Most of us don’t do it, but we could stand to spend a bit less on presents and a little more on folks in need. Chances are that Dad wouldn’t mind that the money you would have spent on that sixth necktie was used to fund a few turkey dinners for the homeless. But a peek into this season’s luxury catalogs offers a window into a world of people whose riches could feed and clothe entire cities. Why, we ask, would someone select a perfume not based on scent, but because it’s the world’s most expensive? (Clive Christian’s Number 1 Pure Perfume is $2,350 an ounce, with a diamond on the bottle) Or what about those who can’t be bothered with a caviar-enriched skin cream (when did someone decide caviar was good for the skin?) unless it’s encased in a hand-made jeweled jar for $2,000? Who are the people buying a $6,670 10th-anniversary Fendi bag, we wondered, but were even more amazed when we clicked on the link to find that the baguette was “sold out.” Then there’s the hand-polished titanium Ferrari-designed cell phone, which, at $7,500, is slick, but also appears to lack some of the features offered by smart phones in the $300 range. When a Post-it note just won’t do, the very highly paid executive can opt for a $5,100 sterling silver memo pad. Surfers beware: Clicking on the link to try to find said pad takes you on a wild web ride that, while lovely, is tough to navigate. For the pampered children of said wealthy shoppers, why pound the pavement looking for a Wii when you can buy some oversized Harry Potter toys, including an $1,800 dragon (marked down from $2,400)? Since nothing is too good for the little ones, let them stash their knickknacks in the admittedly cute Boom Cabinet, an artistic $10,000 chest of drawers. The catalog brags it “will last for years to come,” which would be good. Finally, oligarchs can spend Christmas Eve dozing on a handmade Hästens Vividus mattress that costs just under $50,000 - bed frame not included. Is it possible that someone who spends that much money on a mattress may have trouble sleeping at night?

Shopping at Etsy.com, “Your place to buy and sell all things handmade,” feels very different from moseying over to one of the big-box retailers operating online. As you browse Etsy’s virtual boutiques, each representing the wares, crafts and artwork of an individual or collective, you feel as if the seller is right there with you. “Our mission is to enable people to make a living making things and to reconnect makers with buyers,” explains the site, which was launched in 2005. With more than 100,000 sellers from around the world, Etsy seemed ripe for a visit from Shopperati. Here’s what we found. If you click on “Buy” at Etsy’s home page, a list of search options appears. We avoided “Category” because it’s the traditional way to shop. Instead, we started with “Color,” and a cool page of tiny dots appeared. As we moved our mouse around, the dots got bigger, showing their true colors. We clicked on red and were offered a selection of red items for sale, such as a Scarlet Scottie Dog Poncho ($25) and a (not red) Stainless Steel Washer and Square Wire Bracelet ($19; pictured) displayed on a red background. We searched using the “Treasury” filter and discovered a big list of lists - various people’s favorite items from the site. That’s how we found the Zombie Bunny Jumbo Plushie Magnet ($14) on a list called “Zombies and Monsters Christmas List.” The “Pounce” filter, which finds items from venders who recently made sales, returned a remarkable Sterling Tree Necklace ($65 but currently sold out). The “Gift Guides” filter chose several items when we selected “Grandfather” as the recipient. We were pleased with the Business Card Holder made of hardwood and brass ($16.95). There are several other search filters to explore, but you get the idea. Now get over to Etsy and meet your maker.

