In this article:
Meet our panelists
Best of season
Classic toys
Talkin' Shop: More advice and online picks

Survive the Quest for the Perfect Gift

Richard Hatch and Sue Hawk of Survivor fame sit among some of this year's hottest gifts. Find out more about them in Best of season

Even if you've been stranded on a deserted island, You know the holidays are just around the corner. USA WEEKEND assembles a panel of the nation's best shoppers to help.

Holidays are about tradition -- a tradition of running around and agonizing, which leaves shoppers perplexed about how to purchase a perfectly conceived present: Little Jimmy's sweater sports a solid fit, but he's into the baggy look; the boss had a lukewarm reaction to that cute coffee cup (she prefers bottled water); and the significant other has little use for fancy business attire -- the office just went casual. To ease the process, USA WEEKEND has gathered expert shoppers for a first-ever holiday forum. In the discussion, it's clear that mistakes are made because our thinking -- not the products -- falls short. But the good news is that with a touch of creativity and homework, a dud can turn into a delight.

Our distinguished panelists: celebrity shopper Allana Baroni; Neiman Marcus holiday catalog queen Ginger Reeder; "Gift Guru" author Robyn Freedman Spizman; and online shopping entrepreneur Hilary Billings, of RedEnvelope.com. Without further ado, here's the holiday dish from these gift-giving divas:

How do you shop for the person who has everything?

Spizman: "One can never get enough fine food. They may have everything, but they still have to eat. I like sending honeybell oranges in January. They'll enjoy them long after the holiday fruitcake is already eaten."
Baroni: "Think of pairing good gifts: For that high-energy, multi-tasking CEO, consider a handcarved rocking chair with a great, first-edition novel, along with a note saying, 'Take time to enjoy a good book.' These are people who are impressed by style."

How do you avoid the time pressures of holiday shopping?

Billings: "If you think about gift-giving all year long and 'hold' presents until the holidays, it's a much nicer way to go about it. After Thanksgiving is a tough time to shop. The crowds are terrible. And, with online shopping, it's much smoother to do it earlier than the post-Thanksgiving rush. Just before the holidays, you want to think about entertaining people and enjoying your family. Not shopping."
Reeder: "Absolutely. I listen to what people say throughout the year. I had an associate of mine say offhand in fall that he loves peanut brittle. Well, that will be his gift this year. A gift should reflect that you listen to them and you care about what they say."

How do you stay trendy and new without succumbing to clichéd gifts?

Reeder: "It's tough. At Neiman Marcus, we have a committee of six people who review the gifts I come up with. If anyone says, 'I've seen it before,' it's the kiss of death. So you ask for a lot of help from all kinds of places. Every time I go to a party, I ask people what presents they fantasize about."
Billings: "Pick things that will always be in style. Certain items -- a lovely cashmere sweater -- will last forever. People are realizing it's better to have fewer, wonderful things than to constantly get things that are suddenly in style."

How do you surprise someone with whom you've lived for years and know everything about?

Spizman: "The manner in which you give a gift can make it so much greater. In the morning, while your significant other is sleeping, take yarn and tie it to the gift, hide it, then unravel the ball of yarn throughout the house. Then take the other end and tie it to the bed. When they wake up, slip them a note saying, 'Follow me anywhere.' Make them follow the string until they get to the present."
Baroni: "The presentation and gift can be funny, romantic, thought-provoking or practical. The main thing is that it has meaning behind it. A parka packed with fake snow, along with an invitation to a snowball fight, is a gift that brings a smile as well as something material. Give new shoes, along with dance lessons. Something you can do together and make like Fred and Ginger."

How do you shop for a person with no discernible interests?

Baroni: "If they have kids, give to them instead. Something that inspires creativity -- say, a lunchbox filled with arts and crafts items."
Spizman: "Give gifts with lots of choices. Go to Flooz.com and buy a gift certificate they can use at dozens of stores. Or give a prepaid calling card. Everybody makes long-distance calls. If you travel, it's great to use a card."

