Pogo -The Most Fun Christmas Gift Ever!

What do you get your game addicted friends or family members this holiday season?

Give them a subscription to Pogo, the online game site where there's fun and excitement to be had every second there. They'll be tickled and teased by a variety of pastimes from word games to cards to interesting challenges. Not only that but they can also win cash prizes too. What other holiday gift will offer that?

Pogo.com is a division of Electronic Arts, a Trip Hawke,company and the one responsible for early home computer games . You can play most of the Pogo games for free on AOL but joining gives special extras. Members get double the amount of the jackpot prize plus tokens to be cashed in on prizes and mini-mes. (more on those later).Also this site always has the jump on when it comes to brand new games. You can get wind of a new game long before anyone else does, thanks to previews and the Pogo newsletter. Membership fees are $ 19.99 for six months and $39.99 for an entire year.

Pogo is a great gift for anyone who loves variety as well. The choices are all so different from one another, catering to all sorts of tastes. My favorite is the highly addictive Dice City Roller a combination of Yahtzee and poker. Another personal favorite is Bloop that is an online take of those old hand held water games. Pogo can also give those die hard casino fans their own private Atlantic City or Las Vegas. There are a slew of story themed slot games from the underwater adventures of Vaults ofAtlantis to Show Biz Slots with it's twists and turns. There are also the colorful Ali Baba and Sci-Fi slots as well, each spilling out everything from two tokens to ten thousand (or the Jackpot if you're lucky). Poker fans will have a field day here as well. There are so many different kinds of it here, from Texas Hold 'Em to Pogo's spins on them. Pogo also has blackjack games Blackjack. All of these have extras that allow you to win more tokens. Pogo also has untraditional bingo games that are a far cry from what your granny used to play.

The site has good word games that will rattle anyone's brain. Try Word Magic, which is stringing letters or letter groupings together to form common and uncommon words. Another fun favorite is Word Whomp Whackdown, which is like Whack a mole and Boggle combined. This comes in UK or American English so you can have a hoot playing both games. Two other fun challenges are Tumblebees, which is like Boggle played in a honeycomb and Word Jong - Mahjong meets Scrabble. Pogo does have its' own version of that popular word game in Qwerty - a fast moving board game where players have to use their letter tiles in small time period.

There are other games to be played by oneself such as the cool solitaire games, such as the flight themed Aces Up or the travel themed World Class Solitaire. There is also Perfect Pair Solitaire which is more like Go Fish for one player. This also combines a board game into a card one. Tired of cards? Then try Wonderland Memories which is based on the game Concentration and uses cookies (yes cookies) instead of cards. You get hungry just playing it but it is fun and full of extra surprises. There is also Quick Quack, a take on the old carnival game of duck shooting

All of these games will either give you tokens or the rare JACKPOT . You can also win tee shirts, mugs and screen savers. The tokens are your currency however for maneuvering around Pogo Land. With them you can buy clothing, backgrounds and even hairstyles for your mini me avatar. Mini Me's are kind of like Barbie in the sense that you have to have all the latest clothing and accessories. There also holiday themed costumes and backgrounds you can buy too. For an extra cost you can purchase gems which can gbuy animated extras and backgrounds. These are also good for buying badge books which are like the weekly challenges Pogo sets but with a bigger reward. Gem packages can range from $4.99 for 80 gems, $9.00 for 180 gems and $19.99 for 380 and are a great accompaniment to the gift membership. Also another good gift extra are the badge books themselves. There are three to choose from at $4.99 each and you can also pay for some for them with your gems. (each Pogo member receives twenty gems as a starter).

Pogo also has a cool gift shop where you can buy items with the site's cute and quirky logo. There are the usual tee shirts and hoodies but also slippers (with one slipper embroidered with PO while the other has GO) and night shirts. The tees are $12.95 for I HEART POGO and $13.95 for the ones with just the Pogo logo on them. Slippers and PJs are both $18.95 each. Playing Pogo makes one thirsty so throw in any of the neat bistro or latte cups that go for $14.95 and $15.95 respectively. For the true Pogo enthusiast there is also the Pogo toaster which burns the logo on your morning slice. This is the most expensive item, priced at $34.95. Other Pogo gear include baby onesies for future gamers as well as blankets wall clocks and hats.

Give a Pogo membership this Christmas to that gamer who is looking for hours of fun. It's the perfect gift that will appeal to a variety of tastes. Plus your recipient can send you a free five day pass to the site as a thank you!