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. How smart is that?

Need some help getting into the holiday spirit? Skip the baking and go straight to the fun part with Sensational Beginnings' gingerbread house kit. While you're watching the parades, let the kids put on their own parade with the Bee Bop Band, also from Sensational Beginnings. Or take the intellectual approach with the History Channel*'s "History of the Holidays" DVD series.

Allen Creek Farm will not only sell you chestnuts they grow themselves; they've also got everything you need to cook and enjoy the holiday favorite — even bread mixes and soups! As well as being the home of "America's best guy gifts," Duluth Trading Co. carries a complete line of toys that don't beep, flash or require batteries, like pogo sticks and Frontier Logs. Gorgeous and beautifully made, MoleskineUS's notebooks are legendary among geeks. Taking a new twist on an old favorite, Signals.com offers Bookopoly, a game where you buy, sell and trade classic works of literature.

ThinkGeek.com* updates a noble pastime with their radio-controlled jousting knights.
Thinking Putty is hard to explain, but it's not some things — toxic, a liquid or a gel, allergenic, stinky or sticky — and it is other things — safe, silicone-based, creative and lots of fun. You can get putty that is magnetic, or glows in the dark, or that is imbued with special colors and patterns for the holidays. Go look, and you're gonna want to play with it. And now you can, for less! Through Dec. 31, use coupon code MENSA2007 to get a 10-percent discount on orders made through www.puttyworld.com.
For pretty much everything else that says "techie holiday gift," visit PC Connection*; they have good prices on everything from iPods to 65-inch plasma TVs.

Got kids who need more exercise, or just need to burn off all that energy? Lilly's Kids carries hop balls (remember these from when you were a kid?) in five sizes and plenty of patterns. For your favorite chocoholic, ThinkGeek.com* offers the chocolate molecule ladies' T-shirt. And well in advance of your New Year's resolutions, mental_floss* offers a refrigerator magnet set with nutritional information for 50 healthy foods so you can make your own meal combinations.

We're Mensans, so you knew chocolate was going to be prominently featured in here somewhere. The Swiss Colony offers fudge brownie puffs in decadent variations like caramel pecan, candy crunch and peanut fudge. For year-round yummies, try the Chocolate of the Month Club. For your New Year's Eve pleasure, mental_floss* has put together the Cocktail Party Prep Kit.

Buying for any Boy Scouts, or anyone who should take a lesson from them? Wind & Weather offers an entire line of storm preparedness items as well as a huge selection of digital and analog weather instruments. ThinkGeek.com* has an ambient forecasting umbrella that keeps track of the weather for you. Lifelock* exists to protect your good name and guarantees its services up to $1 million in damages. Or, if you know someone who's just trying to keep track of what day it is, we recommend the American Mensa Page-a-Day calendar.

If it's smart to read, buying books for less is even smarter; check out BookCloseouts.com. For lovers of both baking and math, Signals.com exclusively offers the pi dish. The Mensa Home Test makes a great gift for those who love to stretch their brains — and for card-carrying Mensans, the Mensa Boutique* has a whole line of T-shirts, including the "not just a geek" T-shirt. Finally, it's ridiculous what you can find at Amazon.com when you simply search for "smart"; along with all the books, games and DVDs you'd expect, there's the Smart Lab TV remote control kit, where you can build your own universal remote; the Mobi TykeLight with Smart Timer, for little ones who need a night-light with mobility; assorted vacuum cleaners, clothing items and even groceries; and, speaking of groceries, there's the SmartShopper Grocery List Organizer with voice recognition and printout capabilities. Savvy Mensans do their Amazon buying through the American Mensa Smart Buys store.

Edmund Scientifics*' most popular way to get up close is an illuminated 30X pocket microscope (although they also offer many others). And Lilly's Kids has the Undersea Encounter aquarium with viewing scope for a close-up view of your fish and their environment.

Need more ideas for that hard-to-buy-for someone? A&E* — once known as the Arts & Entertainment Network — has a handy gift finder that lets you specify who you're shoppping for and what their interests are before you browse. But what could be more personal than a name? Immortalize your favorite Mensan or Mensa group by purchasing a brick on the Walk of the Minds at the American Mensa National Office.

That's part of Mensa's reason for being here. If you'd like to fight that good fight with us, consider purchasing an online gift certificate for your favorite Mensan or Mensan-to-be; these certificates pay for their fees to join, rejoin or renew their memberships. You can help the Mensa Foundation encourage thought through a subscription to the Mensa Research Journal, published three times a year on a variety of topics covering intelligence and giftedness. Scientific American Mind* goes inside the most riveting breakthroughs in psychology, neuroscience and related fields. If you're encouraging someone younger, we suggest any of Edmund Scientifics*' kits, including the Elements of Science 100 Experiments Kit.
 

Whew! Now that you've finished all of your holiday shopping, you deserve some play time. We recommend trying out some of our games, or enjoying the options at PlayWithYourMind.com.
  

* 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.