Has your ho-ho-ho become a little ho-hum? Tired of giving gifts from the middle of the bell curve? Does the thought of holiday shopping tempt you to make the Grinch your role model through the end of the year?

Never fear, friends, American Mensa is here for you with some bright ideas for holiday gifts. Best of all, you can knock it all out in one afternoon online and never fight for parking, never set foot in a crowded store and never wait in a long line for a harried sales clerk to be rude to you.

Speaking of efficiency, this season's Holiday Gift Guide is brought to you by the good folks at GEICO, who know a thing or two about saving time and money through your homeowner, vehicle and rental insurance — and who offer special discounts to American Mensa members. We invite you to invest 15 minutes in learning what GEICO can do for you. It's the smart thing to do!
  

Games and DVDs

Cranium WOW

Cranium WOW is the latest addition to the amazingly addictive Cranium game family. Like Cranium, the objective of Cranium WOW is to move around the board until your team reaches Cranium Central, where your team completes a final task to win the game. To reach Cranium Central your team must work together to answer, sketch, sculpt, solve, act, hum and more. Whether you’re an aspiring actor, artist, data head or wordsmith, Cranium WOW gives you and your team the chance to showcase your best abilities.

Axis and Allies Anniversary Edition

If you've always dreamed of world domination, BoardGameGeek.com has the perfect game for a night in. Axis and Allies is an extremely popular strategy game at Mensa game nights. To celebrate the 50-year anniversary of game maker Avalon Hill, Axis & Allies is launching an Anniversary edition featuring Italy as a new axis nation, a huge game board measuring 24x46 inches, and a new naval unit. With over 600 pieces, the war is just beginning.

Mensa Select^®

Every year Mensan judges play the latest board and card games and deem the best of the best to be Mensa Select. This year's winners include AmuseAmaze^TM, Eye Know^TM, Jumbulaya^TM, Pixel^TM and Tiki Topple^TM. Past winners include Scattergories^TM, Trivial Pursuit^TM and Taboo^TM. Buy any of the Mensa Select games or check out previous winners through the Mind Games web site.

Duels of the Mind Chess DVD
Originally broadcast on Thames television in Great Britain in 1989, Duels of the Mind is a four-DVD set from ChessCentral.com 
features 12 of the best games of chess. Perfect for your chess nut! 

Gadgets

Ion USB Turntable

It’s tough being a vinyl record in an iPod world. While it was was once the pinnacle of audio technology, your vinyl collection now has been replaced by metallic disks and soulless bytes on your hard drive. Fortunately, there is a new product that can resurrect your music collection.

The Ion USB Turntable from ThinkGeek.com* can breathe new life into your old album collection. Plug the high-quality turntable into the USB port on your PC (Windows or Mac) and use the included Audacity software to rip your vinyl directly to MP3 (or WAV format) to burn to CD or play on your computer or iPod. The software can also remove any clicks or pops from
the original recording.

Kindle Wireless Reading Device

The Amazon Kindle is a new portable reading device with the ability to wirelessly download books, magazines and newspapers. Instead of using a traditional Internet connection, the Kindle uses 3G cell phone technology to download your content wherever you are —  but it does not require a cell phone contract or monthly fee. The Kindle is the first device with a new display technology that works using ink, just like books, but displays the ink particles electronically. The Kindle is slightly thicker than an average paperback and has a selection of more than 190,000 books.

Kill-A-Watt

Have a frugal friend? Consider purchasing the Kill-A-Watt from Edmund Scientifics* for them. This device plugs into a normal electrical outlet and accepts the cord from any appliance to assess how efficient it is. The large LCD displays consumption by the kilowatt hour, so you can decide which devices you may want to leave off the grid as much as possible. The Kill-A-Watt enables electrical cost forecasting and is accurate within 0.2 percent. It also displays voltage, line frequency and power factor.

Books/Magazines

Making Artisan Chocolates

Forget milk-chocolate candy bars. Today, gourmet chocolate is made with high-quality bittersweet chocolate and infused with exotic, fresh flavors such as caramel, wasabi, raspberry and chile peppers. Making Artisan Chocolates teaches the proper methods for making these designer treats at home using high-end domestic and imported ingredients available in your local specialty stores. The book features 40 recipes and techniques for tempering chocolate, making truffles, creating flavor fusions and molding chocolates.

Science Illustrated*

Science Illustrated is an upbeat, visually spectacular gateway to cutting-edge science, covering everything from paleontology to space exploration, from medical breakthroughs to the latest environmental insights. This bimonthly magazine from the publisher of Popular Science aims to report on the world of science in a way that's dynamic, engaging and accessible for all.

The Wine Trials: 100 Everyday Wines Under $15

This wine guide for the value-conscious, taste-focused wine drinker offers 100 wines that beat $50 to $100 bottles in blind tastings. Acclaimed wine critic Robin Goldstein traveled the country serving 6,000 glasses of wine to experts and everyday wine drinkers to determine the best wines under $15.

