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It’s that time of year, folks: Time to satiate the needs of the undead fan in your life. Luckily, there are some great options out there:

The Zombie of Montclaire Moors Sculpture
Thanks to MD for sending this priceless work of art – even before it ended up in Dave Barry’s gift guide. We used to get the Design Toscana catalog, and I always thought it was way too kitschy. This one piece makes it all worth it. My only concern is that it would get stolen if I put it in the front yard. Or my daughter would be emotionally scarred for life and not want to play outside for fear of her brain being eaten.

I would also anticipate using leftover Zombie Walk makeup on it for special occasions.

Left4Dead
There have been plenty of zombie video games over the years, but as a die-hard fan of first person shooters, it’s difficult to beat this Left4Dead – even putting non-zombie games into the equation. It only came out a few weeks ago, and I’ve already logged more hours on this than any other game in recent months (except, maybe, for Bioshock). My recommendation is to not waste your time playing the single-player campaign. The 4-person online co-op is spectacular, and even if you don’t have four people playing, the computer controlled replacements work really well.

My personal tips for playing:

• Use the repeating shotgun.
• Get the “Burn the Witch” Achievement by throwing a molotov cocktail at said nemesis.
• Do *not* shoot the cars with alarms (unless you can do it and run into the saferoom, thus hosing your co-mates in carnage).
• Stick together.
• Find propane tanks to throw and shoot them in crowds of undead.
• Friendly fire is always on, so take advantage of it when game play gets slow. Every game should end with everyone killing each other.

If you get it, let me know what your Xbox 360 gamertag is. You can play in a versus mode (which I have yet to do) that allows more than four people to play.

Don’t forget the Zombie Chic(k)
Handmade zombie apparel can be easily found, and this is just one good example.

Of course, additional possibilities are endless. Any of George Romero’s DVDs, Bruce Campbell zombie movies are a treat, and Shaun of the Dead is one of the all-time classics.

And don’t forget to mark your calendars for the 2009 Zombie Walk. If anyone from AFI is reading this, please work something good into your programming – preferably Shaun of the Dead. Halloween is on a Saturday next year, and I think the walk worked out best when it didn’t conflict with that. Maybe even the weekend before. As soon as you can give us a schedule, we can work around that.

Happy Holidays, everyone!