Dear Readers: Here it is again, folks, the “teen-n-twenty” shopping list that’s direct from the source. I probably sound like a broken record, but I continue my progressive advice to “think outside the box” (or in this case the flat-screen) and avoid addicting and social-skill-depriving gifts such as video games, or TVs and computers for the bedroom.

Laptop computers are essential for college, but are known to abruptly end family life when given to high school students. Think instead about upgrading the family desktop station so your teens don’t become “missing persons” in their bedrooms. (Imaginary friends were fine when they were toddlers, but interactions with “imaginary Internet friends” are best kept to the public rooms of the house.)