X-mas Gift Preview

When I tell people that the sex toy business is seasonal they're usually a bit surprised. I suppose it is a little surprising; it's not like we only have sex around the holidays. In fact many of us have significantly less sex around the holidays, for all sorts of reasons. Nonetheless, all the sex shops I've worked with, and many more I've spoken with over the years have found that Valentine's Day and Christmas represent their busiest times of the year.

What's also interesting to me is that that people tend to buy their sex toy gifts near the end of the holiday shopping. For example, Black Friday isn't all its chalked up to be for most sex stores. Usually things pick up first few weeks in December, and there's a mad dash right near the end. But of course few of them offer the kind of 4:00 AM door crashers we've come to expect from non sex retailers large and small.

I wonder if the fact that sex shops are busier closer to the actual holidays indicate that we don't prioritize sex. Or maybe it's just that we feel like we have to buy things for everyone else first, before we can get something we really want.

Lucky for me, my job is to tell you that you deserve as much sexual pleasure as you want for the holidays and the rest of the year, and that it's okay to put sex first on your shopping list. And with that in mind here is the first of many suggestions for sex toy holiday gifts.

X: The Erotic Treasury
This is one of those books that's as sexy to hold as it is to read. Featuring forty erotic short stories collected by Susie Bright and presented in a difficult to put down hardcover edition with a peekaboo cut out box sleeve (the picture doesn't do it justice). There is a wide range of tastes, explicitness and style in this collection offering both a great introduction for newcomers to erotic fiction and a perfect gift for any erotica collector. Chronicle Books. 367 pages, $35.

More Sex Book Holiday Gift Ideas

_{Cover image courtesy of Chronicle Books}