Or at least last year was.  Due to the intricacies of my family's placement around the country, Better Half and I had what amounted to be three separate Christmas celebrations.  First, we went to her parents' home for the celebration on the actual day of Christmas.  Second, we had our own little celebration at my apartment a few days after the calendar date of the 25th.  And, third, we went out and visited my parents over New Year's and had the third and final instance of Christmas there.  I am certainly not going to complain... it gave me three separate present-opening events, and any toy-minded, red-blooded, American male is not going to quibble over that. 

Well, one interesting chain of events was a series of consistent presents between all three locations.  Better Half's father both received and gave one, Better Half received one, and I received two... and purchased two more for myself.  What is this mystery item, you are asking yourself? 

A flashlight. 

I honestly have no idea why these useful little items were such a big hit on everyone's to-give lists, but I am certainly not going to complain.  Oddly (if somewhat amusingly) enough, flashlights were on no one's "wanted" list, but, even with that in mind, no one had any issues with it.  On first (other than Who) was a TekTorch penlight made by Coast Cutlery and Products.  Actually, I received two flashlights from this previously unheard-of corporation, but they seem to create some relatively durable and useful products, so I honestly have no idea...  At any rate, the first one bears a striking resemblance to this LED flashlight.  That said, the one I have in my possession has a blue LED light as opposed to the white one found on the link, and it also uses three LR1 batteries.  I confess I have never heard of or seen these types of batteries before, nor have the faintest clue where to find them (besides that site), but I guess if you really need 4.5 volts, these things are tiny, and can easily fit in the same space as two AAAs or AAs (at least from me eyeballing them, which may very well be in error).  Regardless, the flashlight has the same lanyard off its back end, the same one-LED construction, the same pocket clip, a woven nylon belt holster, and a rubber pusbutton instead of a silver one.  Its metal body is made out of... some kind of metal (I am wagering some manner of aluminium), and appears to be relatively durable (good thing for me).  The pushbutton allows for flashing use of the light, as well as constant-on, and provides accecptable tactile feedback.  And the light... well, it is bright.  Not humongo-Mag-Light-bright, but for being a single-LED flashight, pretty decently bright... and has an interesting light pattern.  At about ten feet away, the central light cone is about 2-3 feet in diameter, with varying density.  However, outside of that is a halo-like ring of light, providing a little peripheral illumination.  Like I said, this thing is not tremendously bright, but for close work or confined spaces, it would work just fine.  As with most LED lights, it has no focusing capabilities, so attenuation and range will make your light get dim at range, quickly.  That, and the blue light is illuminating, but, due to its non-white wavelength, less damaging to your night-vision. 

Moving on to the second flashlight.  Better Half received a dynamo flashlight from her mother at their Christmas celebration, and, seeing the application myself, I ran off and grabbed one myself after we got back to my apartment (gotta love those 20% coupons to Bed, Bath, and Beyond that just flood my snailmail box).  Yeah, so I cheated and got myself a present...  You have to admit, the utility of these things is relatively high.  These have existed forever, from a stupid little red thing I had as a child that you had to constantly squeeze to get a barely-useful light out of its incandescent bulb.  Loud as hell, and would only illuminate about three feet in front of you.  Suffice it to say, the technology and materials going into these widgets has changed and improved over the years.  Now, they almost all use LED bulbs in the place of old-tek incandescent ones, as well as an internal capacitor or battery array to allow you to not have to crank the system continuously.  So how does it work now?  You pop out a small rotary crank on the back of the flashlight, twirl it for a (few) minute(s) (depending on the brand, model, output, etc.), and get anywhere between 10 minutes and an hour's worth of light.  How bright, you ask?  Well, Better Half and I successfully beachcombed about half a mile of beach with this light, cranking it only three times for about a minute each time (the second and third times were more for our personal comfort/safety than due to the dimness of the light), and had absolutely no problems finding our way (and more than a few shells...  and jellyfish - poor guys) in what amounted to otherwise almost-pitch-blackness.  I actually purchased mine to go in my glove compartment, for use if I were to ever have a flat tire - an application it should serve for quite nicely.  Now, these are not small flashlights...  there exist many, many smaller ones that have much higher light outputs.  But this is one of few that requires absolutely no batteries, of any variety, besides whatever internal, non-replaceable ones it may have.  I am willing to trade a few minutes' worth of cranking for an order of magnitude greater number of minutes of light.  As you can probably imagine from the style, this model also lacks a focusing ability, so be prepared for a wide, short- to mid-range splash of light. 

