PHan Holiday Gift Guide 2011

Last year I published a holiday gift giving guide for the Phans! I enjoyed doing it so much that this year I'm going to do it again. So my PHellow PHans here's this year's gift guide, hopefully it will provide some helpful gift ideas for PHans to gift to each other or for us to show to those we love so that they'll hopefully get the hint and feed into our insanity with phantom materialism!

Personally I think ALW should have given us a gift by not creating LND.

25th Anniversary POTO Merch: 
London just celebrated Phantom's 25th anniversary. If your Phan has mentioned this more times then you can count you can buy them some merchandise to commemorate the 25th anniversary.

Artistic or unique POTO gifts:
If you'd like to wow the Phan in your life with artistic or unique Phantom of the Opera merchandise, Etsy is a great resource. Just type in Phantom of the Opera as a keyword search and you can view all kinds of unique phantom of the opera items. I found my phantom egghead on Etsy. I take him everywhere I go and if I don't forget and I have my camera with me he comes out for location shots.


Books:
If there's a phan in your life that loves to read Phantom of the Opera books are the way to go! I have tons of books in physical book format and in digital format on my kindle. Amazon is the best resource for Phantom of the Opera books, most of the unique phan phiction you can't find in bookstores. Just type in a keyword search using the words Phantom of the Opera in the book department and you'll find tons of hits on great books to read having to do with our favorite story, which started out as a book.

Right now I'm reading this delicious book on my kindle

I'm loving every minute of this story, there are terrifically erotic scenes (which are the best part IMO), it's well written, extremely romantic and a pretty good story overall. Plus there's pictures of the Phantom!

Clothing: 

• Two great sites for clothing options are cafe press and zazzle. As with many of the sites I posted already just do a keyword search for the five best words ever created for the English Language and you'll find many results. 
• Quilting Treasures just released a line of Phantom of the Opera fabric! So if the phan in your life likes to sew or is eager to learn how to sew why not get them a few bolts of this pretty fabric. Hopefully I'm going to get a hold of some so I can make some PJs for myself as well as a garter to wear for my wedding. I'd like to have a swatch of every single piece of this fabric for collection purposes but I will only buy some yards of the pattern I want for PJs and my garter. There's just one minor problem with my plan I haven't sewed in years lol, but Shawn's mom is going to help me start up again with a skirt I bought material for. I'm sure she'll help me put together PJs and the garter they should be fairly easy projects. 

Collectibles:

• Carlton Cards has been putting out Phantom of the Opera ornaments for sale since I started college. I have a few of these ornaments but not all of them. Most of these ornaments can be found through eBay. My friend George picked one up for me at Kohl's one year and I paid him back for it, I'm not sure if they still sell them. 
• Franklin Mint issued a collector's plate and a set of beautiful Phantom of the Opera porclain dolls. I found two plates for sale on eBay. The dolls I can't seem to locate for sale but here's a youtube version of them. 
• My favorite collectibles are from the San Francisco Music Box Company. Unfortunately this company went out of business quite some time ago. Thankfully you can search eBay by using the keyword Phantom of the Opera Music Box and still find some music boxes for sale on their site. 

POTO Bargains gift ideas for $10 or under:
*PLEASE NOTE - Some items I located are priced in pounds, not US Dollars. I'm not sure of the conversion between both currencies and don't really want to put energy and thought into researching it so if the item is under 10 pounds I can't vouch for the US dollar equivalency equating to under $10. 

• Book lovers can mark their pages with this bookmark.
• Does your Phan like coffee or tea, they can indulge in their hot beverage of choice with this haunting mug, or you can opt for this beauty of a mug.
• For the Phans that really enjoyed the 2004 movie if they don't already have about 5 or 6 copies on film Amazon has the movie in DVD and blu-ray for less then $10. 
• If your phan owns a kindle why not surprise them by downloading a FREE version of Gaston Leroux's novel, they'll love you forever and can take this classic novel anywhere they take their kindle. 
• If your phan likes pictures and wants to oogle over images of phantom this brochure is fun. Or you can opt for this London Program if you can't get your phan to London for a performance at Her Majesty's.  
• Some charming little POTO items a lovely key ring, the MASK, a charm bracelet way better than anything Tiffany has to offer,  and a magnet so you can post things on the fridge that you do not want your phan to forget! 
• To keep the phantom close to your heart this pin does the trick. 
• Write your notes POTO style with this cute little pen. 

Tickets:
Last but not least on this year's gift guide is of course tickets! If you can swing the expense of some tickets to one of the major Phantom performances your phan shall be very ecstatic! I'd like to see Phantom again at some point in January but I don't expect Shawn to buy any tickets. He bought me them last year for my birthday and on that same night in the theatre he made dreams that I had long since forgotten come true by proposing to me after the show was over.

• Las Vegas - If you're planning a visit to Sin City be sure to check out Phantom of the Opera at the Venetian. I'm not much of a traveler (I would go more places if I had more money and time off from work) but my goal is to one day go to Vegas to see this show and to see Barry Manilow. Most people in their 20s want to hit Vegas to get wasted and gamble of course I'm the odd duck out who just wants to see a few amazing shows. 
• London - If you live in London or are planning a trip there Her Majesty's is where you will go to see the legendary show where it first debuted. 
• New York - New York at the Majestic Theatre is my usual haunt! Here I've seen the show 45 times. My record breaker was 10 times in one year in between two of my birthdays. I've since slowed down in my attendance of performances, I'd like to hopefully get to go at least 50 times. Maybe I'll get to that goal by 2013 or 2014 since I now only go about 3 to 4 times a year.  

If you search the newspapers, visit a library or small campus theatre (sometimes they have discount coupons), scour internet sites such as Broadwaybox.com or visit the TKTS booth in Manhattan for same day tickets you can get greatly discounted tickets for New York's performance. If you don't want to deal with the hassle you can sit in rear mezz for about $40 on almost any performance. There's also standing room tickets for sold out shows if you're nuts enough like me or most other phans you'll stand for 2 and a half hours of showtime!