How do you shop for friends, co-workers and relatives for whom exchanging gifts has long ago become a tedious habit?

Spizman: "Start a new tradition. Maybe it's time to draw names and limit the budget. It's more economical, and you can give one great gift instead of worrying about what to buy for everybody. When is it time to end the old tradition? That depends upon the feelings of those involved. When it's no longer joyful, it may be time for a change."
Billings: "Come up with a gift that you'll buy every year and become known for. We get a huge box of delicious pears every year from an aunt. She gives it to everyone in the family. She has established this as her tradition, and we look forward to it every year."

Our Distinguished Panelists

RedEnvelope.com founder Hilary Billings is the visionary for the upscale shopping site that custom designs your gift giving -- whether you're shopping for the gadget geek, the adventurer or the jet-setter on your list.

Neiman Marcus' Ginger Reeder hunts down all of the items showcased in the immensely popular Neiman Marcus Christmas Book. From $225 cashmere mittens to a $175, 2-square-inch "desk TV" to a $20 million, 380-ton submarine that sleeps 11.

Hollywood shopper Allana Baroni buys gifts for Kevin Spacey, Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, Harrison Ford and a host of other A-listers. One memorable present: A $10,000, big-screen virtual golf game for Clint Eastwood.

Author Robyn Freedman Spizman (right), of The Perfect Present: The Ultimate Gift Guide For Every Occasion: Spizman is the "Gift Guru" who has appeared on CNN, CNNfn, Oprah Winfrey's Oxygen Network and many other programs.

Best of the season

Whether we're cruising a mall, clicking a mouse or thumbing a catalog, these are some of the items many will be buying this season:

TOYS

Those old Tonkas seem passé. An F-150 Hercules truck (Nikko America, $190) is controlled by radio. Dragonfly, a remote-control vehicle is part car, part insect (Toymax Inc., $99.99).

Classic icons are undergoing New Millennium makeovers. There's the Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Bar Factory (Wham-O, $30); and LEGO's Championship Challenge, in which kids move miniature soccer players around a field they've built (LEGO, $50).

Tickle Me Elmo returns as Let's Pretend Elmo, who takes on five different personas depending on how he's posed (Fisher-Price, $29.99). Check out the details on the new Elmo at Amazon.

Give a pet for the Digital Ages: Poo-Chi -- which eToys (800-463-8697) predicts will enjoy Furby-sized popularity is an interactive pup who wags his tail, gnaws his bone and even sings (Tiger Electronics, $19.99).

Similarly, from Manley Toy Quest comes Tekno the Robot Puppy ($34.99).

FOR THE ENTHUSIAST

Celebrities are into knitting these days, says Hollywood shopper Baroni. So give it a try with a carry-along sewing, needlepoint or knitting organizer (Solutions, 1-800-342-9988 $12.50).

For cooks, there's a crème brûlée set complete with heart-shaped ramekins, recipes and a chef's torch for caramelizing the sugar topping (Cooking.com, (800-663-8810) $79.95).

For scrapbookers, Sticker Planet offers The Big Idea Book of Designs ($12), complete with papers, stickers and borders ($2 and up).

For Fido, a battery-operated "fetch machine" that chucks tennis balls to him (PETsMART, 888-839-9638 $99.99).

For kitty, an electromagnetic cat door that's controlled by magnets in her collar (PETsMART, $49.99).

JCPenney (800-222-6161) offers Street Flyers, billed as "the world's first combination sneaker and in-line skate" with retractable wheels built into platform sneakers ($99.99).

ELECTRONICS

It's gizmo-rama out there: DVDs are the runaway favorite (see page 12), followed by CD recorders, digital cameras, cellular phones, desktop and notebook PCs, digital cameras and camcorders, and home and car stereo systems.

Everything old is new again. That fond, old pogo stick has gone digital in Competition Pogo, with an electronic readout to count bounces ($42.95, electricodyssey.com (888-333-8829).

