Gaters everywhere are expressing their dismay upon learning that Syfy will not be airing a SGU marathon this Christmas. This year Syfy has decided to ditch its pre-planned Stargate Universe marathon, in lieu of old movies.

Not that we don't love Serenity, but we were hoping that the SGU marathon would build up some new fans. Sure, we've been pretty harsh on this new series, but now our theory that this show just needs to be watched in a giant lump to attract new fans can't be tested out, with a giant day of eating, drinking and catching up on Stargate.

So why did this happen? We haven't found the official answer just yet, but we're hoping that it doesn't mean a lack of faith in the show's marathon potential. It's been a bumpy road, but we hope many of our concerns about the shows pace and female characters has been heard and are being acted upon in the second season. SGU really just needs a few nips, tucks, cuts and a pretty bow to be a series worth of it's gritty realism label. But does canceling the marathon mean the higher ups at Syfy don't think they can depend on it to bring in the viewers Christmas day, more than old films will?

But do not fret fans, Hulu is currently hosting ALL of the episodes from Stargate SG-1. So that's a little something to tide you over the holiday season.

[via Gateworld picture via Joseph Mallozzi's Blog]

Awesome Decorations To Bring The Nerd Cred

Awful Crap. Who Came Up With This? Coal For Everybody.

Rare Exports Inc., a short Finnish film, explains the startling origins behind the legions of mall Santas found across the globe.

Note: Video contains Santa nudity and is thus NSFW.

And its sequel offers instructions for the safe care and handling of your Father Christmas.

And now the notion of Santa as cryptid is getting a feature length treatment. It looks like next December, we'll be seeing a full-length Rare Exports, but the teaser shows something scrawnier and meaner than jolly old Saint Nick. Is this the sinister stuff Father Christmases are made of, or Santa's vicious companion Krampus?

[via Twitch]

We focused on big, awesome, brain-eating box sets for this roundup — so, for example, we didn't include too many sets that were just individual seasons of TV series, if we could recommend the series' complete run in one set instead. And similarly, for movies, we tried to find the sets that would make the most impressive gift. But we also have a ton of suggestions for bargain-basement DVD sets that still make awesome gifts, in these trying economic times.

Movies On DVD: The Best New Box Sets And Gift Sets

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Give Your Friends Enough Television To Ruin Them For Real Life

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10 Cheap-Ass DVD Box Sets That Make Good Ironic Stocking Stuffers:

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We've selected ten types of science fiction fans, offering you great gift ideas for fans of the big franchises, this summer's biggest movies, and even something for the steampunks and zombie lovers. You can also check out our fan gift guide from last year, which also includes gift ideas for fans of Battlestar Galactica, Harry Potter, and Batman.

Gifts for the Star Wars Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Star Trek Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Transformers Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the GI Joe Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Doctor Who Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Joss Whedon Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Terminator Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Vampire Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Steampunk Fan (Gallery-free view)

Gifts for the Zombie Fan (Gallery-free view)

Additional gift ideas by Meredith Woerner.

The images are by Stephen Hayford, who has been meticulously creating amazingly sweet Star Wars dioramas for the holidays for years now.

[Hayford via Star Wars]

“The Best Christmas Ever” by James Patrick Kelly: The last man on Earth tends to get depressed about his post-apocalyptic existence. So Aunty Em, one of the biops tasked with keeping him company, tries to cheer him up by having Christmas. But the only thing the last man wants for Christmas is a gun.

“The Star” by Arthur C. Clarke: An expedition to a far off star system discovers that the first Christmas was itself apocalyptic. The Star of Bethlehem shone so brightly on the night Jesus was born because it had gone supernova long before, killing all the inhabitants of an orbiting planet. That God would kill one civilization to light the night sky causes the journey’s Jesuit priest to experience a crisis of fate, but in The Twilight Zone adaptation, the civilization was aware of the significance of the supernova and accepted their fate without regret.

Peace on Earth: This 1939 cartoon from MGM was nominated for an Academy Award and, according to some reports, the Nobel Peace Prize (although the latter is likely just a widespread rumor). In a post-apocalyptic world populated entirely by animals, Christmas is still celebrated. When a pair of young squirrels ask who the “men” are in the carol lyric “good will to men,” their grandfather tells them about the pugnacious humans and the war that finally killed them off.

Good Will to Men: MGM had the cartoon remade in 1955 by none other than William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Thus time, a group of mice learn that mankind destroyed itself in a thermonuclear war, leaving animals to pick up the pieces of civilization.

