Yule Log: Happy His & Hers

Time was when a man feeling loaded, fond and possibly guilty at Christmas time would hie himself to Tiffany or Cartier and buy his loved one a little something to make her feel like Cleopatra--an epithalamium of emeralds, say, or a modest suburban tiara. The trend in recent years, however, seems to have been away from the unilateral bauble and toward the his and her extravaganza, particularly of the shared, sensory and sensational sort.

This Christmas, for example, he and she may bestow upon themselves a $286,125 weekend at the Hyatt resort on South Carolina's Hilton Head Island. At that price, they can have the place entirely to themselves or else share it with 720 of their most intimate pals. For a couple with less time and fewer dollars but more friends, a 135-min. private performance of Circus Vargas, billed as the world's largest tented show, can be had for $47,500, popcorn and cotton candy for 5,000 guests included. For only $2,500 more, Houston's Astroworld amusement park is available for an exclusive day.

Sakowitz, the Houston superstore that offers the above enticements, has alter-ego trips for Yule and You-all. For $2 million an acre--the buyer provides the acre--Disney Designer Roland Crump will build him and her their own amusement park. Andy Warhol will produce, write, photograph and direct a feature film to suit the patrons' whim.

Spanish Gold. Should would-be George and Georgina Plimptons so desire, they can guest-coach the Houston Rockets pro basketball team for $2,000 per couple per day. For the more active twosome, Sakowitz will serve up a weekend of treasure hunting for Spanish gold at the bottom of Scotland's Tobermory Bay, complete with licensed diver, plus bed and board at the Duke of Argyll's Inveraray Castle (cost: $50,000 a pair in Yankee green). Or, for $37,500 each, they can spend two weeks aboard a schooner retracing Darwin's voyage of the Beagle. Sakowitz, while reporting more "interest" than sales, was hoping for a last-minute spurt in exotica purchases.

Over at Neiman-Marcus, Santa's Dallas helpers noted that Bicentennial and bison had bisyllabic echoes, so why not make this the Year of the Buffalo? They have. In honor of Bicen bison and togetherness, N-M is offering a small herd of trophies ranging from rolls of 40 uncirculated buffalo nickels--minted in 1938, the last year the bison was seen on coins--at $450 each, to "nearly lifesize" stuffed synthetic bison for $700. The boffo gift for buffalo buffs: live male and female calves ($11,750 the pair) from "the first certified 100% pure-bred buffalo herd in the U.S." There are 20 pairs available; gift wrapping is described as "optional and difficult." Bison sales to date: 20 rolls, two stuffed and one pair on the hoof.

There is still, it is true, a wealth of gifts available for the unreconstructed bauble bestower. A woman might consider giving her man the ultimate desk: a T-shaped, 7-ft.-long slab of teak, rosewood or African kevazenga; it rests on a mirrored aluminum pedestal and delivery of $10,000 to Lehigh-Leopold Furniture Co. Or she may pin her love on his chest, in the form of a $3,000, one-of-a-kind Countess Mara necktie, described as a "blossoming 14-karat gold rose studded with genuine brilliantly faceted diamonds, mounted on imported silk-cut velvet."

His Something Different for Her might be a gold omelette pan that, with a start-up supply of four pounds of truffles and four dozen double-yolked eggs, could serve up Christmas brunch for $30,000 (made out to Neiman-Marcus). An adoring he might present an artistic her with a basswood and spruce Zuckermann harpsichord, copied from Taskin's exquisite 18th century model, priced at a modest $5,500 from Manhattan's Baroque Music Center. Or they could buy two and play Bach to Bach.

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