In this article, we will take a look at the most popular Christmas gifts this year.  Do you think you know what they are?  Some of these Christmas gifts you may know while others may surprise you, but you’ll never know unless you read on.

For your children, the gift that earns my vote as the best gift for children is the Melissa and Doug Standing Easel.  I have reviewed the other best toys for Christmas 2009, like Zhu Zhu Pets, but this gift easel is the best for the entertainment and the education of your kids.  Designed for those ages three and up, this gift has staying power, allowing your kids to design using paint, pens, crayons, chalk, and markers time and again.  The bottom line:  Kids love it and it builds their creative capacities.

Often, men are the easy group of recipients for whom to buy gifts.  Buy them some techie gadgets and they’ll be happy.  Right?  But what techie gadgets should you buy them?

Our first recommendation is for the videophile, that man who simply loves to have high quality video entertainment in his house.  Men love to have the latest video equipment  to watch football or the latest action movies.  Christmas time is the best time for the videophile as manufactures lower their prices on the best LCD TVs for the Holidays.  This Christmas season, I recommend the Samsung UN55B8000 55 inch television.  Yes, it is the biggest and the best, but that is what your videophile wants.  Can you imagine watching the Superbowl on this TV?  Make it happen.

Another of the top technie gifts is the TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder, which I call “TiVo on steroids”.  Sure, your man probably has a TiVo, but this TiVo elevates the experience to a whole new level.  By connecting to the Internet and your home network, this TiVo allows you to download and watch movies on demand from the Internet, view your computer photos on your big screen television, listen to all your MP3s on your home stereo instead of your computer, and copy your shows to DVD to watch anywhere.  It’s the “must have” technie gadget of 2009.

Finally, the ultra gift for any man or women is the Amazon Kindle, which allows you to download books, magazines, and newspapers in less than a minute from anywhere in the world.  Yes, the new Kindle is now international!  Kindle comes in two versions, the 6 inch model and the 9.7 inch model.  I prefer the 9.7 inch because it is easier on the eyes.  Regardless of the version that you choose, this is a gift that anyone who likes reading will appreciate.

Women can be more difficult to buy for as their desires vary greatly (one technie gift will usually not do it).  You have to expand your gift repertoire.  You may want to consider perfumes or spa gifts, but we have one gift that we know she’ll love:  The Tag Heuer Women’s Link Diamond Accented Watch.  Currently marked down from $2,600 to $999, this is the most elegant, sporty, and stylish watch that you can get for the women in your life.

Finally, you cannot forget your family.  The Holidays are all about family and you should get a great family gift that the entire group can play over the Holidays.  While we like the Seinfeld SceneIt game series, a great gift for the whole family is Trivial Pursuit Family Edition.  The questions in this game do not require Einstein intellect and they are questions that give everyone a chance in this game of family fun!

For these gifts and more visit the page entitled What Are The Hot Christmas Gifts This Year. There, you will find the top selling Christmas Gifts that everyone loves. The author, Richard Mas, is a retail specialist and senior editor at The Christmas Store Online.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/gifts-articles/most-popular-christmas-gifts-this-year-1466222.html

One of the bestselling toys this Christmas season is called Mindflex by Mattel.  Kids love this game because they can purportedly use their mental powers to levitate a ball.  And this is, well, fascinating and rather unbelievable.

In this article, we will take a look at the Mindflex Game and whether it is a toy that your kids will like.  We will also have a look at the veracity of the claims:  can you really levitate a ball?

Let’s start with a description of the Mindflex Game and find out if it is truly one of the best toys for Christmas 2009.  One thing is for sure:  It is certainly a unique toy unlike any others.  If you have any visions of what mad scientists may build, this may be close to that vision.  The game comes on a little stand called the game console with an accompanying headset and four foam balls.  The game console presents various obstacles through which you will navigate the foam balls once you learn how to levitate them.

If you have read my other articles, you are aware that I enjoy Christmas games for kids that exercise either their growing minds or bodies, preferably both.  This game succeeds with the former but not the later.  In fact, in the packaging of this product, the “pitch” is someone sitting very still and simply concentrating.

So, when this gift arrived in the mail, my kids were anxious to try it.  Frankly, so was I.  The claims of telekinetic powers were unbelievable and I wanted to see for myself whether you could actually learn to levitate a ball.  Being the generous dad that I am though, I let my kids have at it before me.

My daughter had a go at Mindflex first.  Now, my daughter is quite different from my son.  She’s a reader; he’s an athlete.  She’s accustomed to concentration; he is not.  And this game takes concentration.  Apparently, the games works by measuring your brain waves.  Thus, the more you concentrate, creating more brain waves, the higher you can levitate the ball.  My daughter was up and running in no time.

My son, on the other hand, was unable to raise the ball like my daughter.  He got frustrated that she seemed better at the game.  He prefers cool teen gifts to this scientific aberration.  I was thankful that the game comes with a fan that does what I call “levitation manipulation” and keeps the ball afloat so he did not feel too bad.

My turn!  I put the headset on and it felt rather uncomfortable to me.  Pretty quickly, I was able to manipulate the placement of the ball in the air and this rather fascinated me as it had the kids.  I did a little more research on exactly what was happening and found some sketchy science behind the claims.

But do you know what?  This is a cool game and the kids loved it.  I have had each of our house guests try it as they look at the strange object and ask, “What is that?”.  It’s a great conversation piece for you and all of your guests.  The novelty amuses everyone…at least for a time.

Find the Mindflex Game and the other best Christmas Gifts for Kids 2009 at the Christmas Store Online, where you can find all of the Best Christmas Gifts for 2009. The author, Richard Mas, is a retail specialist and senior editor at The Christmas Store Online.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/gifts-articles/mindflex-game-reviewed-is-it-real-or-a-hoax-1425498.html