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It's a question I dread more and more every year, because I have to think harder and harder for an answer. Well, an answer that isn't "money."

This year, my first thought was the thing I'd spend some of that money on: beer. This frigid season marks the release of many beers in one of my favorite styles, imperial stouts and porters, which also happens to be one of the priciest styles. So I told my stepmom about a few that are either on shelves now or arriving there soon. 

She said she'd keep her eye out for them. And then she said something that stuck with me.

My stepmom said my beer wish list reminded her of decades ago, when I'd ask her to track down another elusive item to deliver under our family Christmas tree: action figures.

Where once she would scour Toys "R" Us and K-B Toys for Star Wars and X-Men characters, now she'll scour Wegmans and bottle shops for Founders' Canadian Breakfast Stout.

Still, I might not have thought much about the similarity if it wasn't for a strange coincidence. And that was the to Genesee Center, across from Thirsty Pug Craft Beer Market, earlier this month. The toy shop features many of the action figures I collected as a child, including those very Star Wars and X-Men characters.

The sight of the action figures I used to collect across from the beers I now collect drove the similarity home. First, of course, it made me think my personality is maybe a bit too compulsive. But it also made me think that the craft beer industry is speaking to the same compulsion in others — if not courting it directly.

The timeline tracks: Like me, many craft beer fans in their 20s and 30s grew up with cards, action figures and other collectibles. And craft beer has enough in common with them to make it a new collector's paradise for that older audience: product scarcity, attractive package art and even a means of flaunting one's collection in Untappd.

Don't get me wrong: I still love to drink craft beer, superficialities be damned. Nor is this to say that all craft beer fans are sublimating some youthful collector impulse into their purchasing behavior. I may even be the only one. But, somehow, I doubt it.

And I don't know when we'll outgrow it.

What's on tap

Mark Grimaldi and Joe Shelton's King Ferry brewery is now canning 16-ounce containers of any beer it has on draft, for takeout purchase. With the ability to fill cans directly from their brite tank, the brewery will also offer limited runs of four-packs, Grimaldi and Shelton said. And as soon as their labels are designed, Aurora Ale & Lager will begin wholesaling cases.

New at the brewery is a dry-hopped rye IPA, formerly known as Ray-Ray. Grimaldi and Shelton are also aging a Belgian quad in whiskey barrels for release in mid- to late December. It'll be about 10-percent ABV, they said.

Derric and Kristen Slocum's Weedsport brewery will also be releasing limited amounts of four-packs of 16-ounce cans, they said. Dates will be posted to Lunkenheimer's Facebook page.

The brewery will also attend the fifth annual New York Craft Brewers Festival at the Landmark Theatre in Syracuse Dec. 2. And, making use of its farm brewery license, Lunkenheimer has recently added a small list of wine, cider and craft cocktails to its drink menu.

Dawn and Marc Schulz's downtown Auburn brewpub recently released a few new creations from brewer Ben Maeso: Good Behavior pale ale, hoppy Kolsch Meestah Calista and Riot Down Under, Prison City's first New England-style double IPA.

Maeso and assistant brewer Rob Bowen also recently went to Barrier Brewing Co. in Oceanside, Long Island, for a collaboration IPA that combines Prison City's Mass Riot with Barrier's Money. The result, Bug Juice, was released at Barrier this week and will come to Auburn in the next couple of weeks.

Last, Prison City recently announced its third anniversary event Tuesday, Dec. 19. More details will be posted to the brewpub's Facebook page.