Of course the gift of your time is the best of all: take your friend, mom, brother to lunch, a movie, a play, for a walk.  Or better yet, make him/her dinner, muffins, cake, whatever, and take it to his/her apartment to share.  But just in case this person is sick of you, in a distant city, or you simply want to do something a little out of the ordinary, I've put together a short list of stuff-free gifts that will make your beloveds smile.  This (non)stuff is quality - no eco-craziness here.

1.  Send all of your friends TajTunes.  For $5, a person in India will call your friend and sing a song on the themes of "What's Up," and "Thank You," among others.  They'll record the song and your friend's reaction and email it to you.  I got one a few weeks ago and it made my day.  There's even an NPR segment on the idea - the enterprise's origins are a cute story.

2.  For the video game lover in your life, there's Erik Dewey's e-book Flawless Victory: The Ultimate Guide to Arcade Fighting Game Moves.  $6.25 on Lulu.com. 

3.  Can't afford to give your mom a massage?  Give her a yoga class.  Here in NYC they run about $15-20.  Some of my favorite places include Kula Yoga, Exhale, and the Greenhouse.  For $75, the American Health and Fitness Alliance offers passbooks to yoga, dance, and pilates classes in Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, and New York.  Dozens of studios all over town put free passes in the book in hopes that you'll get hooked and become a regular customer.  Might be good for someone who doesn't have the tried-and-true place they go every time.    

4.  I promise you, despite how professional your local public radio station sounds, it is run on chewing gum and string.  I worked for a while at WNYC and I can attest that pretty much every dime went into their programming.  So give someone a membership and help the station out: $60 will make your friend a member of WNYC and get her the ubiquitous tote; $25-50 will make her a member of KCRW, The Best Radio Station in the World (listen online).  Most stations have ticket giveaways and discounts that guarantee the membership will pay for itself over the course of a year.

5.  Give the man in your life lessons in a dying art: that of the straight razor.  Apparently Freemans Sporting Club downtown offers them for $60 but I couldn't find them listed on the website.

6.  I'm sure your guitar-playing granddad would love a weekend with Jorma Kaukonen (of Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna fame).  Join up with your cousins - and aunts and uncles - to send him to Fur Peace Ranch, Kaukonen's guitar camp outside of Columbus.  Workshops run from Friday to Monday and cost in the neighborhood of $1200. 

(Forgive the NYC-centric nature of this list; I'm hoping you can find equivalents in your city.)