You rack your brain for days trying to think of the perfect Christmas gift for that special someone on your list. You fight the traffic in the mall parking lot, stand in line at the cashier's counter or, if you are a Web shopper, send your credit card number floating into cyberspace.

You do this in the hopes that the gift will be appreciated and, hopefully, used.

Some gifts, though, you hope go unused.

A roadside car emergency kit might not have "Holy Cow!" appeal under the tree, but it will win major points the first time it is deployed.

For roughly $25 to $80, you can get a canvas bag with jumper cables, a small compressor, some tools, gloves, flares and reflective devices, first aid supplies, a small shovel and other knickknacks at a variety of outlets like nextag.com or amazon.com. Or, you can cobble one together yourself and personalize it.

It's the kind of gift that will make prompt a lot of stories from the "I wish I'd had one of those..." vein.