Cowboy Up!

Remember, you don't have to worry about getting the perfect gift for everyone at the Yankee Swap, just get the perfect gift for someone and thanks to the magic of the Yankee Swap, you can be sure it will end up in the right hands. There are sure to be a lot of Red Sox fans in the house, so why not throw in a bit of championship memorabilia? Tickets are of course too expensive and impossible to get, but there are other items that would be perfect for any Sox fan.

This Coco Crisp bobblehead is just $14.99 at Dick's Sporting Goods. Get it quick before we trade him to the Twins!

You can also get a World Champion sweatshirt for under $20 at T.J. Maxx. Just be sure to pay cash. Or you could let someone relive the World Series with the official MLB World Series DVD. It's from Major League Baseball so you can be sure it will fawn over Troy Tulowitzki just as much as Joe Buck did!

Or from NESNStore.com, you can order the always popular Don & Jerry Bobbledesk, just $19.99!

Best of all, if you open one of these gifts and don't want it, you can always trade it to a Yankees fan in the house just to remind them what's what.

Keeping It Real

I realize that all of the prior gift suggestions have been what one might classify as "joke" gifts and we certainly don't want to give the impression that is what the Yankee Swap is all about. Many of the gifts involved are quite desirable and keep in mind that you are going to end up with a gift yourself. My strategy is always to get a gift that I wouldn't mind ending up with myself so that, worst case scenario, if you open up something crappy like a hatchet, you can always just trade for your own gift. It is quite a point of pride to be the one who gave the gift that everyone wants or the gift taken by the very last person, the one who has a choice of every gift at the party.

How about this set of beer mugs? You can get eight for $19.95 at your local Target or at Target.com on the Internet. Of course, you'd need something to put in the beer mugs, so you could just buy a bunch of booze. That's always a safe bet.

This blog is as interactive as the Yankee Swap itself, so feel free to join in the fun with your own gift ideas in the comments below.

Bargains Ahoy!

I really want to recommend the cheap DVD bin at Wal-Mart. You can sift through there and grab like three DVDs, add a couple packs of gum and you've got a Yankee Swap gift. They have the cheap DVD bin online too, so I browsed through and chose three:

Each is only $5.50 at Walmart.com or in your local Wal-Mart. Now of course one of the greatest tragedies of living in Boston is that there are no nearby Wal-Marts, so I looked up the nearest locations in case you want to make a day out of it and all your Christmas shopping done in one place. The nearest locations are in Quincy, Lynn and Weymouth.

The Magic of the Internet

Craigslist is an excellent resource for Yankee Swap bargain hunters. Take this tip from Big Tuna: head over to the for sale section of Craigslist and search from $2 to $20. This way you will weed out a bunch of those phony $1 postings. It's not like you're only going to spend $1 on a Yankee Swap gift anyways (you better not). If you have something in mind, you can even narrow it down that way and see if anything comes up in your price range.

Check it out, you can get a Nintendo:

It comes with two controllers and the connecting cable, but no games. Maybe if you're attending the swap with a companion or significant other, one of you could get this and one of you could get a couple of games. Then whoever opened it would need to get their companion or significant other to end up with the games so you could go home, hook it up and blow on the game until it works.

http://boston.craigslist.org/nos/ele/490245426.html

Here's a game, also for $20: http://boston.craigslist.org/gbs/ele/486700436.html

Fat F**king Toad

Here's another poster idea. Who wouldn't want to have one of the greatest baseball players of our generation immortalized in their poster room?

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/giftguide/2007/giftguide?category=page2&productId=3120951

The Final Countdown

20 more days until Yankee Swap so from now 'til then we'll be rocking your world with 20 awesome gift ideas for under $20 to get your juices flowing.

Home furnishings are always a nice gift for young professionals and here's a piece that would really tie any room together. It's only $16.66 with shipping!

Remember, her life is in your hands.