Are Christmas Gift Registries Helpful or a Cesspool for Bad Etiquette?

The world of gift-giving is a fragile one. There are more unspoken rules around wedding registries and dollar amounts than we can keep track of, and at what point are you required to stop putting your name on whatever gift your parents end up giving a mom-to-be? Christmas gifts should be easy -- we get some and we give some, done! But figuring out what cousin Johnny's 4-year-old son is into these days changes constantly, so it's nice to get a list from our family members. Or...is it? Some parents are going the extra mile and utilizing websites to make registry-esque lists to send around. Instead of a typical circulated list of toys and the like, now families can log on and select which gift they'll take ownership of and see which have already been claimed, so to speak.