Size matters, and bigger isn't necessarily better. Sony's Network Walkman measures about 3x1 inches, weighs an ounce and a half -- and can hold two hours of downloaded music ($300).

Shoppers want their gadget gifts to be techno-chameleons: CD Shower Companion, a watertight CD player/radio can also pipe in sound from TV broadcasts (Sharper Image, 800-344-4444 $189.95). Snap on different Springboard modules and the Visor personal digital assistant transforms into an MP3 music player, a digital camera and more (Handspring, from $149).

BOOKS

For those who couldn't get enough of Survivor,

Check out Richard's book at Amazon

there's 101 Survival Secrets: How to Make $1,000,000, Lose 100 Pounds, and Just Plain Live Happily, by Rich Hatch (The Lyons Press, $12.95).

And for everything you ever wanted to know about the Fab Four, there's The Beatles Anthology (Chronicle Books, $60).

FOR A GOOD CAUSE

You can give to a person and a noble effort, as well. Bloomingdale's (800-777-0000) offers a snowglobe full of Manhattan landmarks, complete with a Times Square ball that really drops ($39.98); part of the proceeds go to Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS.

Let your hound carry her own refreshments in a canine backpack ($65) and The Black Dog (800-626-1991) donates all profits to train seeing eye and other service dogs.

FOOD AND FLOWERS

Our expert panel agrees: When it doubt, fine food is a winning choice. With that in mind:

Allen Brothers, (800-957-0111) longtime suppliers to top steakhouses, will send monthly shipments of prime-cut entrees for four (six months, $529).

Send a favorite couple a romantic lobster feast for two, complete with candles (Clambake Celebrations, 877-792-7771 $117).

From the mild Maui Onion to the lethal Devil's Dew, Salsa Express (800-437-2572) packs 12-jar salsa samplers at every heat level ($54.95).

For a sensory delight sans the calories, send "a season of orchids," three monthly installments of the delicate blooms (Calyx & Corolla, 800-800-7788 $89).

Patricia Edmonds is editorial director of techies.com, a job search and information site for technology professionals.

Classic Toys

For the kid in all of us that comes out at Christmas, toymakers are bringing back the beloved playthings of generations past:

• The original Lincoln Logs set styled after the 1916 version.

  The red-and-ivory Radio Flyer tricycle, complete with chrome bell and handlebar tassels (age 2-1/2+, L.L. Bean, 800-221-4221 $65).
• The original Lincoln Logs, invented in 1916 by Frank Lloyd Wright's son, John (collector's edition, Hammacher Schlemmer, 800-543-3366 $99.95).
• The Easy-Bake Oven, restyled to look like a pink-and-purple-trimmed microwave but still baking its tiny desserts under a light bulb (age 8+, Hasbro, $19.99).
• And from Back to Basics Toys (now a part of the Amazon.com/toys (800-356-5360) empire), try the circa-1917 gyroscope with its gravity-defying tricks (age 5+, $5.99).
• The original Slinky, devised by an engineer in 1943 after he knocked a spring off his desk and watched it, well, slink across the floor (age 6+, $4.99).

• The 1943 Slinky keeps on springing

  From the Happy Trails of 1956, there's a Roy Rogers guitar, in numbered limited edition (age 4+, $29.99).
• From 1960, the Original Creepy Crawler Workshop -- heat day-glo goop in metal molds to turn out custom-colored bugs (age 8+, $24.99).
• The original Chatty Cathy is back, with her period blond pageboy and aproned frock (age 14+ $79.99).
• Mousetrap, the game that builds an elaborate contraption to catch a tiny plastic rodent (age 6+, $15.99).
• Little engineers can celebrate the centennial of the Lionel train company with a Santa Fe train and track set, complete with light-up dome car (age 8+, $249.99).

Photos by SHAWN HENRY for USA WEEKEND ("Survivors"); MICHAEL SCHWARTZ for USA WEEKEND (Spizman)