Gifting the Good Gifts - Cool Tech Gifts That Won't Break Your Bank

Every holiday season and birthday occasion, I want to be the relative who gives the coolest high-tech gifts. I want the kids to be reeling with excitement so much that they could almost jump out of their skin because they can't wait to open my gift. (This is when my bank account snarls, my wallet laughs at me and my accountant tells me that hand knitted scarves fit my budget.)

But I'm determined to do it this year, so I prepared early.  I did a little research and came up with three gift ideas that fit my stringent requirements:

• I must want it for myself.
• It must be modern technology.
• It should be an exchange of abundance.
• And it must be affordable.

Laugh all you want at my high standards, but these 3 super cool gadgets fit the bill.

I'll begin with GelaSkins. If you're not familiar with this high-tech sticker, you need to be. It's a portable device cover made with patented 3M technology that protects your gadget from grit and scratches without the hassles of smoothing out bubbles or cleaning up sticky residue.

Not only is the material easy to use, but the company is teamed up with over a hundred talented artists like Lawrence Yang, BUA and eBoy that produce an impressive collection of photo quality graphics to choose from. Matching wallpaper blends the design between screen and device leaving an almost magical impression of 'How'd they do that?' and if you prefer to use your own photo or logo, you can make custom GelaSkins in a snap.

The skins fit numerous devices from iPhones and iPad to laptops and gaming devices. And at $15.00 to $25.00 a pop, they easily fit in my budget.

Another fun and affordable device is Mugo. Everyone wants an mp3 player and Mugo's unique character designs put them at the top of the cool factor list.  It features easy to use controls right on the faceplate with play and pause in the center, forward and back flank the left and right, and volume control at the top and bottom positions. Simple as can be.

Mugo also doubles as a flash drive so you can easily connect to your Mac or Windows platform and download your music, photos and video quickly.  There are only a handful of designs available with more coming soon, but if your giftee is a gifted artist, you can purchase design-it-yourself blanks in either black or white. Mugo's mp3 fits my budget at $49.99 to 59.99 a pop.

And if your giftee requires licensed themes like Hello Kitty, Star Wars, Halo or Japan's Domo, then you can't go wrong with a Mimobot designer USB Flash Drive.

Mimoco will please all of your designer art toy/ data storage fiends with an ever growing cast of characters. The contemporary art series includes artists designs by Gary Baseman, Friends With You, Kennyswork, and Tokidoki amongst other street art and urban talent.  The drives also come preset with goodies like wallpapers, avatars, icons and artist profiles. Other treats like the unmask series make gift giving twice as fun when they discover either Luke Skywalker or Han Solo underneath a Stormtrooper helmet. The drives come in 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB, with prices from $10.00 to $50.00 making it easy to stuff a few stockings.