Engadget's Holiday Gift Guide, 2008!

Welcome to the Engadget Holiday Gift Guide! We know as well as anyone what a ridiculous mess it is shopping for tech gifts for your family and friends, especially when you tack on the crowds, the traffic, and hearing Jingle Bell Rock 80,000 times. Sure, it seems like you've got an infinite number of options to comb through, but with our Holiday Gift Guide we're aiming to simplify that gadget gift giving experience and pinpoint a most excellent present for just about anyone.

Here's how we do our thing: the HGG is actually a series of smaller guides broken down first by whom you'll be buying gifts for, and then by price range. Today we're starting with him, easily the most discerning gadget giftee; in a few days we'll go to her, then son, daughter, dad, mom, and so on. The guides will be collected in a landing page which can be helpfully sorted by price and recipient (which will be up soon). We'll publish a new guide every few days through Christmas, so you'll have plenty of time to shop around online and in stores, and we do suggest you check out all the guides -- especially since you never know when you'll find something you want for yourself.

Enjoy, and happy holidays!

[Eric @ Nov 24th 2008 6:34PM]

I remember last year's guides and they were great. Looking forward to these guides. Thanks Engadget staff!

[james @ Nov 24th 2008 6:58PM]

does anyone even say Merry Christmas anymore?

[AJ in the East Bay @ Nov 24th 2008 7:10PM]

Yes, people do, but only within their social circle.

[Giroro @ Nov 24th 2008 7:11PM]

Merry Christmas.


But seriously, what other 'holiday' does engadget have in mind?

Kwanzaa? I think not.

[MastrCake @ Nov 24th 2008 7:29PM]

Not if you're a Brit.

:)

[who? @ Nov 24th 2008 7:45PM]

Happy Christmas!!

[Luigi193 @ Nov 24th 2008 8:23PM]

Merrrrry Christmas!

I hate that its not "PC" to say merry christmas...

I think i'll say it again...

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

[GenBanks @ Nov 24th 2008 8:24PM]

Who gives a shit? This fuss about whether people say this or that or whatever. It doesn't matter! If you want to say merry christmas, or happy holidays, say it! The only time it becomes an issue is when someone challenges someone else for saying something they don't like. If we all just stopped focusing on other peoples' vocabulary this whole 'war on christmas' hoax would be nonexistent. Imo.

[bioadam @ Nov 24th 2008 9:57PM]

Only after Thanksgiving and before New Years.

[Darrell @ Nov 25th 2008 8:13PM]

No but they might if you stop the annoying practice of pointing out every time someone or some business says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas.

[GenBanks @ Nov 26th 2008 6:44PM]

Luigi, you sound as though you think someone might be offended by you saying 'Merry Christmas' and you want to prove that you don't care if anyone gets offended and it's your right to scream 'merry christmas'.

That would fair enough this 'anti-christmas' faction were real; no reason to actively stop people from saying merry christmas. I say happy christmas (I'm in the UK). But the fact is that I doubt ANYONE gets truly offended by it! So this whole rebellious attitude about saying 'Merry Christmas' is totally silly. That's what I was trying to point out in my first post (the one that's invisible :p)

As an aside, on a technical basis, there is also nothing wrong with saying Happy Holidays since the holiday pretty much stretches to New Year celebrations (in eastern europe/russia and other orthodox countries like armenia, new year is when the main celebration happens). So both are fine.

Now rank me down again for not pretending to be rebellious by spelling merry christmas in oh-so-defiant capital letters.

[Connor @ Nov 25th 2008 12:05PM]

Happy Christmahanukwanzaakah to you!

[Ian @ Nov 24th 2008 7:35PM]

Here's what pisses me off about the whole "holiday" vs. "Christmas" thing.

Sure other holidays in America are celebrated, but does anyone know the statistics? 97% of Americans celebrate Christmas, while 14% of that are even NON-Christian!

[holycow @ Nov 24th 2008 8:05PM]

I wanna tell people in Canada, that Best Buy is giving a 4GB Zune FREE with a purchase of 16GB Zune for 179.99. If that helps anyone in getting a gift.

[CUBSWILLWIN @ Nov 24th 2008 10:17PM]

Fucking Canadians not happy with their iPhones... :P

[Rebel6381 @ Nov 24th 2008 8:08PM]

After an all out holy war in my town two years ago between all religions and the town supervisor I came up with the most logical solution.

When greeting someone during this festive time you may use the greeting for which you celebrate. If I celebrate Christmas and my friend celebrates Kwanzaa then we should greet each other with Merry Christmas and Happy Kwanzaa, respectively. There should be no reason to get into a fit about someone celebrating something that is not your own. Of course those who do not celebrate during this time can simply reply with "Good morning" or any of the obvious variations.

SIMPLE...TO THE POINT...AND TOTALLY RESPECTIVE OF EVERYONE!

Merry Christmas y'all.

[Maxwell @ Nov 25th 2008 1:01AM]

Good morning!

[zfurie @ Nov 25th 2008 8:42AM]

and Happy Wiccan Day to you too.

[Joe Dombrowski @ Dec 1st 2008 12:23PM]

It's a Festivus, for the rest of us!

[Zoroaster @ Nov 24th 2008 10:59PM]

Hey you guys should do a "for baby" guide this year. I'm sure there are some sweet gadgets for babies out there. I've got a little guy on the way and I want him to be a tricked out cyborg from the moment of his birth.

[ace587 @ Nov 25th 2008 4:53AM]

nice

[Gomer @ Nov 24th 2008 9:45PM]

HAPPY FESTIVUS!!!

[who? @ Nov 24th 2008 10:58PM]

Oh, God, I have the best Black Friday poem about the Apple Store ever! I'm just waiting to post it until there's a post about Apple so it can seem slightly relevant... shouldn't be long now! ;)

[Sarah @ Nov 25th 2008 2:17PM]

I found some other great gift guides at gifts.com too!

Christmas Budget Guide: http://www.gifts.com/christmas/budget
Gadget Gifts by Personality Guide: http://www.gifts.com/ideas/hot-gadget-gift-guide
Steals, Deals & Special Shipping Offers: http://www.gifts.com/ideas/deals

[ran @ Nov 25th 2008 2:52PM]

Just saw the guide. Looks great.

[Debra @ Dec 2nd 2008 2:17PM]

The TickleMe Plant -- unforgettable!
I almost cried when I found the video of the TickleMe Plant moving on line. I remember tickling the plant my Grandma had when I was a kid. Back then they called it the sensitive plant. It was such a treat to see Grandma, and watching the leaves close on the TickleMe Plant was more fun then any modern day video game.
I am raising the TickleMe Plants from seeds from a greenhouse I got on line at http://www.ticklemeplant.com
If you haven't grown one with your kids, you are missing out on a true gardening wonder.