Holiday Gift Guide 2011

on November 17, 2011

Soft & Safe Community Helpers

lakeshorelearning.com, $29.95 Little hands can get a real "feel" for the important people in their neighborhood with these Soft & Safe Community Helpers, plush, pleasantly plump, squeezable plastic figures of a smiling policeman, fireman, doctor and others whose jobs are dedicated to serving those around them. Buy it now

'Yankeeography: Pinstripe Legends'

amazon.com. $179.95 Baseball fans will be in extra-inning holiday heaven with Yankeeography: Pinstripe Legends, a sprawling, 50-hour salute to the legendary dynasty of the New York Yankees, played out across 16 DVDs and including a photo-packed 32-page book. Buy it now

Soundfreaq Sound Step Recharge

soundfreaq.com, $149 Give this groovy gizmo to someone special hoping Santa brings a hi-tech toy. The Soundfreaq Sound Step Recharge allows users to charge and stream music from multiple devices, including an iPad, iPhone, Android or Blackberry, and a free downloadable app even turns it into a radio. Buy it now

Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection

amazon.com, $99.98 Get ready for a load of old-school laughter! The new DVD box set Laurel and Hardy: The Essential Collection is a giggly goldmine of more than 50 newly re-mastered theatrical shorts and full-length features made by the classic comedy duo between 1929 and 1940, plus some equally vintage bonus material. Buy it now

Journey Gym

journeygym.com, $245 The lightweight, compact Journey Gym makes it possible to work off those extra holiday calories anywhere. A truly portable complete fitness package, it includes a full range of resistance bands and a workout DVD, and it converts to a stair stepper to add cardio exercises to strength training. Buy it now

'Guts & Glory: The Golden Age of American Football'

taschen.com, $49.99 If there's a football fan on your gift list, you'll score some extra points with Guts & Glory: The Golden Age of American Football, 1958-1978, packed with nearly 300 oversized pages of photos of legendary players, coaches and gridiron action by renowned sports photographer Neil Leifer. Buy it now

'Young Man With The Big Beat' CD Box Set

elvis1956.com, $111.05 The five-CD deluxe box set Young Man With The Big Beat stacks the musical kindling that sparked the fire of superstardom for Elvis Presley in 1956. It's a hunka-hunka roundup of master recordings and outtakes, live performances, a new 80-page book, 8x10 photos and rare poster replicas, and audio of previously unreleased interviews. Buy it now

CEIVA Digital Frame

ceiva.com, from $127.99 Share and manage photos with friends and family across the miles with a CEIVA Digital Frame, which can connect online via telephone lines or wirelessly through wi-fi. You can also select to display daily updated screens of sports standings, weather, news and more. Buy it now

'Live Bullet' and 'Nine Tonight'

amazon.com, $8-$10 Stuff a little classic rock in the Christmas sock with these two re-mastered live albums by Detroit icon Bob Seger. Live Bullet (1976) and Nine Tonight (1981) bring the FM memories tumbling back with "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man," "Turn The Page," "Against The Wind," "Main Street," Night Moves" and other hits. Buy Live Bullet now Buy Nine Tonight now

'Clifford, the Big Red Dog' Big, Big Collection

familyandpartygames.com, $19.99 Kid love Clifford, the Big Red Dog. The new six-DVD Big, Big Collection rounds up 50 complete episodes of the award-wining PBS television series, plus interactive games, bonus content and a direct-play feature that lets children insert the DVDs and watch without the assistance of a grownup. Buy it now

'Jurassic Park' Ultimate Trilogy

amazon.com, $119.98 The most successful dinosaur saga of all time roars onto Blu-ray with the Jurassic Park Ultimate Trilogy, which comes with a custom T-rex model, all three movies, digital copies of the films, more than two dozen featurettes, and interviews with the stars and director Steven Spielberg. Buy it now

'Norman Rockwell's Spirit of America'

abramsbooks.com, $24.95 Norman Rockwell's Spirit of America, a new hardbound collection of familiar works by the famous 20th century artist, stirringly paired with all-American poems, stories and song lyrics, also includes eight suitable-for-framing prints. Buy it now

