By: Ang Biondo
Funny how things have a knack for sneaking up on you, and Christmas is no exception. And, in today’s economy with so many of us out of work its probably a good idea to get an early start at making that list and checking it twice. Of coarse if you are like me, my intentions are good – but we’re always doing that last minute running around. Never the less, buying for others is always great fun, and seeing their faces when they open their gift always brings us great joy.
I know we all have the most fun buying for the youngest generation. The toy makers supply us with a host of new toys and dolls both inert and animated to make that job fairly easy, however the young adults to geriatrics are sometime difficult. So for those of you who in the position of not quite knowing what to get for that college student, young adult, parent, or grandparent that seems to have everything, I have a few suggestions.
Let’s get into those suggestions. Most all young adults and college students I know are heavily into electronics. Electronic gifts offer a host of cherished gifts in all price ranges. If you are looking for stocking fillers think about:
• Memory cards: Memory cards can either serve as a stocking filler or an expensive gift depending on its capacity and speed. Memory cards and flash drives are rated for speed with a rating of 1 to 6 with 6
- Memory with a rating of 1 to 3 is good for use as a storage device where speed is not a factor. It is less expensive and comes in a variety of capacities starting at 1 GB.
- Memory with a rating of 4 to 6 is ideal for digital camera use. The faster speeds ensure clean clear pictures eliminating the blurred fuzzy shots caused be the write delay when using slower memory. The camera shutter remains open while writing to the memory card, the speed of which the memory card can be written to will determine the clarity of the photo.
- Batteries: It seems everything you buy today requires batteries. A supply of D to AAA sizes make ideal stocking stuffers since they power everything from toys to digital cameras.
- Calculators, Pre-paid Cell phones, and hand held electronic games also make good stocking stuffers.
- Inexpensive Calculators: are ideal for the older generation like myself whose brain cells are starting to dry up and could use a little help at the grocery store to keep me in budget.
- Pre-paid Cell phones: are ideal for the retiree who no longer only needs a cell phone or the big monthly bill that goes along with it. Cell phone companies like Tracfone® offer phones and pre-paid phone cards which offer lifetime double minutes with the purchase of the phone. You can buy a good quality phone with 800 double minutes for a total of 1600 minutes good for a full year for under $130.00. The nice thing about buying a phone package for someone, is that you can always buy them extra minutes for other occasions during the year.
- There are a host of hand held and key-chain games on the market which will offer the recipient hours of entertainment while traveling or just goofing off. They are cheap and make great gifts.
Getting into the more serious stuff costing $100.00 and more. Probably one of the most cherished gifts for the college student or young executive on the market today would be “Kindle”. Kindle is an electronic book reader that can hold the content of 1500 books. If you have seen the backpacks some of these students need to carry, believe me reducing that pack by 6 to 10 books is a blessing. You have to feel sorry for a student you see running from one building on campus to another with a 50 lb. backpack slung over one shoulder and a 20 lb. laptop computer case slung over the other. Kindle can reduce the size of that load immensely, and when needed the material the student needs will be right there at his/her finger-tips. For the executive or traveler, Kindle can hold the contents of that needed reference book or mystery novel to help wield away that long overseas flight, or wait at the airport.
Laptop, Notebook, and the new Netbook computers are the ultimate gift for anyone in this day of electronics. From the student to the home maker researching a homework assignment to getting a recipe off the internet, computers are a life’s necessity in today’s world. Un-like the desktop computer, these mobile cousins are specifically designed for communication and internet interface. Many come with built in cameras to offer visual communication ability allowing the user to see the person they are communicating with. We especially liked this feature when our son was stationed overseas. We got to talk to him and his wife often face to face, making it a little easier for us to live with the fact that they were in a dangerous place so far away.
Digital Cameras and Photo Printers: We all love to take pictures, from landscape to family all pictures provide us with precious memories that we look back upon over the years. Some make us laugh and others make us cry, but all a memorable and we cherish them for as long as we can. What better way to acquire these memorable moments than through a digiial camera. No film needed, a $7.00 2 GB memory card will hold several hundred photo’s depending on the resolution, and their digital. What does digital mean to you? It means that unlike celluloid film it does not break down, it does not lose clarity or quality when copied and it will last virtually forever. As long as you have a device to read that memory card, you will always have that picture. Or you may want to print the picture out. Photo Printers are designed to print to photo quality paper with special water proof or resistant inks. The quality of the photo rivals or exceeds that of the best photo labs. They are extremely affordable and the photo media is competitively priced to meet or beat developed prints.
For the frivolous and game lovers, the expensive electronic games are sure to bring a smile to the whole family. Everyong likes to play games, and when they’re electronic it brings the biggest smile of all. This year you might want to consider one of the Sony™, Microsoft™ or Nintendo™ game consoles. The good news this year is the latest video game consoles from Sony™ and Microsoft™ have new lower prices and will be in high demand. On August 25th, Sony released the newest member of the PS3 family. It’s slimmer, lighter, and only $299. The Play-Station 3® 120 GB has Wi-Fi and Blu-ray player built in. Additionally, Play-Station 3 80 GB and Play-Station 3 160 GB consoles are available on Amazon.com at new, low prices of $299 and $399, respectively.
The Elite and Pro versions of Microsoft’s Xbox 360 console are also available at new, low prices on Amazon.com: $299 for the Xbox 360 Elite and $249 for the Xbox 360 Pro. Featuring a large library of great games, and an online community with over 20 million people to play with or against, the Xbox 360 is a must-have experience.
Unlike the government I know you are spending your own money so I know the price is important. So I have helped somewhat with your gift selections this year. So let me be the first to wish you a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS!, or HAPPY CHANAKAH! And have a great time shopping.
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