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Christmas gift suggestions for the history lover

Do you have a history lover on your Christmas gift list? Fear not. Here are several suggestions to make your history lover happy without sending you to the poor house.

Membership
Give them the gift of history that lasts all year long. Get them a membership to a local historical society or to Ancestry.com.

Season passes would fall into this category as well. If your community has a Renaissance Faire or similar venue, consider a season pass. A word of caution here tho - check it out first. My daughters work at our local Renaissance Faire and there is little historical about it. It is a fun fair; music and food is good. However, as someone interested in history, it leaves a lot to be desired. Simply said, you may have to simply ask your history buff if he or she would like something like that.

Museums
Groupon.com offers lots of great deals. I just purchased four tickets to the National Civil War Museum in Harrisburg for just $22. Normally an adult ticket is $11 each and students are $9 each so essentially I saved $18 and now have a family outing! CLICK HERE to get this same deal!

Groupon.com offers a wide variety of discounts to various museums. For example, under Harrisburg/Lancaster discounts are available for the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Watch & Clock Museum, and the Philadelphia History Museum. Enter the zip code of your desired location and search Things To Do. Someone who lives, or is planning a visit to, Colorado Springs in Colorado can purchase discounted tickets to the Western Museum of Mining and Industry, the Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame, the Rosemount Museum, or the Colorado Museum of Prisons. Deals change from time to time so check often.

Movies
Does your history buff enjoy movies but hates the whole theater scene? The National Geographic offers many DVD series. A quick search on the site shows a three DVD set titled When Rome Ruled for just $34.95. Killing Lincoln and Killing Kennedy are available for just $22.95 each.

Unique & Hard to Find
Scour flea markets, auctions, Craigslist and eBay throughout the year for unusual and hard to find gifts.

Gift Certificates
Do not think of the gift certificate as a copout. Instead consider this, if your history buff loves to read and has every book you can think of, try a gift certificate and let them choose their own. With a gift certificate they can also wait until something new comes out. This is also great if you are sending their gift. It would be much cheaper to send an Amazon or Barnes & Noble gift card then it would be to mail the collected Civil War related works of Samuel Bates!

As history enthusiasts, what tops YOUR want list this holiday season?
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