Judge Dredd “Red Christmas”: A Judge in one of the Mega-Cities where the remnants of humanity dwell, Joe Dredd would rather spend Christmas hunting down criminals than exchanging gifts. But his fawning house droid, Walter the Wobot, insists on a small holiday party.

Woops! “Say It Ain’t So Santa”: After a nuclear holocaust wipes out most of humanity, a small group of survivors celebrate Christmas in an attempt to cling to some sense of normality. But the festivities take a disturbing turn when they discover Santa Claus, sole survivor of the North Pole, stuck in their chimney.

Cleopatra 2525 “Choices”: The midrift-baring trio of women explores the lower levels of the underground tunnels and discover Christmas Town, an artificial environment designed to resemble 20th Century Earth’s winter, but perpetually decorated with brightly colored lights.

“Vexed to Nightmare by a Rocking Cradle” by Dan Simmons: After an unnamed apocalypse, a tribe of people continue to celebrate Christmas, raiding old warehouses for gifts and cans of fruit. When a televangelist-worshipping missionary comes to deliver the Word of God, they don’t suspect the man comes with bloody intentions.

The Last Christmas by Gerry Duggan and Brian Posehn: After a nuclear war transforms much of humanity into zombies, a group of renegade humans end up killing Mrs. Claus. The despondent Santa realizes he can’t die as long as there are good children who believe in him. He sets out to break the spell of his immortality, but ends up cutting a swath through the legions of undead.

“Christmas at Ground Zero” by Weird Al Yankovic: Weird Al gleefully sings about a world-ending nuclear attack on Christmas Day, during which we will apparently, duck and cover:

Santron (The Avengers “Yes, Virginia, There is a Santron”): Virginia Hanlon was one of those kids who never got over the fact that Santa isn’t real. So as an adult, she builds Santron out of parts from Ultron-6. But Santron has some residual superhero-hating memory and decides to attack the Avengers. His only weakness? Holiday cookies.

Multiple Santa (The Tick “The Tick Loves Santa!”): Around the holidays, a thief dresses as Santa to elude the police. A run-in with a neon sign transforms him into Multiple Santa, giving him the ability to endlessly duplicate himself. The ever thick-skulled Tick naturally thinks the villain is the real Santa and finds himself powerless to stop him.

Robot Santa (Futurama “Xmas Story”): Mom’s Friendly Company built a robot Santa to judge the people of Earth and dole out presents to the nice and punishments to the naughty. But Santa’s standards proved too high and he judges everyone (save Dr. Zoidberg) as naughty, forcing people to board up their houses on Christmas Eve to escape his wrath. In a later episode, Bender takes up the Santa mantle with homicidal relish.

Boomer Katz (Batman “Wanted: Santa Claus – Dead or Alive”): Boomer Katz is a two-bit thief who takes a job as a department store Santa so he can rob the store. But in the spirit of the season, he has a change of heart, and Batman has to save him from the mob.

Brainstorm (Top 10): In a city where everyone has superpowers, a psychokinetic name William “Brainstorm” Bernhardt escapes from a psychiatric facility. Thinking he’s Santa Claus, he uses his ability to make reindeer fly (frightening one of them to death) and, with a small army of children, deems people he encounters naughty or nice. A ruling of “naughty” usually ends in property damage.

Cyber-Claus (“Cyber-Claus” by William Gibson): On Christmas Eve, a small invading force is detected closing in on DC. The sensors detect one biped and eight tiny quadrapeds. But before the defense forces can learn more, the heavyset invader is already slipping down the chimney.

User Santa (ReBoot “Firewall”): Whenever the User wins a game played in Mainframe, a chunk of the city is destroyed. In one game, the User plays Santa Claus, and Enzo and AnrAIa, playing as Snowmen, must defeat him to protect Mainframe.

Demon Santa (Buffy the Vampire Slayer): The Scooby Gang never actually encounters Santa, which is probably all for the best. Ex-demon Anya mentions in passing that Santa is not only real, he’s a fearsome demon who comes down the chimney to disembowel children. But at least he’s got reindeer.

Robot Santas (Doctor Who “The Christmas Invasion” and “The Runaway Bride”): Christmas invasions are practically routine in Doctor Who’s London. Robot Santas herald the coming of the Sycorax, hunting down the weakened Doctor to clear the path for invasion. The following Christmas, they are employed by the Empress of the Racnoss and, in addition to trying to thwart the Doctor, rig a Christmas tree with deadly, deadly ornaments.

