It’s that time of year again and the crew here is already thinking about ridiculous secret Santa ideas.

Which got me thinking… If you’re like me, you’re tired of the same old gifts under the tree every year. Aunt Margaret will never understand why you don’t like the sweater and grandma always thinks she’s doing you a solid by stocking you up on socks every year.

Sure, holidays are about spending time with the ones you love and not about the gifts, but let’s be honest, if someone is spending money on you this year, they might as well buy something you’ll like and can use, right?

With that being said, I created a list of 5 things that I would love to see under the tree this year in hopes that someone in my family would read this and act on it. Grandma, put down the ties.

Hopefully this list will help you figure out some gift ideas for a family member or significant other as well.

Top 5 Alternative Secret Santa Gift Ideas:

1. Second Tongue:

Christmas is the perfect time to start thinking about New Years Resolutions and for me, it’s learning a second language. I took some Spanish in high school and I think it would be awesome to learn more so I can travel. The problem is, classes at college are boring as hell and I rarely learn anything. Also, Rosetta Stone would be an option but it’s so expensive. The alternative is Bueno, entonces… by General Linguistics. It’s a 30-class Spanish learning program that is the highest rated Education App on iTunes and is now available on DVD or instant download. They’re actually offering the program at a pretty nice discount over the holidays. 6-DVD set for $99 (from $199) and the instant download version for $97 (from $147).

Check out their website here: http://f.generallinguistics.com/latin-america/

Check out their Facebook page for deals and giveaways: http://www.facebook.com/buenoentonces/

Cheap Alternative: A Spanish to English Dictionary

2. Airline Vouchers:

I’m a big believer in experiences over “things” so I think this would be the perfect gift for anyone (like me). Most major airlines offer gift cards you can purchase for somebody else to use at their own discretion. Depending on your home airport, I think Southwest Airlines is the way to go. A $100 gift card could go a long way and the recipient of the gift won’t get stung with baggage fees when they fly, unlike on other airlines. They were actually doing a big sale recently for $59 one-way flights that I jumped on as well.

Get the gift cards here: http://www.southwest.com/gift-card/home.html

Cheap Alternative: Buy a $2 notebook and make a bunch of paper airplanes.

3. New Underwear:

This one goes out to all the girlfriends out there who have been begging their boyfriends to throw away those awful, holy boxers. Now’s your chance! New underwear always feels great and it gives me an extra bounce in my step. For the best of the best, Try Exofficio or Under Armour boxer briefs to change his life. They are a little bit more expensive ($25/per) but trust me, you will definitely notice the difference. These things breath like you wouldn’t believe! They’re the perfect gift for college guys to because they don’t start smelling bad until the 3rd or 4th day!

Checkout the Exofficio site: http://www.exofficio.com/

Checkout the UnderArmour site: http://www.underarmour.com/

Cheap Alternative: Baby Powder.

4. Alternatives Classes:

Whether it’s martial arts or learning the guitar, there are so many places around town that offer great alternative classes. I know most college kids are overwhelmed with classes as it is but I think what you learn shouldn’t always be mandatory. It can also be a great escape from your everyday routine and maybe a new hobby to pickup with your girlfriend or boyfriend. This could also be a big win for you as well, think about it… you give the gift of “1-month cooking classes” and then you get to “test” all the progress! It’s perfect.

Check your local area for classes, seminars or continuing education in your area.

Cheap Alternative: Put together a video using a bunch of random tutorials from Youtube.com

5.Technology Accessories:

I was originally going to mention the iFlip Camera because it’s awesome, but I think everybody already has that on their wish list. If you don’t, you should. But some other great gift giving gadgets are things like an external hard drives, webcam or tripod. I don’t think “non-techy” people think about computer accessories for Christmas but they’re definitely a must have for college students. One thing I really love is the Gorillapod Flexible Tripod (for less than $20).

Check out the Gorillapod site: http://joby.com/gorillapod

Cheap Alternative: Use your old books to position your camera the way you want it.

We hope you enjoyed our ridiculous secret santa gift ideas. Let us know your favorites by posting a comment below. Ho, Ho, Ho!

Penn State’s Snap, Crackle, Pop-The Daily Collegian’s Arts Blog, today featured an interview with our CEO, Bobby Brannigan as he discusses our recent Jersey Shore Parodies and Beaver Fever Strikes Manhattan video. You can read the full article, here. What do you think of the videos? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel at YouTube.com/ValoreBooks so you don’t miss the next episode!

Pauly Dee, Mike “Duh” Situation and Snooky struggle in class. Pauly tries to connect with a “Land Mine” to avoid buying his textbooks. Let us know what you think! Subscribe to our YouTube channel www.youtube.com/valorebooks.

Do you get bombarded with mundane questions on a daily basis such as “Who was the guy who played Cameron in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off?” and “What was the address to that restaurant again?” Here is a website that will allow you to passive aggressively clue in your friends, family and coworkers about this thing called the internet where a sea of information exists; in the nicest way possible, of course.

Let me Google that for you, http://lmgtfy.com/ is a fan favorite around our office and we hope you enjoying using it as much as we do! Oh, the power of Google.

On April 20th, an offshore drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico exploded killing eleven people and began to threaten marine life and many southern states due to the massive oil spill. Ever since, the story has dominated the headlines; most recently, the handling of the crisis by BP executives and the US government. Despite the administrative handling of the crisis, the issue at hand is the ecological disaster affecting areas surrounding the oil spill.

One group of students at Tulane University have created an oil spill crisis map using open source software.  The students partnered with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade (LABB) and Radical Designs to create the map, which uses information from texts, tweets, e-mails and online submissions that people send in to the website in order to plot the effects of the oil spill. The eyewitness reports include a description and location information, such as address, city and state and zip-codes. Photos and video also can be uploaded.

Real time testimony directly from the public is one way to see just how many areas are being affected by the oil spill. We think it’s pretty neat to be able to use new media such as Twitter to track something so important as a region’s livelihood.   What are your thoughts on the Oil Spill Crisis Map?