Oprah may have gone crazy for this “Prestige Collection” of classic movies from United Artists on her TV show recently, but serious DVD collectors — or gift-givers serious enough not to balk at that nearly $900 price tag — might want to think twice. The fact is, practically all of these 90 films have been on DVD for a long time, and many are probably sitting in your collection already. (They’re a mixed bag artistically, but that’s another story.) What you’re really getting here is classy packaging for a company’s back catalog, which is also true for another high-dollar DVD box, “Essential Art House: 50 Years of Janus Films” ($850 retail, $650 when ordered direct from the label). Here, the theme isn’t a single studio but a famed movie distributor, the company that spent the ’60s and ’70s importing artsy foreign films (like the French New Wave landmarks of Godard and Truffaut) to America for the then-burgeoning highbrow market. In the case of “Essential Art House,” the films’ quality is uniformly top-tier, but all 50 titles have been out in attractive Criterion Collection editions for some time. Shoppers who want to spend a bundle on movies their loved ones definitely don’t already own should look instead to the impressive Ford At Fox, which at roughly $300 is around a third the list price of the other two but offers 18 John Ford films that have never been on American DVD before (and quite a few others that have). Alternatively, they could focus their big-ticket DVD spending on a complete TV-series collection. Or they could forsake the monster-set format entirely, focusing instead on smaller but all-new offerings, like the latest Looney Tunes Golden Collection ($64.92) for cartoon fans, the glamorous and witty Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection ($49.98) for devotees of vintage Hollywood comedy, or the marathon production Berlin Alexanderplatz ($124.95) for foreign film lovers who already own many of the titles in that Janus Collection.

Through the year, they entertain you with tales of their exotic voyages. Show them you’re not filled with envy by picking out something useful for the hard-core traveler on your Christmas list. You could start with the clever City Notebook series ($27.95 each), in which popular Moleskine pocket journals come with extra pages (maps, conversion charts, transportation info) tailored to a single city. Their maps are licensed from Lonely Planet, who of course make some of the most helpful and down-to-earth travel resources around. In addition to comprehensive region- and city-specific guide books (prices vary), they also have a new line of pocket-sized Encounter guides that strip popular destinations down to the see/stay/do essentials. Between Lonely Planet and the budget-minded Let’s Go imprint, whose Map Guides make lovely stocking stuffers at $8.95 apiece, your world traveler should be able to get around without looking like a tourist. In our travel experience, a single map is never enough, so it’s comforting to know you can load extras onto a PDA with Delorme’s Street Atlas USA, a $59.95 set of software boasting nationwide maps that can be transferred to smartphones, laptops, and GPS devices; the company also offers standalone GPS tools like the waterproof Earthmate, available in a $369.95 bundle with enough topographical maps to bury a sherpa. Maps aside, the long plane trips to and from these destinations are a lot more bearable with a good set of noise-canceling headphones. In the full-sized, over-ear category, Audio Technica’s $219.95 QuietPoint model performs as well as higher-priced competitors, and boasts a really comfortable fit. For on-the-go types who travel light, an in-ear version like these from Panasonic ($79.99) are compact enough to squeeze into an iPod pouch.

Has unpredictable weather made it hard for you to maintain appropriate levels of holiday spirit? The right Christmas album can help, especially when it’s wafting out of your living-room stereo rather than piping in through department-store speakers. It’s not really a holiday until the melancholy chords of Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas ($14.98) skate by, peppered here and there by the cartoon characters’ voices. Their classic status may only be rivaled by Nat King Cole — the famous The Christmas Song is only one of the standards that Cole makes his own on a collection ($18.98) that was freshly remastered not long ago. Aside from Cole, few other singers are as closely identified with the season as Bing Crosby; of the plentiful compilations of his Yuletide offerings, this one, at $11.99, appears to offer the best selection for the price. A slightly wider mid-century variety can be had on Christmas with the Rat Pack ($18.98), where Frankie, Dino, and Sammy finger-snap their way through the classics. Hipster’s Holiday ($17.98) offers an eclectic and occasionally irreverent lineup, including Eartha Kitt’s seductively greedy Santa Baby. If you simply must have some seasonal novelty tunes, this collection selected by Dr. Demento ($17.98) is probably the way to go, and it does offer gems like Bob & Doug McKenzie’s Twelve Gifts of Christmas. Still, we can’t be held responsible for any violence that might erupt upon repeated playing of track 3, the barking-dog version of Jingle Bells.

