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Well it's that time a year again: snow might be falling, Halloween has been forgotten, and our televisions are about to be tortured with endless sappy holiday specials -- that's right, Christmas is almost upon us!

Sure it might not be for another month now, but there is a good chance you've been giving some thought on what you might like to receive for Christmas. You might have also even considered what you are going to buy others for this popular holiday celebration. Perhaps we can help you out -- we have assembled a list of 24 ideas, roughly arranged in categories, to jump start your thought processes, and maybe offer up some suggestions if you are coming up blank. Being a gaming and technology website, we are going to suggest things that incorporate gaming, or technology.

We tried to include a price range of items on our list. From free to $600, there should be something within everyone's budget here.

Computer hardware for gamers

It is pretty tough to pick up some hardware for someone if you yourself are not a hardware lover yourself -- but not impossible. Probably your best bet, if you want to buy some hardware for a special gamer in your life, is to consider purchasing a new video card. Video cards are relatively painless to install, and can bring some huge performance gains if you choose wisely.

Best bang for the buck video card: HD 3870

The HD 3870 is ATI's quickest single-GPU video card of the last generation. Around this Christmas season, HD 3870 cards are going to be selling for great prices. Though many other tech sites might recommend something like the newer HD 4830 or HD 4670 video card, we would argue that the best bet going right now is the remainder HD 3870 cards, which are in the same performance class of the newer HD 4830 or 9800 GT cards, but can be had for significantly less -- $80 is not an uncommon price, and sometimes the HD 3870 sells for even cheaper.

Best gamer video card between $100 - $200: HD 4850

In many eyes, the HD 4850 is the most surprising video card of 2008. When it first came out it was able to keep up (and often surpass) NVIDIA's GTX 260 video card, for about half the price. Selling for around $150, the HD 4850 offers tremendous performance and great value. Guaranteed to keep any gamer happy for some time.

Best high end video card: Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe

A dual-GPU HD 4870 X2, this card is a monster in every sense of the term, utilizing a full 3 slot to keep cool. Selling for over $600 USD, you will not find another video card that can offer more horsepower than this mutant. If price is no object, then you can reach the upper stratosphere of game performance with the overclocked Palit Revolution 700 Deluxe. At the time of this writing though, finding on for sale is tough -- it presumably will be on store shelves in time for Christmas, however. 

Something a little different: 22" IZ3D LCD 3D monitor

Why play games in two dimensions, when you can play in the three? That might be the question of 2009, but you can pick one up now, without completely breaking your bank account. IZ3D recently dropped the price on these monitors, and they can be had now for around $350, through a few online retailers. Using a special pair of glasses, the IZ3D offers three-dimensional effects for about 30 popular games out right now, and can also function in plane-Jane '2D' mode.

Less expensive peripheral every gamer needs: RAZER Salmosa mouse

Most PC gamers have heard of the RAZER brand. This slick 1800 DPI gaming mouse has received a great deal of good reviews, and this hardware reviewer has not heard a single bad thing about them -- everybody seems quite happy the Salmosa. For only around $40, this mouse has no unneeded frills like lights or odd buttons you'll never need. Instead, the Salmosa just delivers a high quality  mouse that offers extremely fine precision control when playing games.

Geek gobbles (Food) 

Everybody gets hungry -- even geeks. Here are a couple of suggestions for hungry friends. 

FPSBrian ($10 EUR)

This is supplement specifically tailored to hardcore gamers. Think of it as steroids for professional FPS players. Made with many herbs and semi-secret compounds, FPSBrain comes back %110 money back guarantee, and supposedly heightens players' response times in games, 60 minutes after digestion. Good for games, and a laugh.

The Arstechnica Cookbook of "Bachelor Chow" (Free!)

Complied by self-professed geeks and technology enthusiasts, the public domain Arstechnica Cookbook of Bachelor Chow was assembled using years of home made recipes posted in forums. The dishes are (supposedly) delicious and definitely easy to cook! Best part, you can download it and print it out for free. Bachelor Chow includes all the key staples, such as "fuzz's Cajun chicken goodness", "jht's No-Cook Spaghetti Sauce", and "Arnold Swartzeneggar's Ramen Sausage Butter Burrito."

Sour Candy Factory ($24.99)

Aimed at adventurous younger candy connoisseurs, the Sour Candy Factory is part science lab, part candy. The kit can produce the basics for all sorts of variably sour candy, such as lolli-pops and gummies.

Buzz Strong's Real Coffee Cookies ($4.99)

Sometimes staying up late has to be done -- and you'll need caffeine to do it. But there is only so many cups of coffee one can drink. Thankfully Buzz Strong is here with caffeine infused cookies. Each cookie has the equivalent caffeine as half a cup of coffee; but they aren't short on taste: made out of Tahitian vanilla, and Swiss dark and white chocolate chips, they get the flavor-bases covered while delivering a strong buzz.

For World of Warcraft lovers: FigurePrints miniature ($129.95)

There is only one product in this category -- something we came across a few months ago, and immediately thought would make a perfect gift for the any World of Warcraft addicts we knew.

What FigurePrints does is make a small, scale model of World of Warcraft characters. Say you have a level 60 elf warriror named 'Spruce' -- FigurePrints would gather the necessary information from the official World of Warcraft Armory online service, and then using specialized printers, create a three dimensional model of Spruce that you could place on your desk.

After the character is 'printed' out using modeling software, the character is touched up and detailed by hand, mounted on a stand, and then put underneath a glass bubble for protection. It seems like a great way to immortalize any legendary World of Warcraft heroes that your friend, family member or significant other has spend all that time working on. 

One catch though -- a friend tells me the waiting list for this product is quite long.