Post-Apocalyptic Santa (Woops! “Say It Ain’t So Santa”): Santa proves to be one of the few survivors of a nuclear holocaust that wipes out most of humanity. The six survivors of Woops find Santa in their chimney, but he’s horribly depressed. It turns out that he had locked himself in his bomb shelter, and when he realized Mrs. Claus and the elves were still outside, his instinct for self-preservation seemed to outweigh his desire to save them (although apparently he didn’t really understand how to work the door).

Jack Skellington (The Nightmare Before Christmas: The King of Halloweentown also doesn't fit the bill of actual evil, but he does tend to be pathologically self-absorbed. Jack is a well-meaning, kind-hearted soul, but kidnapping Santa to resolve his identity crisis wasn't his moral high point.

Santa Doom (What The—?! “I’ll Be Doom For Christmas”): When Santa Claus lands on Castle Doom, he is injured by Doom’s defenses and has to take the night off. He implores Victor Von Doom to take his place, giving the supervillain an unlikely costume change.

Santa Zim (Invader Zim “The Most Horrible X-Mas Ever): Learning how much humans love Santa Claus, Zim puts on a Santa suit in his latest effort to conquer the Earth. He successfully takes over, but the suit takes over Zim’s personality, effectively turning him into Santa Claus. After Dib successfully separates Zim from the suit, he hurls it into space, where it transforms into a Santa monster and returns every year to attack the Earth.

Gun-Wielding Santa (“Lobo’s Paramilitary Christmas Special”): The Easter Bunny, sick of Christmas overshadowing the other holidays, hires interstellar bounty hunter Lobo to take out Kris Kringle. And when Lobo reaches the North Pole, he finds that Santa is no less violent.

Godzilla Menorah:
Did your menorah ever crawl out of the depths of the ocean to reek havoc on an unsuspecting city? I think not. This lovely zillanorah is available in the Chrismukka book, a guide for interfaith families.

DIY Star Wars Droidel:

StarWars.com has an adorable Star Wars Droidel Dreidel which is a tiny little R2 unit that you can make all on your own. Picture from Craft Zine.

Spider-Man Stained Glass:

Because Peter Parker has a much more interesting back story than most people you find in stained glass. And also, you can keep it up year round. The art is from Ron's Glass and I really don't know if you can purchase it, but I bet Ron would.

Santa Jack Skellington Ornament:

The Nightmare Before Christmas is becoming as standard for the season as the 24-hour marathon of The Christmas Story,. So even though some of us have a love-hate relationship with the movie, to overlook its adorable tree trimmings would be like having a sober Christmasm thus ending the tradition locking yourself in the basement clutching a sharpie and marked up old yearbooks to the sounds of screaming siblings up stairs. He said our love was forever! Ahem. The ornament is currently on sale at the Disney store for 5.99.

WALL-E:

Also while you hang ornaments on your murdered Christmas tree take a moment to a second and remember to recycle because WALL-E demands it. WALL-E is available at the Disney store as well.

Talking Vader Stocking:

If you have this Talking Vader Stocking you will not be neglected by Santa — GUARANTEED. Plus, for a mere $20 shouldn't your stocking be the best Sith Lord of them all?

Serenity!:

This ornament can also be displayed by stand, so people will know you are awesome year round. For Christmas, I would like my own Nathan Fillion, please.

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Weinbloom.

We've covered every zone of fandom possible - just click the links to find out what will make gift-giving day the Best Day Evar for the scifi nerds of the world.

Gifts for the Star Wars Fan

Gifts for the Star Trek Fan

Gifts for the Battlestar Galactica Fan

Gifts for the Doctor Who Fan

Gifts for the Batman Fan

Gifts for the Harry Potter Fan

Gifts for the Whedonverse Fan

Gifts for the Twilight Fan

Gifts for the Steampunk Fan

Gifts for the Zombie Fan

Obsessed with Star Wars: This book of Star Wars trivia will not only educate you on the Star Wars universe, it will test you on your knowledge. A built-in electronic game quizzes you on 40 randomly selected questions and may prove that you're not as obsessed with Star Wars as you think. Available for $23.96 from Amazon.

Clone Trooper Voice Changer Helmet: Imagine that you're battling the forces of General Grievous with this helmet. Available for $29.99 from Amazon.

Mimobot USB Flash Drives: The 1-8GB flash drives store your data in style. Choose your loved one's favorite character or assemble a small army. Available for $39.95-$109.95 (depending on capacity) from Mimobot.

