Due to postal rush and the amount of fraud that happens around the christmas holiday, I would not risk buying an ebay gift. Ebay is good for lots of things, but this isn't one of them.
The only way I would use Ebay to buy a gift for a person is if I couldn't find it in stores. I have actually been considering this for one of my gifts for my mother. She has been looking everywhere for a certain DVD, and she can't find it in stores anymore. I have been thinking about looking at one of the movie organizations that use Ebay that I have used before and seeing if I can get it from there. I don't worry if it's from a legitimate business. This close to Christmas, though, I wouldn't be buying from individuals unless I had bought from them before.