Holiday Musings

It's OK if you're still looking for an unusual holiday gift for a loved one, or as a gift for the one you love the most -- yourself. What should you spend your money on? I don't want to tell you how to live, but these are my picks for the most strikingly random things to do during the holidays, or to give as gifts.

• If you moved to Las Vegas from some northern place, and you miss the snow, you could spend $45 for a day at the Qua Baths & Spa at Caesars Palace. I don't know if Qua is better than other spas. But it does have this crazy Arctic Ice Room, where it snows on your head.

You can sit on the heated bench in the Ice Room, wearing a big towel or robe, although it is 55 degrees in there. Snow is created in a fluff above the ceiling and flutters about you, as it has there on Eva Longoria, Selma Blair, Mario Lopez and other celebrities you may or may not give a crap about.

That $45 gets you into the Ice Room, fitness center, Roman baths, laconium (slightly less hot than a Finnish sauna) and herbal steam rooms. If you want extras, like massages, that costs more. You can have your chakra balanced for a starting tag of $275. Personally, I have a fiancee to balance my chakra.

• If you're looking for an affordable way to get show tickets all year long, one of the most tempting presents may be buying yourself or someone else a year subscription to HouseSeats.com or ShowTickets4Locals.com.

At HouseSeats, for $89 a year, you get two free tickets to Vegas shows and one-time concerts that are listed on a given day. For $169, you get four free tickets. This means you could theoretically get "free" tickets to different shows every night of the year by paying one yearly fee.

HouseSeats has given away tickets for "Blue Man Group," "Penn & Teller," Sarah Silverman, Barry Manilow, Bobby Slayton, boxing matches, and a whole range of shows along the lines of "Scarlett -- Princess of Magic," plus golf outings and haircuts, on occasion.

ShowTickets4Locals.com gives away free tickets without paying to join the site. But you get first and possibly better dibs for shows like Nathan Burton and "Le Reve" if you pony up $99 for a year membership.

Not all shows are struggling. Sometimes, performers or shows just want fuller houses or to reach out to locals, I'm told.

• If I were going to buy specific show tickets, I would spring $69-$80 for tickets to see Amazing Johnathan, my favorite act in Las Vegas. He's a comedian pretending to be an aggressive and unstable hack magician, and he tricks audience members and harasses his assistant.

Johnathan is hilarious, if you enjoy gags about drinking Drano and making his assistant bleed from her hands. I hear what you're saying. What's so funny about that? Uh, everything, at least the way Johnathan does it. Great comedy is all about execution, not concept.

I've seen Johnathan three or four times in eight years, and each time, I laughed so hard, I felt like I couldn't catch my breath for a minute or more, and that happened several times at each show. He's bounced around town. Now he's at the Harmon Theater at Planet Hollywood Resort.

• If you're looking for show tickets priced to sell, that's easier this month than usual. Shows up and down the Strip are offering half-price (or two-for-one) tickets to locals. To get these tickets, you generally have to mention "locals" to the box office, and supply a local ID on show night.

The Cirque du Soleil shows "Ka," "Zumanity" and "Mystere" are offering $49 tickets for locals. There are half-price tickets for "Blue Man Group" (through Jan. 4 showings); and two-for-one local tickets for "Tournament of Kings," "Phantom -- The Las Vegas Spectacular" and plenty of other top-tier stages. So when you call a box office, ask about "local" tickets first.

• Hotel sleepovers also are on the cheap this month. Some rooms on the Strip are going for $32. Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch resorts have been doing $100 rooms with freebies like bowling. Trump Tower is pitching $99-a-night through Jan. 6. You get the gist. Call around and bargain yourself silly.

• The really out-there gifts are in the Cher and Bette Midler Boutique at Caesars. Ready for this?

Cher-inspired flip-flops encrusted in Swarovski crystals: $95.

Bette-inspired pink diamond bustier necklace outlined in sapphires: $8,000.

Bette ukulele: $3,000.

Bette boa: $200.

I don't mean to single out Cher and Bette, since I say this every holiday when I spot something pricey: In the alternative, you can sponsor a needy kid through Save the Children for $28 a month/$336 a year. Feel free to juggle that in your head. One ukulele -- or sponsor nine starving children for a year.

Happy holidays!

Doug Elfman's column appears on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays. Contact him at 702-383-0391 or e-mail him at delfman@reviewjournal.com. He also blogs at reviewjournal.com/elfman.