Are you still using handwritten lists, Word documents, or emails as your Christmas list? Sure, it may be tried and true, but that's the old-school way of doing things. Do yourself and your loved ones a favor and use an Amazon Wish List instead.

There are a handful of benefits to using an Amazon Wish List as your Christmas list:

• The gifter will probably buy your gift on Amazon anyway: Coming up on last year's Christmas, 76% of shoppers said they would do most of their Christmas shopping on Amazon. At that point, it just makes sense to have an Amazon Wish List.
• The gifter knows exactly what product you want: When you add items to your Amazon Wish List, you'll know that the gifter will see the exact item you want, so there's a low chance of getting the wrong gift.
• You don't have to worry about getting the same gift twice: After someone buys something off of your wish list, it will disappear so that no one else buys the same item again.
• Your list is updated automatically when you add to it: Whenever you add a new product to your wish list, anyone with access to your list will automatically see that new product on your list.
• It's really easy to share your list with whomever you want: All you have to do is copy the share link and give that to anyone wanting your Christmas list.

Creating an Amazon Wish List

After you're logged into your Amazon account, start by going up to "Accounts & Lists" and then select "Your Lists."

Up toward the top-right corner of the window, click on "Create a List" if you don't already have one.

Next, choose "Wish List" and then give the list a name. After that, be sure to mark the list as "Private."

With the list created, you're ready to add items to it! On any product page, click on the arrow next to "Add to List" over on the right-hand side of the window.

From there, select your Christmas list from the drop-down menu. That item will instantly be added to the list.

Sharing Your Amazon Wish List

To share your Amazon Wish List with friends and family, open up the list and then click on "Send List to Others" up toward the top-right corner.

From the pop-up window, you can email it or copy the link and paste it in a text message.

Whoever has that link will be able to view your Christmas list and buy anything from it.

What About Items from Other Websites?

While Amazon sells pretty much anything and everything, there might be unique products that you want to put on your Christmas list that Amazon doesn't sell. This is where the Amazon Assistant browser extension comes into play.

After you install it, you can go to the website that sells the product and then use Amazon Assistant to add the item to your Amazon Wish List.

Once added, instead of a Buy button for a typical Amazon product, the gifter will click on "Shop This Website" to be taken to the product page of the item you want, even though it's on a completely different website.