Here is what you need Mike. It's extremely simple and all you need is a leopard, or snow leopard disk.

1. Turn on the computer.
2. Insert the Mac OS X Install DVD into the optical drive.
3. Press and hold the "C" key while the computer starts up. The computer will start up using the Install media. Alternatively, press and hold the Option key at startup to select the volume containing the installer.
4. Select a language, then press the right arrow key.
5. Click the Utilities menu at the top, then choose Disk Utility.
6. Select a volume to erase (usually called Macintosh HD).
7. Click the Erase tab.
8. Click Erase... :D
9. A dialog box appears asking if you want to erase the partition: click Erase.
10. After the partition is erased, choose Quit Disk Utility from the Disk Utility menu.

At this step you have a clean harddrive on your mac. Nothing exists on it anymore, not even the operating system.

We will now install the clean, like new operating system in the steps below.

11. When the Mac OS X Installer screen appears, click Continue.
12. When the license agreement appears, click Agree.
13. Select the disk you erased. It should now be highlighted with a green arrow.
14. Click Install. A status bar appears on the bottom of the screen while Mac OS X installs.
15. Wait it out, grab a cup of coffee, etc.
16. An Additional Information screen appears, advising you that you operating system has been installed. Click Continue.
17. An Install Succeeded screen appears. Click Restart.

After this step it will do the cool mac intro and ask you to enter the basic information such as where do you live, what is your name, make a username and password, etc. You might want to leave this step to whom ever you are giving the laptop to. After they enter their information how ever they wish, they will be on their brand new desktop. It will be like it was never used. 100% fresh.