A few unrelated ideas:

Brett at Google dropped me a line to let me know that CyberMonday (the Black Monday of online selling) is actually NOT the biggest shopping day of the online year. That comes in 10 days or so. What fascinates me is that online-only retailers do better closer to Xmas, but the online outposts of brick and mortar stores (like JC Penney) do better earlier. Translation: the Penney’s and Target customers don’t ‘get’ the whole fast-shipping thing, because when they think of traditional stores, they think slow. The Amazon customer has been spoiled, and in addition to one-click, is now trained to wait until the last minute.

The funny thing is that this is precisely backward what it was just five or ten years ago. Mail order was slow, last minute was for local.

Chris has put together a page about gifts for marketers. He invites you to add your suggestions. And for those in a hurry, focused on stuff in a box and looking for something likely to delight, I put together this one-click quick list.

Even better:

Fred has become one of more than 7000 people that have taken the handmade pledge.

And you can buy a school. Room to Read works with local villages to change lives forever. Or you can build lives in the rainforest. Check out Dos Margaritas.