The holidays are upon us, and even though you’re probably being flooded with gift guides, we here at the ‘squatch wanted to add some products that we think are awesome to your radar, whether you’re actually looking for gifts for people or you just troll gift guides looking for cool stuff for yourself. Don’t worry, I do that too.

This year we’re dividing our gift guides up by category, and we’re starting with a Christmas standard: Books. For some reason there are always a few books I want every year, and I don’t like buying them for myself very often so I put them on wishlists. There is no shortage of awesome, geeky books this year, but here are a few standouts that would make great gifts.
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Halloween is over and you know what that means, it’s Christmas time. Well, not technically, but according to the laws of retail, tis the season. Rather than be a Scrooge I’m going to embrace Christmas early this year, and with The Muppet Christmas Carol being released on Blu-ray for the first time, I’m ready.

It also helps having a new video of the Muppet Chickens ‘singing’ a Christmas carol.

What about you? Are you ready for the holidays or are you one of the not-until-after-Thanksgiving people?

I hope you all are into LEGO in a big way, because my love for the plastic bricks has come back with a vengeance lately, and I expect to be fully obsessed in 2012. As you heard in episode 10 of Bubble Pipe Theater, LEGO goes hand-in-hand with Christmas in my book, and so I thought it would be a great fit for our latest Instagram Roundup.

With two Advent Calenders out this year (regular flavor and a Star Wars version), I knew there would be plenty of Christmas LEGO goodness spread around Instagram. I got the Star Wars calendar for my nieces for Christmas, and today was the day that the Santa Yoda minifig was unveiled. I hope that set goes on sale after Christmas because I wouldn’t mind having a Santa Yoda for myself.

Today’s Instagram Roundup featured photos by steviebay1, mymeltingbrain, hosshina, mattapp, jijipunch, y_yuki, victoriiakate, ndangwp, and my sister patternpatti.

Have an idea for an Instagram Roundup? Tag your photo with #tophatsasquatch and we’ll see it!

It’s the show’s very first Christmas, and Tim, Rob, and Tommy spend it getting nostalgic about their favorite toys over the years and the presents they never got but always wanted. In this episode you’ll hear about Tommy’s penchant for sneaking around and finding presents early, Rob’s lifelong obsession with getting an AT-AT, and Tim’s knack for living vicariously through his kids, with a ton of retro Christmas and toy commercials sprinkled throughout.

Time is running out to order your holiday gifts online so they arrive by Christmas. But, honestly, who are we kidding? This is just an excuse to showcase some cool Nintendo gear you can actually buy for yourself. These picks will serve as a perfect Yuletide diversion.

Nintendo Geek Gift Guide

Celebrate the Mario’s 25th anniversary with the Super Mario All-Stars collection. This single Wii disc brings together Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels, Super Mario Bros. 2 and Super Mario Bros. 3. It’s a reissue of the All-Stars set made available in 1993 for the NES except with updated graphics and sound. There’s also a CD soundtrack and 32-page book on the history of Super Mario. $50.00 is a small price to pay for some of the best-ever video games.

NES a little too old for you? Try the amazing Supaboy from Hyperkin that shrinks down the Super Nintendo Entertainment System console to the size of a controller. It features a 3.5-inch LCD screen and rechargeable battery for hours of mobile game play. Even better, you can hook it up to a TV and connect two SNES controllers for big-screen play. Alas, it doesn’t come with any cartridge but you can take your pick in the game section of many used media retailers. Supaboy is a steal at just $100.

Need some quiet time around the holiday? Try Jeff Ryan’s book Super Mario: How Nintendo Conquered America. Get the history of Japan’s biggest game company and it’s U.S. invasion. We even discussed it on an episode of our podcast.