ST. CLOUD - Drones are one of the hottest Christmas gifts in the country this year and the St. Cloud metro area is no exception.

Jason Wester is a manager at Baker's Hobbytown in Waite Park. He says they've seen a steady rise in drone sales during the holidays.

"It is going to probably be this years number one gift under the Christmas tree. Some little drones can be no larger than a silver dollar and we have other drones that scale up in size that have cameras on them."

Drones made national headlines this week with the announcement that the federal government is requiring them to be registered online by February 19th. The law, effective December 21, requires registration, and you could be subject to civil and criminal penalties if you don't register.

The Federal Aviation Administration says the registration is due to increasing reports about drones flying close to aircraft. The FAA has been getting more than 100 reports per month about drones flying near planes.

Wester says the new registration rule hasn't slowed down drone sales.

"At first when I'm having these conversations with people, they can be a little weary about the larger ones. But by the time we're done having the discussions, people aren't concerned about the registration at all."

An estimated 1.6 million small unmanned aircraft will be sold this year.

You can register a drone by clicking here.

-This story was written with information from the Associated Press-

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