Christmas shopping is always a challenge when trying to find that unique gift for those special people in your life. Why not give a gift with a family history flair this holiday season? Here are 34 great gift ideas which should thrill any family member and put a twinkle in the eye of any fellow genealogist.

Under $10

• CD Photo Collection-under $10-Why not give your family the gift of photo memories? For an easy, and inexpensive, holiday gift, burn your favorite digital pictures onto a CD. If you don't already have a digital editing program, download Picasa 3 for free. With this program, you can create video slideshows, photo collages, and gift CDs. You can purchase blank CDs at Amazon.com. If you don't mind spending a few extra dollars you can even design a colorful label and affix it to the CD using the CD/DVD labeling system by Avery. We've used this product and find it very user friendly.
• Family History Recording-under $10-Families treasure family stories and personal memories from the past. Why not record your personal memories, or those of older family members and share them with your family this year? For some helpful suggestions about how to get started, see our article in this newsletter Preserving Family Stories using a Digital Voice Recorder, or our previous articles on Writing Your Personal History, and Oral Histories: Conducting Interviews. You might find this book helpful if you are attempting to capture the life history of an elderly family member - Legacy : A Step-By-Step Guide to Writing Personal History .
  This software can be a wonderful aid in helping you to recall the meaningful memories from your own past while writing your own personal history - Personal Historian Software
• Holiday Newsletter-under $10-Perhaps you have many family members and acquaintances that you seldom see and for whom you rarely buy gifts. Taking the time to write a letter to these family members and friends and sharing with them the joys and blessings and sometimes disappointments of the past year is a great inexpensive gift and one that they're sure to cherish. You could even include family pictures interspersed with the text. And you can complete it all jus t using your computer. To make it look more festive, print the letter out on holiday stationary from Amazon.com.
• Family Picture Frame-$3.95-Help your family members celebrate those pictures of their loved ones with this 2.5" X 3.5" picture frame, bearing the word "Family" across the top.
• KinScribe Cemetery Transcription Notepad-$3.95-Something for that tombstone hunter...Comes with 4 cemetery identification sheets, 100 tombstone transcription sheets, and 1 tip sheet.
• Full Page Reading Book 2X Magnifying Glass-$4.10-A 12" X 8" page magnifying glass to assist in reading those old record and small print books.
• The Kids' Family Tree Book by Caroline Leavitt>-$5.95-This book would be a great gift for the young genealogists in your family. It provides fun research ideas and creative projects to get kids interested in their family history.
• Family Tree Gift Mug-$8.95-Features a beautiful picture of a tree and the following caption: "The Family Tree... No matter how many branches it has it cannot survive without roots".
• Scrapbooking Your Family History by Laura Best-$9.95-Genealogists tend to collect old photographs of their ancestors, but what do you do with them? This book gives ideas on putting those pictures together in a scrapbook that can be enjoyed by the whole family.
• American Folk Art Style Family Tree Print-$9.95-Display five generations of family on this beautiful 16" X 20" print.
• Make Your Own Book with Picaboo-$9.99-Create your own book of photos and memories with Picaboo. The process is simple: download their free software, add photos and text, and order a printed copy. A great way to do photo album or memory book for your family and friends. You can order a wide range of sizes and bindings to fit your needs. P rices start at $9.99.

