Gift Giving Guy

This Christmas, we only had 9.8 lords a-leaping. That is, until we moved the coffee table and found that final missing piece of our “12 Days of Christmas” jigsaw puzzle. Puzzles challenge your problem-solving and pattern-recognition skills and make a great gift for families. Consider these puzzling presents.

		German puzzle maker Ravensburger sells some of the best jigsaw puzzles available. I like the 1,000-piece puzzles, like the Celebrating Paris puzzle. Ravensburger also offers puzzles with 1,500 pieces (Van Gogh’s Café Terrace at Night), 3,000 pieces (Oceanic Wonders) and a brain-scrambling 18,000 pieces (Tropical Impressions).
		Don’t let that jigsaw puzzle overwhelm their dining room table. Ravenburger features a “stow and go” mat to roll up puzzles up to 1,500 pieces.
		Giving a gift card? Puzzle fans may enjoy the challenge of freeing that card from ThinkGeek’s Gift Card Puzzle Vault. You lock up the gift card, and your giftee must navigate a ball bearing through a translucent plastic maze to release it.
		Upload your digital photo at PortraitPuzzles.com and create a 1,008-piece personalized jigsaw puzzle. Choose a puzzle box or puzzle tin for packaging.
		Fuel creativity with Roger von Oech’s Ball of Whacks. Arrange the 30 multi-color magnetic pyramids to form hundreds of unique shapes. Couple this gift with the book A Whack on the Side of the Head.
		Puzz 3D foam-based puzzles appeal to one’s inner architect. Let them build the U.S. Capitol Building in their family room.
		For my nephew’s fifth birthday, I gave the Melissa & Doug 100-piece Pirate’s Bounty floor puzzle. Read the blog post.
		Do your gift recipients subscribe to the New York Times? Look up their birth date or anniversary date and give them a puzzle based on that day’s front page.