I have been thinking for sometime I would like to give some shares of stock in St. Elias as Christmas presents to family but could not figure out how to do it until now. I even called Scottrade to see if there was a way to do it in this electronic age, that is buy stock in their name. The answer was no.

However, I mulled it over in my mind and have come up with a way to do it and thought others might be interested and want to do the same. The idea is to buy stock in your own name, in your own account, make up your own stock certificate of sorts online (got any artists in the family?), and give it as a sort of promissory note to the effect that when you sell those shares down the road you will give them whatever 10, 20, 30, or 40 shares (whatever number you choose) are worth at that time. If some of you guys who make educated guesses on the value of what our shares will be worth down the road are right even 10 shares could bring hundreds to a few thousands of dollars and prove to be one of the best gifts you could give a family member who is finding money tight.

Buy them 10 shares this way and say those shares are sold for $300 each. A $3,000 Christmas present is pretty nice even if it ends up coming down the road in July or whenever. (You might want to put on your certificate that you make up that you will deduct a certain percentage to cover taxes before handing over the cash.)

You might also want to put on your certificate the date you purchased the shares and the price you paid per share. Why? It could be that our shares will be worth a whole, whole lot more by Christmas than they are now. How do you justify giving a gift of far more value than you ever have given in the past? You do it by saying and proving you never paid anyways near that amount of money for them. After all let us say we get $300 per share and you buy a son or daughter or grandchild 10 shares now. That ends up being a $3,000 Christmas gift. People I associate with do not give $3,000 Christmas gifts but you know what, you can buy 10 shares now for around $20. They get a $3,000 gift (or whatever) and it cost you $20 and you can prove it. I am going to do a little Christmas shopping next week, Lord willing, as soon as the deposit I made into my account today clears enabling me to do so.

Please no good news next week. Keep that share price down.