• Discovering Family History Magazine-your price after discount $20- A subscription to the magazine Discovering Family History is sure to be a big hit with the family historian on your Christmas list and because you bought it through the MyTrees.com newsletter you get close to 30% off of the usual subscription price of $28. Only available in US and Canadian.
• Voice Recording of a Children's Book-under $20-Looking for a gift for a grand-child? What would be better than your voice telling them a story that they could listen to again and again? Record yourself reading a children's storybook and then wrap up the recording and the book. Using a digital voice recorder, you could even burn the recording onto a CD (for more information see our article on digital voice recorders).
  The books we suggest are: The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg; How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss; The Crippled Lamp by Max Lucado; You Are Special by Max Lucado; Enemy Pie by Derek Munson; or The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister.
• Mini MagniScreen Magnifying Glass Vision Helper-$11.97-This 6.25" X 4.25" magnifying screen rests on a 4" base and can swivel in any direction.
• Coby 1.5-Inch Digital Photo Keychain-$12.94-This digital picture frame has a 1.5 inch LCD full-color display and can store up to 60 pictures. Pictures are transferred to the device with a USB connection.
• Digitizing Your Family Historyby Rhonda Mcclure-$13.59-This book gives you the knowledge you need to preserve your family history by digitizing photos and documents. A valuable tool for any genealogist. For other great genealogy books, see our Online Store.
• Family Tree Pillow-$14.95-This fun accent pillow tells it like it is with the caption: "My Family Tree is Full of Nuts!"
• Our Family's Favorite Recipes-$17.95-Families tend to collect those famous recipes (Grandma's chocolate chip cookies, Aunt Edna's apple pie, etc.). Copy those memory-filled recipes into this blank recipe book to create the perfect gift. Consider including a short description of the cook or maybe a funny story about them or their culinary delights.
• Armorial History with Coat of Arms-$19.95-This beautiful 11" x 17" print displays the coat of arms, family crest, and a history of the surname, including a bibliography on the back.
• Genealogy Packet-$19.95-This packet contains a variety of commonly used genealogy forms and would be useful for any genealogist. Includes research planners, pedigree charts, family group records, census transcription forms, and more.
• Birthday Calendar-$19.99-Create a photo calendar at Shutterfly and personalize it by adding family pictures and birthdates. You can easily compile a list of birthdays using a genealogy program, such as Legacy or Family Tree Maker. Including the birthdates of ancestors would be a fun way to help your family member connect to their history. How many of your ancestors shared their birthdate?

Under $40

• Creating Family Newsletters Books-$21.95-Creating Family Newsletters & Time Capsules by Anne Hart will give you ideas on how to turn your family newsletter into an exciting multimedia presentation that will be sure to capture the interest and attention of your family members.
• Family Tree Magazine-$21.96-Give your fellow genealogist a gift subscription to Family Tree Magazine and they'll thank you all year.
• 3rd Edition Genealogy Research Notebook-$24.95-This research notebook would be useful for any genealogist. It comes with note pages, pedigree-surname foldout charts, and translucent polypropylene dividers, all color coordinated to help the researcher keep track of multiple family lines.
• Family Tree Maker 2009, Essentials Edition-$27.99-This is the basic version of the program and includes all of the essential features. For more robust features, consider the Deluxe ($61.99) or Platinum ($87.49) versions.
• Ellis Island Passenger Records-$29.00-An archival-quality certificate commemorating an immigrant who passed through Ellis Island. Or, for the same price, you can order a copy of the actual ship manifest.
• Magnabrite Magnifier-$32.95-A 64mm (2.5 inch) Magnabrite Magnifier with a round oak base. Ideal for reading old books and records.
• Ancestral Trails by Mark D. Herber-$34.95-Ancestral Trails: The Complete Guide to British Genealogy and Family History, Second Edition. A great gift for anyone research British ancestry. For other great genealogy books, see our Online Store.
• Record Your Own Family Tree-$38.95-This gift allows you to rejoice in the joining of two families with a 11" X 17" pedigree chart with two coat of arms at the center. Write in the names of your ancestors for three generations on either side to complete this beautiful keepsake.
• Legacy 7.0 Deluxe Edition-$39.95-Includes 98 advanced features not found in the Standard Edition.

Under $100

• Coat of Arms with Frame-$44.95-A 10 3/4" x 13" print of your family's coat of arms, in a solid mahogany wood frame.
• Sony ICDP620 Digital Voice Recorder-$52.22-These handy devices allow you to easily record conversations and then transfer the sound files to your computer for storage or editing. A great way to record family history interviews and capture the memory of a loved one's voice. For more information, see our article on Preserving Family Stories Using a Digital Voice Recorder.
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 7-$79.99-Edit and organize your digital pictures with this powerful photo-editing software. For other software suggestions, see our article on Organizing Your Digital Picture.
• WizCom E04087 QuickLink-Pen Elite Scanner-$81.04-This "digital highlighter" allows you to scan printed text, one line at a time. You can store up to 1,000 pages of text and transfer the information to a computer or PDA via a USB connection. A useful tool for capturing just a few lines of information from a book or record.
• HP ScanJet G3010 Scanner-$99.99-Help your family digitize those old photographs and slides with the gift of a digital scanner. For more information about scanners, see our articles on Digitizing and Archiving Old Photos and Digitizing Old Slides.

For more gift ideas visit our Online Store which has a wide selection of books, software, and electronic items which have been hand-picked as being especially helpful items for the family historian.

Copyright ©: 2011 Fficiency Software, Inc. All rights reserved. No reproduction of this article may be used without the express written permission of the authors.