Dear Santa: Here's My Registry

If you’re still stumped about gifts for those last few people on your Christmas list, you might want to check their online gift registries.

Yes, the traditional letter to Santa might still be the preferred method of dropping hints. But some are going online to convey what they want for the holidays to friends and family.

There are several advantages to electronic registries, both for the gift-giver and the recipient, according to Katelyn Leondi, manager of corporate communications for Toys R Us.

Leondi said the Toys R Us registry allows families to customize a child's list with the appropriate toys for his/her age and abilities. Knowing just what to buy avoids duplicate gifts and time spent making returns. If people do make returns, store employees can look up transactions on the registry for an exchange. And the registries can be easily shared by email or social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

Since  launched its wish list registry in 2009, more than 1.5 million lists have been created, according to Leondi.

Some families even take the tradition of mailing off that letter to Santa into a totally virtual experience.

Websites like Santa.com and Santa’s Hideout allow kids to write their Santa letters online, create wish lists to share with family and friends, interact with elves, read blogs from Santa and play games, all under their parents’ supervision.

And the registry services do not stop with the year's end.  has an online registry called “Special Days” to celebrate birthdays, holidays, graduations or other occasions.

Amazon gives consumers the option of creating wish lists year-round and offers a "gift organizer" so users can keep track of who they have bought gifts for, what they've purchased and who's left on the list.

Online registries can take the guesswork out of shopping for parents like Katryn Stewart, who that her kids have been adding to their lists on the mantle in their Elkridge home—and changing what they want just as regularly—since September.

"Every day there is something new tacked on in sloppy penmanship to the bottom of the list," wrote Stewart in a blog post entitled "."

One columnist (Elkridge Patch's cousin in Michigan) that electronic registries were a "lump of coal" and "not what the season is about."

What do you think about online wish lists?