The 12 Gifts of Christmas

Last Christmas, I provided a gift guide full of 25 vampire-themed items to consider buying for your friends, family or even for yourself. And, for a little over a week now, NiceGirlsTV has been providing gift guides in a number of different categories.

For my gift guide this year, though, I thought I would stick to a specific theme – werewolves, which seem to be the rage this year – but rather than focus on the 25 days of Christmas, this list will be the 12 gifts of Christmas.

While the following is just a small sample of werewolf-themed gifts to consider for your shopping list, they do represent a wide array of choices, ranging from comedic to horrific movies, TV series, made-for-TV movies and novels.

Get ready to shop!

1. Teen Wolf and Teen Wolf Too – This two DVD set of the 1985 and 1987 comedy movies that starred Michael J. Fox and Jason Bateman (respectively) first as a high schooler and then a college kid who uses the fact he is from a family of werewolves to his advantage. This set is available at Amazon for under $10.

NOTE: MTV is working on an updated version of this flick in the form of a TV series that will star Tyler Posey, Tyler Hoechlin, Crystal Reed and Dylan O’Brien and is expected to air sometime next year.

2. Being Human – This popular UK series will soon be airing its third season in the UK and eventually here in the States. For those interested in the continuing stories of vampire Mitchell (Aiden Turner), werewolf George (Russell Tovey) and ghost Annie (Lenora Crichlow), you can purchase Seasons 1 and 2 at Amazon for $24.99 and $34.99 respectively.

NOTE: An American version of this series will air on Syfy starting January 17, starring Sam Witwer, Sam Huntington and Meaghan Rath in the lead roles of vampire, werewolf and ghost.

3. Blood & Chocolate – This 2007 film covers what happens when a graphic novelist (Hugh Dancy) travels to Bucharest to research werewolves where he falls in love with Vivian (Agnes Bruckner) a girl who is forced to face her lupine tendencies in order to discover how capable of loving Aiden she really is. This movie is based on the book by Annette Curtis Clause and is available on DVD through Amazon for under $10.

4. Never Cry Werewolf – This movie aired on Syfy back in 2008 and starred Kevin Sorbo (Hercules) and a relatively unknown actress by the name of Nina Dobrev (who is now one of the stars of the popular CW series The Vampire Diaries). A mysterious man, Jared Martin, moves next door to Loren Hansett (Dobrev) and she soon comes to believe he is a dangerous werewolf. Enter Redd Tucker (Sorbo), a washed-up TV hunting show host, who helps Loren and her best friend Steven to kill the werewolf before he can kill them. The DVD of this movie can be purchased at Amazon for under $10.

5. Wolf Lake – This short-lived series was only on the air for one season; and while it didn’t get to delve very far into its mythology, which was about werewolves who overtake a small Seattle suburb, it did have an impressive cast, including Tim Matheson, Lou Diamond Phillips, Sharon Lawrence, Graham Greene, Bruce McGill, Scott Bairstow, Paul Wesley and Mia Kirshner (both from The Vampire Diaries) and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. The DVD is currently out of stock at Amazon, but it should be available to rent via Netflix.

6. Wereling Trilogy by Stephen Cole – The books in this trilogy are called Wounded, Prey and Resurrection. Book One is about at 16-year-old Tom Anderson who, through some unfortunate circumstances, ends up in the remote woods home of the Folans, a clan of werewolves. The next two books (Prey and Resurrection) follow Kate Folan and Tom as the desperate try to evade the countrywide reach of the werewolf community. Each of these books can be purchased at your local bookstore for under $10 each.

7. Wolf – This 1997 movie about a senior editor (Jack Nicholson) who is about to “get the boot” becomes a new man after he is bitten by a wolf, taking on new challenges at work, living a more robust life and attracting a new love (Michelle Pfeiffer). But at what cost to all involved. This film can be purchased on DVD at Amazon for $8.99.

8. Wolfman – This 2010 box office movie that starred Benicio del Toro, Emily Blunt and Anthony Hopkins is about a man who is lured back to his family estate to investigate the savage murder of his brother by a bloodthirsty beast, which in turns bites him and eternally curses him with a fate worse than death. The DVD is available at Amazon for under $20.

9. Kelly Armstrong Women of the Otherworld Novels – Several of the books included in this series of novels; namely Bitten and Stolen, follows the life of Elena Michaels, the world’s only female werewolf, who leaves her secretive pack in upstate New York for a life among humans. She embarks on a career as a journalist but is dragged back into her pack when others like her start converting common criminals into werewolves. Each book in this (currently) 12 book series can be purchased at Amazon or your local bookstore for under $10.00 (paperback) or under $15.00 for the most recently ones in hardcover.

10. An American Werewolf in London (Special Full Moon Edition) – This movie is considered a cult classic and was one of the films made at the cusp of when special effects makeup artists were tripping over themselves to create “the next big thing”. The story is of two American tourists (David Naughton and Griffin Dunne) who, while traveling in London, find their lives changed forever when a vicious wolf attacks them during a full moon. This special edition is available at Amazon on DVD for under $10.

11. Laurell K. Hamilton Anita Blake Novels – While the heroine of these novels (currently 19 in the collection with the 20th planned for the summer of 2011) is a vampire hunter, lycanthropes (aka werewolves) are featured throughout the novels. The book series starts with Guilty Pleasures, released in 1993 and follows through to Bullet, which was just released this past June. Each book can be purchased at Amazon or your local bookstore for about $8.00 each.

12. Silver Bullet – This 1985 classic horror flick, based on a Stephen King story, starred the late Corey Haim, as a young boy confined to a wheelchair who stops a werewolf with the help of his uncle and his sister. The widescreen DVD version is available at Amazon for $10 and under.

You have a little over two weeks to get your holiday shopping completed so get out there and shop.

Happy Holidays!