The holiday season is rolling around again, and we all know what that means––shopping madness. Before you buy your mom yet another gift certificate to Bath & Body Works, consider these fun and cheap holiday gift ideas.

For the coffee lover:
Crate & Barrel offers a beautiful 18 oz. ceramic mug for $5.95 with the word “coffee” embossed in dark typeface. This simple but elegant mug molds nicely to the hand and its large volume can easily accomodate other hot drinks as well as soup, oatmeal and various warm winter treats. Pair it with a bag of coffee beans from Coffee Perk or the Whitman bookstore. Available in-store or online at www.crateandbarrel.com/kitchen-and-food/coffee-mugs-teacups/coffee-mug/s191345

For the music lover:
Dakmart has a range of professional studio-grade circumaural Sennheiser headphones for extremely cheap prices. These babies are amazingly comfortable and will take the audiophile in your family into a winter wonderland of sound. The Sennheiser EH-150 headphones are the best deal at $8.98, but are often back-ordered. The EH-350, HD212 and HD428 models also provide awesome quality at prices from $23 to $25. Available online at Dakmart.

For the activist:
Fed up with the commercialism of it all? Forego the usual Starbucks card stocking stuffers and put those dollars to a good cause. There are many ways to give in the name of that loved one with a particularly big heart. The World Wildlife Fund and The Nature Conservancy offer options for “adopting” an animal of an endangered species or an acre of rainforest, while Heifer International allows donors to foster sustainable solutions to world hunger by sponsoring gifts of livestock and training to families in need.

For making memories:
Don’t feel like shelling out hundreds of dollars at Best Buy for the latest digital camera? Why not go retro instead? Check your local Craigslist or Amazon for Polaroid cameras. A good working model can usually be found for between $5 and $30. If you buy off Craigslist, try to make sure the seller has an old pack of film and can demonstrate that the camera is in working order. After you have a camera, film is available online from the Impossible Project, at www.shop.the-impossible-project.com/shop/film for an average of $24 per pack. Whether a gift for the avid photographer or a toy for the whole family to play with, polaroids are a medium that draw forth the precious moments in life through the necessity of selection. When snapping a hundred photos from different angles is no longer feasible, what remains are precious singular snapshots of love and togetherness.