Dear Readers: Every year, right about this time, I get scores of e-mails from men and women asking for recommendations for last-minute, family-friendly holiday gift ideas. And every year I have the opportunity to evaluate literally hundreds of products and services. So, just in time for the holidays, here are some of my top picks.

Let's start with the winners of the Holiday 2007 Mr. Dad Seal of Approval. This is a program I started about two years ago to recognize products and services that support one of my missions: to improve father-child relationships by giving men the resources, tools and information they need to be the fathers they want to be. Knowing that most dads would gladly trade a dozen ties and picture frames for a few more hours with their children and family, my team of evaluators and I considered more than 75 entries and came up with a short list of winners. Here are just a few of our favorites:

- The Original Fortamajig, from The Happy Kid Company. The Fortamajig is a durable 8-foot-by-8-foot square of colorful, ripstop nylon, complete with doors and windows. Together, dads and kids can build a four-walled fort, a teepee, a tunnel, canopy and almost anything else - indoors or out.

- "Kids Across, Parents Down," written by Jan Buckner Walker. These terrific crossword puzzles are a great way for dads and kids to spend some fun, educational time together. Kids do the "across" clues and parents handle the relatively more-difficult "down" ones. Our testers loved doing these puzzles with their children, and even the kids who had never done a crossword were instantly hooked.

- The Scholastic Video Collection brings 100 of your children's (and your) favorite storybooks to life on DVD and promotes a love for reading. Kids adore watching the stories (with illustrations right out of the books), and dads can feel confident that they're providing their children with quality programming. The set includes "Where the Wild Things Are," "Curious George Rides a Bike," "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom," and "Harold and the Purple Crayon."

- Excitations.com. Instead of focusing on products, this great Web site offers a huge range of experiences that will create lasting memories (for the kids or the entire family), including whitewater rafting, parent-child cooking classes, rock climbing, kids' ski camp, family bike tours, scuba diving, and fitness experiences.