It is time to get our Christmas shopping on—and to put together a special little list to slip to Santa. I’ve been a very good girl this year after all. I want to share with you some of my top gamer items for this Christmas that I will be gift gifting, and I hope to hear about the holiday cheer you plan to spread to your friends and family. I would also love to hear in the comments what your dream gamer Christmas present would be. Mine is @LSV, but I keep hearing Santa can’t wrap people. Shame that! A girl needs all the magical help she can get.

Gift-giving can be complicated, and shopping with the masses can be even worse. This year, I made the executive decision to head on over to gamer central—a.k.a. CoolStuffInc.com—for a little one-stop shopping simplicity. First, I had a special little something on my wish list for Santa to find. Some girls want trips to the tropics, but this one wants a Tropical Island all her own . . . 

Now that I’ve dropped a hint to Santa, it is time to pick out something for my daughter, who just turned eleven. One of the things I have noticed about gamers (epically board gamers) is that they are always complaining about not having people to come play game nights with. This is the perfect opportunity to get your friends and family addicted to board games. I’m not talking Candy Land here (shout out Queen Frostine). A large portion of the population hears “board games” and automatically thinks, “Monopoly.” Those are the games they were given as children. Those are the games they see of the shelves at Target and Wal-Mart. Many don’t even know there is a whole wide world of adult games and adventure just waiting for them on a snowy day. Find a medium-level, fun board game that is just as fun with two players as it is at with five. Give it as a gift to your nongamer friends and family. During a lazy Christmas day after opening gifts, they can now pull out their brand new toys and fall in love with gaming. This is a classic that I have seen many non-board-gamers embrace, and I plan to introduce it to my daughter this Christmas . . . 

Now it’s time for the two-year-old. My son is a two-year-old toddling steam engine. His toys end up in puddles, toilets, my puppy’s jaws, and under my sore feet. He will be receiving toys from all corners of the globe, as presents from his grandparents, aunts, and uncles descend on my house via the postal service. He will open them all with glee and then spend the next three hours attempting to wrap his sister in wrapping paper. When children are this age, it’s a perfect time for you to buy them collectibles that you want them to have a very long time. Pick out that perfect gift, snap that adorable photo of him or her unwrapping it, and then store it away never to be seen again until he or she graduates high school. Then, when you pull it out all those years later, not only will it have tripled in value (we can hope), but the teenager will have a piece of his or her childhood memory, untouched and undamaged. I thought long and hard about what inheritance gift I wanted to stash away for my son, and I decided on something a little Magical . . . 

It’s a little pricey, sure, but it’s bound to just become pricier. I don’t know if my son will love Magic as much as I do, but I have an inkling he will, and if he doesn’t, he can take something that commemorated twenty years of hobby and happiness in a box for me and sell it for something that makes him happy.

I need to pick up gifts for at least three of my closest friends, but none can be anything over $40 because I’m far from Trump rich. Of all the gifts I have ever given to my friends, this one has received the most continual use, and I think it is time for my friends to have the newest tech . . . 

Now I have the children and friends all tucked away and waiting on ole Saint Nick; it is time to figure out what to get for the husband. I am fortunate to have found someone who not only loves Magic as much as I do, but who also loves me. One of my favorite things to do is buy my husband a box of whatever is the latest Magic: The Gathering set and see him struggle for days as he tries to fight his childlike impulses to rip it open and start Pack Wars. It’s fun to see his inner collector and his inner child begin to battle. The internal war can rage for days, as his inner child begs him to rip it open and let the drafting or Pack Wars begin, while his collector self calls for willpower and patience. This Christmas, I plan to make the choice very, very hard . . . 

Picking out gifts for my loved ones is always fun, but I thought I would leave Santa just one or two more little additions to my wish list before all is said and done . . . 

As I mentioned, I have been a very good girl after all.

Oh . . . one more thing. To that friend (you know who you are) who always “borrows” my dice because she can’t ever remember hers: You are welcome.