Multifarious

Wi-Fi Detector Shirt

Are you an Internet addict? If you're always looking for a hotspot on the road, ThinkGeek.com* has the perfect shirt for you. Whether you wear it for utility or to show off your techie style, the Wi-Fi Detector shirt displays the strength of nearby wi-fi signals to you and everyone around. Useful? Maybe. Cool? Definitely.

The Baby Owner's Starter Kit

Manual readers rejoice! The Baby Owner’s Starter Kit from mental_floss* has provided more than 300,000 parents instructions on how to “operate” their newborns and infants. The kit includes:

• The Baby Owner’s Manual
• Growth chart with stickers for marking baby’s progress
• Diaper changing instructional poster
• Babysitter’s memo pad
• Troubleshooting tips

Perfect for any parent-to-be.

Polar Critter Collection

OK, everybody, say "Awwwww!" and then open wide. The Moonstruck Chocolate Co. has created for this holiday season the Polar Critter Collection — artisan truffles shaped like cute arctic denizens, in several delectable flavors.

Pop Quiz Math Clock

Have a friend who loves math? Give them this unique timepiece from PerpetualKid.com. Each hour on this wall clock is marked by a simple math problem; solve your question of time by solving the equation. (And yes, we know 52 - x² + x = 10 could equal either -6 or 7, but the correct answer is obvious.)

UPDATE: The math clock is temporarily sold out, so check back often to see if it's back in stock. Or consider PerpetualKid's Gin & Titonic ice cube tray, the rocket launcher alarm clock or the mix tape USB drive.

For Kids

The Kid’s Guide to Service Projects

This guide from FreeSpirit.com* has something for everyone who wants to make a difference, from simple projects to large-scale commitments. Kids can choose from a variety of topics including animals, crime fighting, the environment, friendship, hunger, literacy, politics and government, and transportation. A special section gives step-by-step instructions for creating fliers, petitions, press releases and more.

Challenging Word Search Puzzles for Kids

There are ordinary word searches… and then there are these created especially for kids by Mark Danna. These brain teasers for the gifted have a special feature: After all the hidden words and phrases have been correctly circled, the remaining letters spell out a fascinating fact, a wacky joke, a tongue twister or something else guaranteed to raise a smile.

Thames & Kosmos Genetics & DNA Kit

Got a budding CSI on the list this year? Edmund Scientifics* offers the Thames & Kosmos Genetics & DNA Kit, which will help him or her perform 20 experiments on the double helix. The manual also provides information on genetic sequencing, influential scientists, cloning and more.

Evan Brain Book Series

This series documents the humerous adventures of the delusional kid superhero Evan Brian “Brain” Doyle. The first two books were coauthored and illustrated by Mensa member Evan Doyle at the cantankerous age of 15.

The Gift Of Mensa

The Mensa Research Journal

Help the Mensa Foundation encourage thought through a subscription to the Mensa Research Journal. This journal highlights scholarly articles and recent research related to intelligence from a diverse selection of nationally and internationally esteemed authors. The MRJ is published a minimum of three times a year, centering around a chosen theme.

606 Puzzles for Chess Nuts

How do you triumph in chess? By developing the tactical mastery and mental agility that only comes with experience in different gameplay situations. Created by two highly regarded pros in the field, each problem shows an endgame position, and it's up to you to spot the checkmate. Ranked in three levels of difficulty — beginner, intermediate and tournament — 606 Puzzles for Chess Nuts will help build the strategic savvy the game demands while you enjoy hours of fun challenges.

Gift Certificates

American Mensa Gift Certificates are a fantastic gift for your favorite Mensan or Mensan-to-be. These certificates pay for their fees to join, rejoin or renew their memberships. American Mensa also offers an online gift certificate; buy them online, in any amount from $5 to $2,000, and we will email them to your favorite American Mensans or Mensans-to-be. We can even send them anonymously.

Modern Classic Puzzles

Based on timeless optical puzzle genres, these stunning, all-new brainbusters have been created especially for this Mensa® collection by mastermind Peter Grabarchuk. From tangrams to matchstick puzzles, Grabarchuk offers an amazing variety of challenges that will stimulate your potential for thinking outside the box. One of the greatest compendiums of visual trickery you’ll find anywhere, it’s sure to become an instant classic!

Mensa Home Test

We know there are a lot of "IQ tests" online these days, but only Mensa offers a formally developed, normed home test that will give one a true sense of his or her brainpower. Give it for fun; give it for the ego boost; give it because it'll give them an idea if they qualify for Mensa. From the organization whose name is synonymous with "smart," the Mensa Home Test can be purchased online and mailed wherever you like. We bet it's the most challenging stocking stuffer they've ever gotten.

Mensa 10-Minute Crossword Puzzles Page-A-Day Calendar

Kick-start your day with a 10-minute mental workout! Challenging enough for a Mensan, yet designed to be solvable in just a few minutes, each of these smartly crafted crossword puzzles is a quick and entertaining wake-up for the brain. The collection is authored by Mensan Fred Piscop, a veteran crossword-puzzle writer for The New York Times and The Washington Post.

We sincerely thank GEICO for sponsoring the 2008 Holiday Gift Guide.

* Are you a Mensan? These vendors offer discounts or other special benefits to American Mensa members! Visit our Benefits & Services page for more information, or look into joining now.