to have some incentive. Though knowing me, I’d just turn off the wheels (which is an option) within two days, and the whole thing would be rendered utterly useless. I’d estimate that anyone who bought this for me would get a big hug on Christmas Day, and then be dead within a week.

Place The Second: Buy Olympia

So, you remember being a kid, and you never had any money, so you just made your parents’ Christmas and birthday gifts? And you always kinda think that maybe now, now that you’re an adult, you’ll get back to that, because now you have a modicum of creativity, style, and know-how? Only you don’t? Well Buy Olympia is a wonderful way to give someone in your life a nice little handmade something, only YOU DON’T HAVE TO MAKE IT.

I found this link via Girl Con Queso. Here’s what the creators of the website have to say:

We’re a small, three-person operation located in downtown Olympia, Washington. We carry unique and interesting goods from all over, not just Olympia.

We started back in 1999 as a way to help our friends sell their awesome handmade crafts online, and have since grown to have a lot more friends from all over world.

Probably my favorite thing about the website is that they have gifts sorted according to price, which comes in especially handy if you’re attending a secret Santa event or if your family has set price limits on gift-giving. Since I’m a stationery and paper-products addict, one of my favorite things is the the Sealines Notebook by Jill Bliss:

I’ve already decided to get my brother’s girlfriend’s Christmas gift from this website, though in the interest of not giving anything away, I’m not going to share with any of you what I’m getting her.

Place The Third: Threadless

Seriously? You haven’t visited Threadless yet? Because you really should. And if it wasn’t totally sold out, I’d tell you to get me this t-shirt:

Which is just one among many amazing t-shirt selections they have. I promise you, for every person on your gift list you’ll find a shirt to match their personality, coloring, taste, and sense of humor. The problem is that I’m a hopeless trendy, so by the time I see a shirt I like, it’s almost always sold out. Like this one.

At any rate, I realize this isn’t the kind of post you’ve come to expect here, but I’ve been having a little trouble with the holiday gifting this year, and, not wanting to wuss out and run to Best Buy gift cards, I’ve turned to these sites to help me. I hope they help you as well.

Confidential to my family: If you’re wondering what to get me, don’t call and ask. Just start looking right here.

Interweb