I *Heart* Clever T-Shirts! Courtesy TheRoamingPint.com

Have a beer-lover to buy for this Christmas? (If not, add one to your wish list. We’re great people.) The easiest gift is sticking a bow on top of a new or favorite bottle and plopping it in the stocking. We’re easy to please. But if you’re one of those that discourages early-morning drinking on a holiday, I’ve got a couple other suggestions:

As many of you already know, I like books. I spend all day surrounded by them, talking to writers and readers, so I’m partial to the beer book as a  gift. These are a few of my favorites. (Yes, these are all linked to my own bookstore’s website. Go to Amazon, I dare you.)

The Naked Pint: an entertaining and easy-to-read guide about everything-beer, written by two ladies I aspire to be like someday.
Great American Craft Beer: by Andy Crouch, a renowned beer writer, this guide takes the reader through the US, style by style, brewery by brewery.
The Beer Book: a beautiful catalogue of beers from around the world, photographed and explained in the elegant style DK Publishing is known for.
Fermenting Revolution: a history of beer from its roots as a female-led trade to present-day commercial brewing and how beer and breweries are improving our world.

BeerBooks.com is a good place to check for quirky and/or rare books on beer. On the reading theme, there are numerous beer- and beer brewing-related magazines available. Beer Advocate is one of my personal faves; Draft is another. BA is for your beard-and-flannel, make-your-own sort of beer enthusiast; Draft, your sweater vest-and-corduroys, hosts-tastings-and-uses-real-glasses sort of appreciator.

Stocking stuffers anyone? This is my favorite part of Christmas: the one time all year I can justify buying ridiculous trinkets just because I know they’ll make one person smile once. I feel fortunate to know both people who would appreciate the bottle opener made from a bike chain and also people who would prefer the John Deere wall mounted opener, neither ironically.

My absolute top most favoritest places to get beer gifts this year have been from The Roaming Pint’s Craft Beer Lover’s Holiday Gift Guide and from Zazzle because both sites have fantastic beer shirts. Roaming Pint offers $5 shirts–you pay $5 and they send you a random pick from their selection. Rock on. Zazzle has a huge selection of vintage-style T’s, good and bad beer, all great designs.

Not that I’m dropping hints.