Santa Claus makes only one business trip a year, but you probably make rather more. So what would you like from the bearded fellow to make your trips more pleasant next year?
You are going to be spending more time on aircraft than Santa does on his sleigh, so top of the business traveller's Christmas list should be things to while away the time. Unfortunately, one obvious idea - a portable CD player - has to be left off the list, as most airlines ban their use for fear that they may interfere with navigation systems.
The travelling music aficionado would therefore be thrilled to find a minidisc player in his or her stocking. Not only is it a portable digital format for your favourite music, but you are not restricted to what the record companies think you want to listen to: you can record and edit your own minidiscs at home. And, according to British Airways, there is no problem with using it on an aircraft, except during take-off and landing. A minidisc player is pricier than a traditional personal tape player, but the format is much more durable: for example the Sony top-of-the-range MZR 90 is available from the Sony Centre, South William Street, Dublin for £299 (€380). There is not a great deal of prerecorded music available on minidisc yet, but of what there is, you could do worse than Nigel Kennedy's crossover album Classic Kennedy (EMI MD 556 8908).
For those travelling with personal cassette players, a few good things are still issued on tape, such as the latest offering from Italian soprano Cecilia Bartoli: Cecilia Bartoli's Vivaldi Album (Decca 466 569-4).
Top of my Christmas list is a Mulberry leather case for my Psion Series 5 palmtop computer: I will settle for the "Congo" leather one at £195 sterling (€313), but other business travellers might prefer the special silver Millennium edition, at £225 sterling. You can buy the brown and black "Congo" leather cases on the web site, www.mulberry-england.co.uk, or by mail order on 0044 171 491 3900.
If you can wait until January, a new range in lively colours such as pale pink, bright pink or aqua will be available, all at £195. For the more conservative Psion user, there's also black, khaki and camel, also at £195. Don't despair if you're a Palm Pilot user, though: Mulberry has cases for those, too, in a range of colours for £175 sterling.
My Psion 5 is now rather out of date - it has been superseded by the jazzier Series 5MX, which, for £430 sterling, boasts 16MB of memory and a 36MHz processor, which it would be lovely to find under the tree. Rather than lugging a laptop around, one of these palmtops can provide pretty much everything you need: your diary, contacts book, stripped-down word processing and spreadsheets, connectivity with your PC, and e-mail - provided there is also a Psion travel modem (£170 sterling, but you can use it with either a landline or your mobile) in your stocking. Alternatively, Psion also produces the Revo, a less powerful but smaller palmtop, at £300 sterling.
If you are fed up with the wash kits the airlines provide in business class and first class, which rarely seem to contain anything useful, you might hope to find a Jo Malone travel kit in your stocking. This washbag, from one of London's hottest fragrance and skincare retailers, contains stuff you will actually use, including a toothbrush and toothpaste, a comb, eye gel, moisturiser, skincare products and a unisex Lime, Basil and Mandarin cologne, all packaged in a neat little bag, at £45 sterling, and it is available by mail order on 0044 020 7720 0202.
Fashion editors may have declared pashminas passe, but many travellers would not go away without at least one. Not only are they a lot warmer than those nasty airline blankets which give off more static than style, you can use them to dress up a simple outfit or protect you against freezing air-conditioning.
Purists say you should be careful about what you buy: a pashmina should be 100 per cent pashmina wool - that is, hair from the Capra Hircus goat, not just any old cashmere goat - and not mixed with anything else such as silk, or heaven forbid, angora. And pashminas are not just for women: I spotted designer Jean-Paul Gaultier wrapped in a suitably ungirly aubergine-coloured one against a chill Rajasthan night recently. You can get them from about £99 sterling (from Marks and Spencer, for example), but that will almost certainly be a silkmix. For the real thing, try Madeleine Trehearne, based in Hampstead, north London. Her "pure" pashminas are wildly expensive - from £450 sterling for a plain one - but she points out that the real thing folds down to the size of a napkin, thus saving luggage space, and is more durable than the cheaper varieties. You can find her either via the Internet, www.trehearneandbrar.com or get her mail-order catalogue from 0044 0171 435 6310.
The die-hard traveller, however, probably wants more upgrades for Christmas, and for that, you'll just have to keep racking up those frequent-flyer points. At least you will collect more than Santa does.
