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Art-Full Finds By Susan Breitkopf Special to washingtonpost.com Tuesday, November 28, 2000

A Dorothy and Toto Christmas ornament from the Library of Congress gift store. Mark Finkenstaedt for washingtonpost.com

Every year you resolve to do your holiday shopping early. You swear you'll avoid the mall at all costs. You vow not to get Dad another tie or subject anyone to another fruitcake. Well, this year keep your promises to yourself and take your business to the many museum shops in the Washington area. Just think: Instead of fighting the crowds at your local prefab shopping mall, you could actually take in an exhibit and browse leisurely. Besides lots of beautiful and unique greeting cards and books on everything from photography to finger painting, these museums are brimming with other inexpensive yet elegant gifts not likely to be found at the usual suspects.

Whether you're celebrating Christmas, Kwanzaa or Hanukah, there are gifts galore to choose from. For the foodie in your life, the Freer and Sackler galleries have tasty salsas, like Satay's Spicy Thai Jungle Salsa ($7.25) that's pleasantly spicy and sweet. From India, hand-painted lacquer ornaments in rich colors and lovely floral patterns are only $7.50 and available at the Textile Museum. Stuff bookworms's stockings with Novel Stops ($11), wine bottle corks with pewter books on top representing authors such as Jane Austen and Edgar Allan Poe. For silly-gadget addicts, how could you say no to the Baltimore Zoo's banana holder ($24.95) shaped like a monkey holding his own bananas? When you press his head, he makes appropriate noises.

Raybowls, available at the Corcoran Gallery of Art, are both attractive and practical gifts. Made of colored pieces of nylon – that can be removed and machine washed – stretched over a chrome frame, these bowls ($19.95 for a square, $23.95 for a rectangle) are great for serving fruit or bread.

Practically all these shops have gifts for kids that are alternatives to the latest must-haves from Toys 'R' Us. Shop the Maryland Historical Society to find Bowling Champ Barbie ($40), sporting red and turquoise shoes and a bowling shirt bearing her name. Apparently Mattel thinks she's a decent bowler given the trophy she holds. For more traditional girls, the Historical Society offers a good selection of American Girl doll clothes that are handmade from vintage and new fabrics. A sumptuous emerald velvet cape with gold trim ($38) will make you wish they made the clothes on a human scale. Washington Dolls' House & Toy Museum has a lovely Victorian gingerbread-trim doll house ($495) in purple, lavender and white.

For the little nature enthusiast, the Audubon Naturalist Society's rubber rattlesnake ($5) squirts the liquid of your choice. Future architects and engineers will love the National Building Museum Shop's CoinStruction Set ($20), comprised of clips that hold coins (pocket change) together at various angles. Also included are designs for a train, the Eiffel Tower or a spaceship, among others.