Serenity Complete and Official Map of the Verse: Plan your smuggling route with this map of the multi-star Serenity Verse. Perfect for learning more about the Verse, roleplaying, or just to hang on your wall. $26.95 from Quantum Mechanix.

Buffy and Serenity Comics: For those who miss Buffy, they can get caught up with the Season Eight comics. The most recent collection, Wolves at the Gate was released last month, following the events of The Long Way Home and No Future for You (You can get all three books from Amazon for $42.18). The second Serenity comic collection Better Days was also released this fall, and takes place between the Firefly television series and the Serenity film ($9.95 from Amazon).

Serenity Ornaments: Tree-having Browncoats can appreciate these Christmas ornaments, which depict the Firefly-class spaceship Serenity. $17.99 from Entertainment Earth.

The Zombie Survival Guide Deck: A handy pocket-sized version of Max Brooks' classic book, these cards offer a quick and easy reference that should prove vital in the even of a zombie outbreak. $12.55 from Amazon.

Dismember Me Plush Zombie: Practice dismembering the undead from the comfort of your desk or home. Tear off the limbs, head, and torso of this zombie toy, and he'll just come back for more. $12.99 from Think Geek.

Brain Gelatin Mold: You may as well practice eating brains with this brain-shaped gelatin mold. The mold creates a gooey, lifelike brain and includes instructions on how make a sugary gray matter substitute. $6.99 from Think Geek.

Cylon Toaster: Celebrate BSG's favorite racial slur each morning. This handsome appliance burns a Cylon centurion head into one side of your toast and the phrase "Frak Off!" into the other. $65.00 from NBC.

BSG Themed Tees: The BSG store at NBC offers a wide range of Galactica-themed apparel, or you can head over Enclothe to grab a "Baltar is My Homeboy" t-shirt. Of course, Neighborhoodies offers these stylish "Cylons are for Lovers Hoodies" designed by your friends at io9.

Cylon Action Figures: If you've got $8590 to spend on your BSG-loving loved one, you could drop it on this life size Cylon Centurion. But an 8" New Caprica Centurion is much more economical ($14.99 from Think Geek), as this Head Six action figure ($20.00 from NBC; also available in Caprica, Apollo, and Hot Dog) and BSG MiniMates ($9.00 from NBC).

Steampunk Anthology: Edited by io9 contributors Jeff and Ann VanderMeer, this anthology features steampunk stories from Neal Stephenson, Michael Chabon, and Michael Moorcock. $10.17 from Amazon.

Extraordinary Engines: Another steampunk themed anthology, Extraordinary Engines also includes stories by Michael Moorcock and Jeff VanderMeer, as well as Stephen Baxter and Ian MacLeod. $7.99 from Amazon.

Handmade Crafts: Handcraft site Etsy is a veritable treasure trove of steampunk-style handmade goods, so you're sure to find something to suit your favorite steampunker. Various prices from Etsy.

Star Trek: Alternate Realities: This five disc set collects 20 episodes from all five Star Trek series that deal with alternate realities, parallel lives, and, of course, the popular Mirror Universe. Available for $27.99 from Amazon.

Phaser and Communicator Set: Put on your primary-colored tunics and put together your away team with this set. These full-sized replicas light up and emit sound effects from the show. Available as a set for $39.99 from Think Geek.

Harry, A History: The True Story of a Boy Wizard, His Fans, and Life Inside the Harry Potter Phenomenon: The webmistress of Harry Potter fansite The Leaky Cauldron, Melissa Anelli traces the history of Potter fandom and tries to explain the meteoric rise of Rowling's books. $10.88 from Amazon.

Varsity Quidditch Apparel: Now that Quidditch has become an intercollegiate sport, players and fans will need to display their allegiance to their favorite team. Gryffindor supporters can pick up their t-shirts and hoodies from CafePress.

The Time Traveller's Almanac: This handy, fully illustrated guide to time-space teaches you all you need to know to about the species, places, and notable figures of the Doctor Who universe, as well as little known "facts" from Earth's own history. $21.94 from Amazon.

Doctor Who Laser Battle Set: Reenact the Doctor's battles against the Master with this set of screwdrivers. Choose the Doctor's sonic screwdriver or the Master's laser screwdriver and try to hit your opponent five times before they hit you. $59.99 from Think Geek.

Dalek Voice Changer Helmet: Have your friends and colleagues cowering behind the sofa by donning this helmet and yelling "Exterminate!" The death beam lights up, but will not actually disintegrate your coworkers. $79.99 from Think Geek.