On catalog calendar, holidays near

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NEW YORK

Open your mailbox anytime these next few weeks, and you're likely to find Christmas in many shapes and sizes.

At Pier 1, the holidays are all about shimmery grapefruit-sized ornaments in pink and red. Crate & Barrel builds a vision of antiqued candlesticks and jewel-tone glass. L.L. Bean conjures up a roaring fireplace hung with needlepoint Christmas stockings.

Almost as much an annual tradition as "Jingle Bells" and cookie baking, those cheery catalogs seeking to inspire impulsive, spontaneous holiday joy -- spending, in other words -- are the product of months of forethought, market research and a strong belief in the power of the printed page. Even in an Internet/TiVo/satellite-TV age, a well-planned catalog still can deliver a message in a way no other medium can.

"What the catalog brings to the table is the lifestyle element. It can showcase these great looks that you've spent a year putting together in a way that you might not be able to in a store because of space or other constraints," says Daryle Gibbs, director of trends and product development for home goods retailer Pier 1, which began offering a holiday catalog a year ago.

Catalogs are expected to drive $144.2 billion in sales in 2006, up from $134.3 billion the year before, according to the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group.

With so much at stake, the foundations for this year's crop of Christmas catalogs were laid in fall 2005, when Harriet Miers, not Nancy Pelosi, was the Washington woman in the spotlight. Hurricanes dominated the headlines, and YouTube wasn't quite a household name.

That was when Mr. Gibbs started to see pink and red as part of the look for Pier 1's 2006 Christmas.

Mr. Gibbs and his "trend team" settled on the theme after what is an annual ritual for many retailers. They scour European trade shows for hot new products and hire color consultants to identify customer-appealing palettes. Then they analyze sales data from the most recent holiday to see what worked and how to apply it to the next holiday season.

The result this time: more of the oversized vases and other items Pier 1 customers loved last year, but in combination with the pinks, reds and metallic tones showcased in store windows this year.