2012 Holiday gift guide

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Family arrives with Christmas gifts.

Levi Castle

The holidays are upon the consumers, and that means people have been spending their time doing what they know best: shopping for the latest and greatest products that have gained the most attention for any number of reasons.

Whether the product is actually good or just a fad is for the consumer to decide, but here are some of the holiday’s top products that people will be opening on the 25th:

A definite top seller this holiday is the smartphone. Whether people are die-hard Apple, Android or Windows Phone fans, the selection made available for prices cheaper than ever (usually peaking at just $200 for a device that would retail four times as much) introduces a multitude of options to fit a buyer’s needs.

Top sellers are the Galaxy S3 for Android users, the iPhone 5 for iOS users, and Nokia or HTC phones for the newly-introduced Windows Phone 8.

With new cellphones come new tablets, and the selection is also larger than ever. With many screen sizes to choose from (7 inches, 10 inches, etc.) and, once again, multiple operating systems from the three major providers, there’s no wonder the tablet market has exploded enormously since its first introduction just a few years ago.

Extremely powerful contenders like the ASUS Vivo Windows 8 Tab, the ASUS Transformer lineup, Microsoft Surface and the Apple iPad models are all dominating the pinnacle of tablet purchases, but they are a more expensive gift. Should someone decide they’d like to get a tablet, they’d be paying upwards of $300 is most cases, with nearly all tablets resting at around $500. Some $200 tablets like the 7-inch Nexus 7 are exceptions.

While we’re listing semi-big-budget items (depending on how much one is willing to spend on a gift), TVs deserve a spot in this list. As it is probably about as cheap as it will get to produce current 1080p HDTVs (much more so than when they first came out), and with the new 4K, extremely expensive next-gen of TVs on the way, now is the best time to get a valuable high-def screen. Costs are down due to sales and the somewhat dated resolution (compared to the new 4K models), but 1080p will be here to stay for many years to come and still looks mind-blowingly excellent.

The rest is up to the consumer, who must decide his or her screen size, brand and budget. Those who wish to wait for the new 4K TVs will have to do so for some time unless they wish to pay $20,000 for the new models out this season.

If technology isn’t your (or your gifter’s) thing, perhaps fashion is.

Ugg, the brand that everyone either loves or loathes, is one of the most common terms in the fashion industry today. With immense popularity due to their comfort and style, these “boots” are sure to be on many a person’s wish list. More so than new socks, anyway. Other clothing items can be found wherever Uggs are sold, at major retailers like J.C. Penney, many of which also have massive online catalogs.

Technology hasn’t knocked physical books off the market shelf quite yet. Top-sellers like “The Hunger Games” trilogy, the “Fifty Shades” trilogy, and the “Twilight” quadrilogy are still among Amazon’s top book sales of the year and even their top actual product sales of the year. People love their books, and this is the time of year to get readers the next installment in their favorite franchise or start a new one altogether.

Video games. The causes for trampling injuries on Black Friday are also the most popular products sold for the holidays. A new console (the Wii U), new juggernaut titles (“Halo 4” and “CoD: Black Ops II”) and new platforms (the PlayStation Vita and smartphones/tablets) have caused video games to become one of the biggest industries in the world. If the kid inside you or your friend/family member has anything to say about their desires, it will probably be related to that new gaming item they’ve had their eyes on since its launch.

Of course, if any ideas still fail to come to mind, it’s good to remain aware that just plain old money will let your recipient buy whatever they want. Sometimes, the best gift is the one that they get to pick out. Gift cards, while offering less freedom, can also perform the duties of cash.

Shopping online will find you whatever a supermarket doesn’t offer, but local stores can contain hidden gems as well. Either way, the choices for gifts are next to endless this season.