I Don't Know's on third, though I do know the kind of flashlight Better Half and I gave her father.  I am not entirely sure how long ago it was that these shake-y flashlights caught on, but they certainly have come a little way in that time.  Waterproof (and floats, to boot), shockproof, relatively crushproof, and the only thing you have to do to make it work is shake it.  Well, shake it in a specific manner - up and down in a way that will cause onlookers to make all manner of interesting comments about you and your after-dark habits.  Its light is generated by a single LED bulb (white this time), and its reflector is integral to the bulb itself.  This leads to a relatively simplistic construction, but also a very, very tight beam.  In fact, it has almost no "splash" to speak of, whatsoever.  If you want to see something, and know where to point the flashlight, this thing is great, but if you are counting on the light to illuminate the room around you... best aim for the ceiling and hope for the best.  Of course, the lack of a focusing ability strickens this one as well.  Like the previous one, I went out and got one of these for myself as well...  It currently lives in my bedside drawer for loss-of-power situations - a little bit of shaking will work better than exploded batteries in a flashlight I never use.  Not exactly a good home-defense light (like I said, no splash, and the shaking is not exactly quiet), but it should cover loss-of-power nicely.  And, as all of the warnings say, this thing is powered by a relatively powerful magnet (moving magnet + stationary coil of wire = electrical power being provided to internal battery/capacitor unit used to light LED), so keep it away from sensitive stuff. 

And now for the last one - the other Coast light.  This particular flashlight is singularly useful due to its use of five white LEDs and a single red one.  The white ones can be turned on separately or in addition to the red one, and vice versa, which lets you go for full light-up, or non-night-vision-damaging illumination, depending on the situation.  Same aluminium-ish construction as the previous penlight, although this one uses slightly more conventional batteries - three AAAs in series.  It also comes with a convenient lanyard and clip-on woven nylon belt holster, which should keep it handily nearby whenever you need it.  It is relatively short, though a little stocky, and is covered with a wonderful grip-holding diamond pattern.  I cannot come up with a downside to this little thing, besides the fact that the red output is one-fifth the lumens of the white output, and the continuing theme of no light focusing capacities.  Also, I am not too sure on its waterproofness...  the LEDs are exposed (no lens over them, unlike the first Coast flashlight), so I have no idea.  And, like I said, these are no SureFire flashlights, but they do seem more than a little durable, and probably a budget flashlight you can rely on in a non-life-threatening pinch. 

So those are all the light-generating items we received and gave for Christmas...  quite the little collection, no?  Now I need to get out and expand my battery collection as well, in case one of these new little toys decides to go a-chomping on its power supply.  I really wish self-generated power had progressed farther than it has, but I guess I will have to wait a while for something more useful and powerful than the designs there are out there. 

That said, these are not all the flashlights I use.  In fact, I have one particular favorite (still my favorite, even after purchasing, giving, and receiving all of these new widgets) that never leaves my belt at work.  That particular darksucker is the Inova X5, in a black-anodized aluminium body, and white LED bulbs.  A metric ton of information can be found on the Inova site (I would link you directly to the site about the X5, but they rely on frames, so... blah.), but I will give you my viewpoint.  First, the bad stuff.  Its power source is two CR123A lithium batteries, generally used for cameras and other digital products.  High capacity, funny size, and a little expensive.  Also, the flashlight does not have any focusing capabilities.  The light beam and spread it generates is what you get, no matter the range.  And, the last bad thing - there is no bulb-covering cap to change its white from white to red, or any other color.  Now, the good stuff.  This baby is bright, and I do mean painfully so.  The Inova site claimes a 120 foot effective range (never had the chance to test that, myself) and a two mile signal range (likewise), but I would not doubt it.  It is created from aircraft-grade aluminium, and "military-grade" anodizing, and I can personally profess how durable it is.  The body shows nary a dent or mark after two years of use, though the anodizing can be scratched off if you try hard enough.  It is definitely water-resistant, having already tested that particular aspect more than once, and the gaskets that allow it that property do not even show an ounce of aging.  That said, the rubber endcap button does show a little scratching, but, as I said, this thing is two years old, give or take a little.  After growing up on "standard" flashlights with their on-off switches on the body of the light, the endcap button took a little getting-used-to, but I definitely prefer it due to the natural and strong grip over the item.  And did I mention it was bright?  Oh, and that I have not changed out its batteries once during its two years of use?  And that I have not been able to kill it, even though I have managed to destroy two separate MagLights over the years?  Its holster bit the big one relatively quickly - the elastic on the sides gave out - but the light itself is still in beautiful working order.  And bright.  This is not a self-defense flashlight... it lacks the endcap crenelations found on many SureFire units, but if you were to thwack someone with this thing, it would certainly win...  and blind them to boot.  Damn good flashlight, and I do not think I can recommend it enough - especially since it is considerably cheaper than its SureFire bretheren, but almost in the same category/classification, so far as I can tell.  Focusing and color-changing would be nice, but something to quibble over, and not a sufficient detractor from a fine piece of engineering. 

And now for the last, and least, flashlight - also an Inova product - the Microlight.  This little thing is perfect for a keychain, and more than powerful enough to find your door lock, something you dropped on the ground in the dark, and anything else within about six feet.  Again, no color-change from its standard blue (though they are sold in other colors), and no focusing, but on something this small, what do you expect?  It has three settings - full on, low-power-on, and flashing, so you can tailor it to meet your situation, though I do have one major gripe with it - the button is sensitive enough that it just randomly comes on in my pocket.  God alone knows how long its little button-cell batteries (two of them, CR2016 style), but it certainly is useful to have a light on one's keychain - you would never know until you have one. 

So there you have it - all of the portable light-generating items I use, besides my car.  If you have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment, and I will try my best to answer it.  After spending two hours on this post, I desperately need to get something to eat, and probably missed something important/interesting to boot...  That would be me, after all.