Many of the gift guides we see each holiday season recommend fairly straightforward and practical gifts: exotic scarves for lady friends, kegerators for frat brothers, and a designer paperweight for your workaholic parents.

We always enjoy seeing these guides and finding useful presents for our loved ones -- so we thought we'd combine some items you may see in this season's gift guides or on wish lists with our love for search trends; these are a few of the more popular gift searches we've seen this season.

1. Hasbro’s Nerf Stampede: Google searches for these Nerf guns shot up by over 60% over the past month.















2. Sing-a-Ma-Jigs: Searches have doubled since July, for these toys that sing happy tunes when their tummies are pressed.















3. Pillow Pets: These stuffed animals come in many animal variations and are both a pillow and a stuffed pet. Searches for these goodies peaked on Black Friday, and are on the rise again.















4. Monster High Dolls: These teenage children of famous monsters are generating a lot of interest this year. In fact, searches for these dolls have tripled in the past month alone.















5. Snuggie Blanket: Searches for these cold weather favorites have increased by 146% since mid-October.















Have fun with these frequently searched recommendations, and feel free to refer to Google Insights for Search to see what other queries are gaining high levels of traction. Happy Holidays!


Posted by Jieun Baek, Google Retail Team