STOP!  Don’t go and buy another pretty coffee table book that looks great but provides its recipient with only an hour or two of vacuous and ephemeral enjoyment before transforming into a lifeless chunk that its new owner struggles with guilt feelings over before giving it the inevitable heave-ho.  Just say no to that CD Box of best-selling “classics” that everyone has heard so many times already that any pleasure in owning them (again) is diminished to the point of near non-existence.  That best-seller that everyone feels that they have to read, but no one actually wants to?  Pass.  And those nifty high-priced repackagings of  “favorite” comics that everybody who's interested already has?  Ditto.

Be adventurous and provide gifts that surprise and enthuse, that stimulate the senses more than they drain the wallet, and that will be treasured for years to come.