Awkward Family Photos

familyandpartygames.com, $24.99 Get the party started with the Awkward Family Photos, the new family-friendly board game derived from the website of the same name. Players compete by trying to match responses about what might be going on in a variety of odd, unusual or otherwise wince-worthy snapshots. Buy it now

‘Band of Brothers’ and ‘The Pacific’

amazon.com, DVD $159.98/Blu-ray $199.99 Two recent Emmy-winning HBO series about World War II, both produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, ship out together in bonus-packed DVD/Blu-ray box sets. Band of Brothers depicts the remarkable true saga of the men of Easy Company, who parachuted into France on D-Day 1944, while The Pacific tracks the real-life journey of U.S. Marines in the watery theater of war on the other side of the globe. Buy it now

'The Beatles First Recordings with Tony Sheridan: 50th Anniversary Edition'

amazon.com, $22.74 Fans of the Fab Four can hear (and see) how it all began with The Beatles First Recordings with Tony Sheridan: 50th Anniversary Edition. The 2-CD set features the group's newly restored 1961 sessions with the English rocker-bandleader, which marked their very first time inside a recording studio, plus rare photos, early contract and poster reproductions, and more. Buy it now

'Cars' movie box set

amazon.com, $119.99 The 2011 Pixar animated movie comedy Cars 2 makes its DVD/Blu-ray debut just in time for Christmas, bundled with a lavish trunk full of extras, including the original Cars (2006), making-of featurettes, digital /downloadable copies of both films, a spin-off story about the loveable-lug tow truck Mater, and a collectable figure. Buy it now

Always Coca-Cola puzzle

buffalogames.com, $16 The whole family can pitch in for hours of retro fun on Christmas morning piecing together the 1,026 pieces of this classic Always Coca-Cola jigsaw puzzle. Buy it now

The Greatest Day Ever

familyandpartygames.com, $19.99 It's hard to image any young children wouldn't delight racing around the colorful board, meeting "friends," finding "presents" and making fab stopovers at the toy store, carnival and beach in The Greatest Day Ever, a new memory/matching game that the whole family can enjoy. Buy it now

'Little House on the Prairie,' Complete 9 Season Set

amazon.com, $149.98 Hitch up the wagon and return to the beloved 1974-1983 TV series Little House on the Prairie, now packaged in a collectible Complete 9 Season Set with all 203 episodes on a whopping 55 discs, plus cast interviews, documentaries, behind-the-scenes peeks, audio commentary and a photo album. Buy it now

'The Louvre: All the Paintings'

amazon.com, $75 Art lovers will swoon over The Louvre: All the Paintings, a handsome new coffee-table book and accompanying DVD containing glorious color reproductions of every masterpiece-all 3,022 of them-housed in the world's most renowned museum, plus commentary about the painters, their inspirations and their techniques. Buy it now

'Pirates of the Caribbean' Four Movie Collection

amazon.com, $169.99 Shiver me timbers! This 15-disc "treasure chest" collectible is brimming with all four Pirates of the Caribbean movies on Blu-ray, digital copies, and a standard DVD plus Blu-ray 3-D of the most recent swashbuckling saga, On Stranger Tides. Buy it now

Pizza Mania Early Math Game

learningresources.com, $24.99 The battery-operated chef in the Pizza Mania Early Math Game makes learning fun as he calls out toppings for kids to put on (or take) off their plastic pies, stimulating adding, subtraction, counting and listening skills. Buy it now

GeoSafari Tuffcam

educationalinsights.com, $179.99 Here's a camera rugged enough for almost anything, and so easy to operate it's perfect for kids. The rubber-encased, 12-megapixel GeoSafari Tuffcam has a bright 2-inch display screen, a point-and-shoot trigger, and a whopping 32 MB of expandable memory for photos and videos. Buy it now

'Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory' 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition

amazon.com, $64.99 Treat someone's cinematic sweet tooth to the Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory 40th Anniversary Ultimate Collector's Edition gift set, a three-DVD boxed edition of the 1971 family classic starring Gene Wilder. The yummy packaging includes more than an hour of added extras plus a 144-page book with rare production photos, a "Golden Ticket" chance to win a trip to Hollywood, and other goodies. Buy it now