First, a disclaimer.

The holiday season is different for everyone. Some of us may celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah as a religious holiday; others may simply use this as an excuse to spend secular time with our families and eat lots of food. Regardless of how or why you celebrate the holiday season, or whether it is related to Christmas or Hanukkah or neither or other, there is one little headache that usually crops up: gifts. By creating a gift-buying guide for wizard rock fans, we are not in any way trying to condone one way to celebrate.

Even though I am in my mid-to-late-twenties, a few weeks ago my father asked me for a Christmas list. As I racked my brain and assembled a laundry list of things I wouldn’t mind receiving, I realized that much of it was related to wizard rock. Realizing that others might also be interested in my findings (and to justify my hours of research), I decided to share some of it with all of you. This is truly just a sampling of what I ran across while searching for wizard rock products and what I found particularly interesting.

Since shopping (even online!) can be stressful, you want to make sure you’re excited about the prospect. To get yourself in the holiday mood, I would recommend buying Jingle Spells, available on iTunes or Amazon, or Catchlove‘s It’s Snowing, also available on iTunes. You can pre-order both sequels right now as well. Jingle Spells 2 can be pre-ordered here and will be mailed out the first or second week of December. It will also be available on iTunes sometime in the middle of the month. You can order It’s Still Snowing on Catchlove’s MySpace or just wait for it to hit iTunes.

Now, let’s say you have a friend who is a casual wrock fan, or you yourself have just started to like wizard rock. What better gift is there than a compilation album? Wizards and Muggles Rock for Social Justice Volumes One and Two are available for download via iTunes or Amazon, and feature both wizard rock and muggle bands. And don’t forget about Siriusly Smiling, put together by Gred and Forge‘s Jarrod, available via iTunes just in time for the holidays. All three of these albums have a wide variety of artists to help introduce someone to wizard rock, and their proceeds go to charity.

Maybe you have a friend who really likes wizard rock, but doesn’t know where to start listening. You could always get them a subscription to the 2008 EP of the Month Club. Don’t worry that it’s so late in the year – subscriptions are still available! You will just get all 12 EPs at once the next time they are mailed out. Twelve wrock EPs in one day? That should keep anyone occupied for a bit. If you can’t swing the whole subscription, there is a Best of 2007 EP Club CD available through iTunes or Amazon. All proceeds from this compilation go to the HP Alliance.

Want to keep track of when the next set of EPs will be mailed out? The PwnCast of WRock has created a wizard rock calendar to do just that, with all proceeds also going to the HP Alliance.

For the dedicated fan, there are many ways to show the world your love of wizard rock. If you’re buying for staff members or fans of the Wizrocklopedia, we have a Café Press store full of clothing, bags, buttons, and even a Wizrocklopedia throw pillow. Did someone attend Wrockstock but forget to buy a t-shirt? No worries! You can find all the official Wrockstock merchandise here. If you think these might be too subtle, feel free to show your wizard rock love with a full-out proclamation: I <3 Wizard Rock. If you believe wizard rock is the definition of awesome, this is right up your alley. Self-admitted fangirls can identify themselves to others easily with this design. Even just a simple wizard rock shirt will let people know. Too cutesy for you? You need something more rock and roll? After all, that is what wizard rock is all about. Feel free to wear your Wizard Rock Rocks! shirt with pride. Or, rock on with the wizard rock gesture.

Don’t forget that sites like Café Press and Zazzle let you design your own products as well. Quote some of your favorite lyrics or inside wizard rock jokes on your favorite color tee. Just make sure that you have permission to use any designs that you didn’t create yourself, though.

For those lucky enough to be attending Yule Balls or other wizard rock events before the holiday season, make sure you grab some official merch from your favorite band. These are things that are usually only available from the bands themselves, so get them while you can!

Perhaps you or someone you know is a bit reluctant to let everyone know about their love of wizard rock. You can easily hide it from most with boxers or a thong until you’re really ready to shout it to the world.

Why not celebrate the holidays with a movie night? You could show any or all 5 of the Harry Potter movies in conjunction with the Wizard Rockumentary, a wizard rock documentary created by Megan and Mallory Schuyler. Don’t forget to wear your matching tshirt or hoodie! We Are Wizards, a documentary about the Harry Potter fandom (including many of your favorite wrockers!), is set to be released on DVD December 6th. Until then, you’ll have to be satisfied with pre-ordering it. For this, too, you can match what you watch. Pick up the holiday bundle, where you get your choice of t-shirt plus a poster and the DVD.

Need a gift for someone who has everything? Pick your favorite Harry Potter-related charity and make a contribution in someone else’s name. The Wizard Rock EP of the Month Club gives their proceeds to First Book, helping to get brand new books in the hands of low-income children. Or, you could check out this list of charities that JK Rowling herself has helped. Don’t forget to look locally, either. For Hagrid’s sake, donate to your local chapter of the Humane Society. There really is no limit to what a Harry Potter-related charity is, so pick your cause and help out!

Unfortunately, with all this gift-buying craziness, it’s possible that you’ve run out of money far too soon. Not to worry! With a little bit of creativity and some basic supplies, you can make your own wizard rock gifts this year. I recommend making cookies and using this guitar cookie cutter to theme them. Want to make the gift-receiver work a bit? Get these letter cookie cutters and send them a box with 2 As, 2 Cs, a D, 3 Es, 2 Fs, a G, 3 Hs, 3 Is, a J, 4 Ls, 3 Ns, a Q, an R, 3 Ss, 3 Ts, 3 Us, and a Y and see if they can figure it out before they eat them. If you have an old wizard rock shirt that you’re willing to part with, why not transform it into something else? A t-shirt can easily be cut into 2 squares, which is the basis for a tote bag. If you have access to a sewing machine, attach some fabric as a liner, add some straps, and you’ve got a one-of-a-kind wizard rock bag. There are countless other things you can do with a t-shirt as well. Simply Google ‘t-shirt surgery’ or ‘altering t-shirts’ and see what comes up.

Hope that helped! Remember – if you find yourself stressed out about this, just throw on some of your favorite wrock, and take a deep breath. Gift giving doesn’t have to be that hard.