They’re sexy, they’re current and now most of them are moms. The Spice Girls are back in the spotlight, thanks to a headline-making world tour and a new CD. The album, The Spice Girls Greatest Hits CD, costs $12 at Victoria’s Secret online. While you’re shopping at the site, consider indulging your inner Spice Girl and getting a ribbon-and-lace-festooned peek-a-boo teddy. This fragile little garment is $48 and comes in sizes S-L. More forgiving of a wider range of body types are Victoria’s Secret satin pajamas. These are sleek, shiny and seductive but not too revealing. The pajamas come in short, regular and long, XS to XL, and are on sale for $49.50.  Sleepwear which is more comfy than come-hither can be found at The Cat’s Pajamas. Their best-selling set is the “yummy sushi” flannel pajamas, which feature drawings and names of various types of sushi. These pjs have made appearances on the TV shows Will & Grace and Buffy The Vampire Slayer,”and are $86 each. Finally, if all you really want to do in bed is sleep, ask someone to give you a Brookstone Power Nap Pillow. Fans of this $50 supersoft pillow claim it’s like sleeping on a cloud.

Looking for some goodies for the kids in your life that don’t involve a video-game console or a brand-name beauty queen? The net’s awash with options, many of which will set brain cells sparking in addition to, you know, being fun. Plenty of the offerings at retailers like Brain Builders and Fat Brain Toys are straight-up educational toys, like variations on the electronics and chemistry kits that have been around for decades. In the middle ground between edu-kits and toys is gear like the Zero Blaster (available in a line ranging from the $7.95 Mini to a $29.95 Mighty Blaster), which uses “fog fluid” and an air gun to create a “toroidal vortex” that, in addition to demonstrating some interesting principles of physics, looks really cool. If you’d like to avoid the “batteries not included” scene entirely, try the latest twists on the construction-toy formula: The multicolored, translucent little bricks in a Pixelblocks set (from $8 to $40) go a step beyond normal building blocks by working in three dimensions — that is, they not only snap to the top and bottom of other blocks, but they can link, chain-like, into the sides as well. If PB is the Lego of the 21st Century, then Zome (kits from around $14 to $150) is the Tinkertoy, using a special connector ball to allow stick figures to branch off in scores of directions. Zome is straightforward enough for young kids to enjoy, but as this page explains, mathematicians and chemists have been known to use Zome to model theoretical objects and microscopic proteins. When was the last time you heard of kids taking their Barbie dolls off to grad school?

Baggage carousels nationwide are filled with black, brown and gray suitcases. Tired travelers strain their eyes at the conveyor belts full of luggage, hoping to pick out their black medium-size suitcase among hundreds of others.
 You can avoid this problem – and express your personality, too – by buying brightly colored luggage for yourself or a loved one or friend. Online retailers have a rainbow of selections this season. These vivid tones make duffel bags and suitcases easier to find, and are vastly nicer to look at than the same old black bags. At the luxury end of the spectrum, Hartmann offers a Luxe retro carry-on in “sugarplum” (it looks like purple) for $425. The Luxe 22’’ expandable mobile traveler comes in chocolate polka dot (brown polka dots on a green background), for $695, and includes a removable garment sleeve with hanger, zip pouch, laundry bag, padlock with key and custom leather luggage tag.  Some women really love red (on their car, on their nails, so why not on their luggage?) Luggage.com has a wheeled cherry-red duffel bag for $79.99. The same web site sells a neon green upright suitcase, part of the Samsonite Sahora Brights line, for $209.99. Suitcases don’t have to come in solids, either. Bag n Baggage has a collection from Kipling, called Vesuvio Cherry, which contains a wheeled backpack ($198), snap tote ($72) and 30’’ wheeled duffel ($300), all in a vibrant striped pattern of pink, red and white.
Women who prefer pastels have many choices too. Bric’s Ego has a 30-inch hardside spinner suitcase in pink ($415 from Bag N Baggage) with a hard polycarbonate shell. Ebags.com sells various Delsey items in a variety of colors, including an “expandable trolley” (rolling suitcase) in either seafoam green, light pink, red or blue, currently 20 percent off for $95.99. You - or your loved one - will be the envy of the carousel watchers.