This has been a most unusual, and some would say hellish, year, and your PopCulteer finds himself in a bit of a quandry. I’ve done a gift guide every year since I started PopCult back in 2005, and I always like to push folks toward shopping local, but this year, due to the pandemic, I’m not really comfortable suggesting that people go out and shop in person.

For the most part, I’m going to be suggesting things that can be ordered online, although I will make it easy for you to find them in person, if it’s possible.

Because of this, I’m ending the gift guide early this year. I’m going to wrap things up the day before Thanksgiving, and post the master list on what would have been Black Friday in a normal year. This should give everybody time to order stuff online and have it delivered in time for Christmas gift-giving.

This year I will skip the local shopping and dining suggestions, but I hope to make it up by plugging a few local online retailers, and plenty of books and music made by local creators.

I’m also planning to keep all gift suggestions under a hundred bucks this year. Times are tough, and big-ticket items may not be the best idea since we’re at least three months away from any further economic aid.

With all those disclaimers and warnings out of the way, welcome to The 2020 PopCult Gift Guide. I hope it gives you folks some good ideas to make this year more bearable. For the next twenty-four days you can come to PopCult for three or four gift suggestions–toys, music, movies, TV shows, comic books, magazines, cool online retailers and more–and we will kick it off in a traditional way in just a few moments.