Last minute Christmas shopping with your computer

It's Christmas Eve and you're in a panic because you still have dozens of people to buy for. Don't despair. Get on the Internet and do some virtual last-minute shopping that will save embarrassment and even make you look like a savvy gift-buyer.

Here are 10 gift ideas that you can use right up until the kids come downstairs on Christmas morning. All you'll need is an Internet connection, your computer and, in some cases, a printer.

1) Get that hard-to-buy-for family member an astrology profile. Log on to www.astrology.com and get an in depth reading that you can print off and stuff in an envelope and slip under the tree. Instant readings, which start at $8US, offer insights into a person's personality traits. Other reports are available to increase the value of the gift. Make sure you print it off on nice paper and wrap it with a bow.

2) Order any one of dozens of magazine subscriptions from magazinemedia.com. They ship to Canada and the U.S. The secret to this gift is to go out to a convenience store Christmas Eve and grab a copy of the magazine, then wrap it and include your online subscription receipt (or make your own!) declaring that they’ll get a dozen more issues.

3) Get the stock-savvy web surfer in your family an on-line annual subscription to the Wall Street Journal Interactive Edition. It costs US$79. To give a gift subscription, simply fill out WSJ's on-line form at wsj.com.

4) Clickbank.com offers a wide variety of software products that can be downloaded. You can also find downloadable shareware (try before you buy) at CNET's shareware.com. Simply download the software from Shareware.com and burn it on a CD or DVD that can be wrapped. Beforehand install it on your machine and look for the software licensing notice, usually in the program's menu under "About" or on the opening screen. Fill in and mail the registration form and fee or, in some cases, buy it via the Net at a designated Web address provided by the software author.

5) If you have a more commercial piece of software in mind, then often a 30-day trial is available for download from the publisher. So download it and burn it to CD or DVD and give that as a gift and tell the recipient that you have ordered the full version. You can do that either directly from the software maker's Web site or from a software vendor like TigerDirect.ca (or Amazon.com in the U.S.) and deliver it to the recipient before the 30 day trial expires.

6) Subscribe to Bluemountain.com send an animated e-card it by e-mail or customize and print out cards from the site and print them on nice paper on your home printer. A one year subscription to the site is US$13.95. For good measure go to the bank machine and grab some cash for the card. Everyone loves hard currency.

7) Book a trip or a holiday on-line at Expedia.com or Orbitz.com (Or in Canada at Expedia.ca or Destina.ca) for your family. Simply go on-line and fill out a travel itinerary. You can also buy full beach getaways at on-line travel sites. In Canada, check out itravel2000.com or sunwing.ca.

8) If you really want to give some one a gift that they can touch, but are willing to wait 'til after Christmas, check out Ikea on-line. Their on-line catalog features loads of gift items and they deliver. To save face, print out a picture of the item (there are large zoomable product images on the site) so there's something to put under the tree.

9) Buy the gift of music for a pal, by purchasing a CDs worth of music online and then burning it to CD. If your giftee is tech savvy send them a gift ecard so they can download their own music and burn their own CD. Music costs 99 cents per song.

10) Finally, purchase that Web-savvy family member their own Web address. Personalized web domains at RegisterFly.com cost under $10 US. That price includes free email redirecting and 10 MB of web space for a year.

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