Since the holidays are about being with family and not our video game collections, it's often hard to get in as much DS time as we'd like on such occasions. Even though we might enjoy spending our time with Phoenix Wright more than we like talking to our crazy aunt, sometimes we just don't get a choice in the matter.Does your DS see any action on the holidays, or are you so busy that you tend to neglect it? Perhaps you usually have a long drive to a relative's house that is perfect for some portable gaming? Or maybe you try to keep the holidays strictly about family? If you're anything like us, you might even enjoy showing off your little gadget to family members, no matter how many times they ask you what the "DS" stands for.
What does the DS Lite have in common with a Spider-man Laptop, a Bladerunner Infrared Indoor Helicopter, and the High School Musical Dance Mat? They're all among the top ten most-desired gifts for kids this holiday season at UK electronics retailer Dixons. Don't look among the top ten for any other gaming system, either, not even the Wii -- the DS Lite is the only one that's made the cut. Clearly, kids across the pond have incredible taste.
Amazon is already reporting that 2006 was its "best ever" year for holiday sales -- and the DS Lite led the charge! Though Amazon hasn't yet released specific numbers, they report the handheld clawed past the 360 and the PS2 to claim the online retailer's most hardware sales. When it game to games, New Super Mario Bros. and Brain Age were highlighted as top sellers. Looks like the 
CNN Money's Chris Morris usually has interesting input on the gaming market, but with his Ten Best Gifts for Gamers, he seems to have missed the mark.
Japanese media giant Enterbrain recently surveyed retailers, as reported by Gamefront.de, about their expectations for game system sales this holiday season. We know you're not surprised, but right now? The show is all Nintendo.
This winter, Konami is hedging their bets by releasing a flurry of games on both the PSP and the DS. The upcoming titles Marvel Trading Card Game (trading cards for a handheld? really?) and Xiaolin Showdown will be released for the competing platforms, and Konami is also debuting a pair of games based on the animated series Winx Club. But their real winner, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, is exclusive to the Nintendo DS -- and a good thing, since it makes heavy use of the Nintendo handheld's touchscreen. Anyone wanna guess which console's games will win in this deathmatch? Where did we leave those 
