The coolest and most useful gift I got this year was a set of personal walkie talkies that uses the PMR446 standard
The PMRs have a max range of 5 km which is good enough for most uses. I saw someone using a pair on the ferry to Corsica this summer. Mobile phones were useless in the middle of the sea but it allowed the families traveling together to stay in touch on the boat.
They should be perfect for going skiing as well since the local ski resort has lousy GSM reception but it is small enough to be covered by the PMRs.
(P.S. I posted this a week late due to spammers)