It's never too late: if you're stumped about what's the best gift for certain loved ones, the answer may be to spend your holiday cash in a way that's best for the cause. (Last Minute Gifts).

Gifts that matter

Here's how to assuage your guilt about waiting until the last minute to do your shopping: Spread your hard-earned money among some groups that do good work for gay and lesbian and AIDS causes. Check out this small selection of gifts available online--and remember to open your wallet for the nonprofit groups in your own area. (Find links to all these groups' Web sites at www.advocate.com.)

1. Delicious and different, the shortbread and brownies from Project Angel Food come in handsome off-white tins. Proceeds benefit Los Angeles's daily meal deliver/program for people with HIV/AIDS. $30.

2. The elaborate Broadway Cares Collection Snow Globe for 2002 encloses a magical cityscape of marquees from current Broadway shows and plays the song "New York, New York (A Helluva Town)." Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS is the theater industry's AIDS fund-raising and grant-making organization. $40.

3. Human Rights Campaign, the D.C.-based gay rights group, has commissioned a limited-edition Christopher Radko ornament called Snowie. $35.

4. A perfect gift-exchange accessory, the celebrity-designed holiday cards from AIDS Project Los Angeles are an annual tradition. This year's choices feature artwork by Hilary Swank, Betsey Johnson, and others. $14.95 per box of 12.

5. Distinctive note cards from New York's Gay Men's Health Crisis are designed by volunteers and clients. $15 per box of 12.

6. The Names Project, caretaker of the AIDS Memorial Quilt, offers a variety of gifts, including the moving children's book A Name on the Quilt ($16) and an understated quilt baseball cap ($12).

7. Parents, Families, and Friends of Lesbians and Gays has a number of gift options for your straight allies, including sweet heart-and-triangle lapel pins. $3. (Not pictured.)

8. New York-based meal service group God's Love We Deliver has the best AIDS/ HIV gift catalog online, with a range of children's gifts, "edibles," and housewares, such as a vase by gay ceramic artist Jonathan Adler ($75), Calvin Klein cordial glasses ($50), and a Blaine Trump candle ($32). (Not pictured.)

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Surfing safari

There's always time enough to shop on the Web. Here are three of our favorite sites

1. If you haven't thought of giving travel for Christmas, now's the time, because deals are abundant. Whether you're shopping for your often-taken-for-granted partner or your most deserving friends, check out the gay-specific area of Orbitz.com. The travel site covers not only air reservations but accommodations, car rentals, package vacations, and more. The site's gay pages offer a variety of discounted gay-friendly resorts, lesbian and gay excursions and cruises, and gay-specific travel packages, for men, women, and gay-led families. (For direct links to Orbitz's gay pages and other sites, go to www.advocate.com.)

2. The name TLA Video doesn't begin to cover what's available on this site, including a just-launched "Life & Style" section with clothing, "gay/lesbian accessories," housewares, and more. TLA remains the most complete and up-to-date Web store that sells both mainstream fare and gay and lesbian movies--including the most obscure titles imaginable--so you can do all your video shopping in one location. Prices are usually discounted from retail, and preorders are available well in advance, so you can reserve a DVD set of the first season of Six Feet Under before the holidays and give your funereal friends a reason to live until February.

3. If it's books and music you're looking for, and you're debating which online behemoth to patronize, may we suggest first dropping by AmFAR.org, from which a link will take you to the Barnes & Noble retail site. That way 5% of your purchase will be donated directly to that venerable AIDS charity.

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Coffee-table books

When shopping days are few, no gift is better than a big, gorgeous tome full of pretty pictures. Here are our top picks for 2002

1. Diana Vreeland * By Eleanor Dwight * William Morrow/HarperCollins * $50

Vogue editor, tastemaker, adventuress, Vreeland exploded with the style and joie de vivre that every gay man aspires to--or should. Fabulous photos prove the point.

2. Paul Cadmus: The Male Nude * By Justin Spring * Universe Press * $49.95

Over a long, rich life, Cadmus married homoeroticism and Renaissance technique in sublime drawings, many of his longtime love and model, Jon Anderson. Flawlessly reproduced, many in full color.

3. Frida: Bringing Frida Kahlo's Life and Art to Film * Foreword by Hayden Herrara * Introductions by Julie Taymor, Salma Hayek * Newmarket * $35

Everybody's raving about the visual richness of Frida, not to mention the fabulousness of Advocate cover girl Salma Hayek. This illustrated version of the screenplay offers plenty of both.

4. Little Me * By Belle Poitrine, as told to Patrick Dennis * Broadway Books * $15.95

Back in print at last, this superb 1961 send-up of celebrity memoirs recounts the fictional exploits of no-talent starlet Belle Poitrine, complete with uproarious "candids" enacted by the book's actual author, Patrick Dennis (Auntie Mame), and a few dozen of his gayer friends. Possibly the most essential gay gift of the year.

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