Want to get a jump on holiday shopping? Here’s where to start. 

How on-the-ball are you about holiday gifts? Are you one of those hyperorganized people who goes right out and buys next-year’s Christmas cards on Dec. 26? Well, then you might want to get started holiday toy shopping for your children early. Like now.

Why so soon? Well, to get it over with. And besides, pouring money into our shell-shocked economy could potentially produce the same result we get when we feed our kids ice cream before bedtime—an upsurge in activity with no sign of a slowdown.

Some toy stores have not yet opened their secret coffers to reveal this winter’s toy crazes. But hip and entertaining toys there are aplenty out there already, so why not get your shopping done early and then sit around drinking eggnog lattes later while all your friends are pulling their hair out and wondering if razor scooters are hopelessly passé and which is the right Barbie?

To make shopping easier for you, we broke the ginormous category of “toys” down into five Duplo-simple blocks: infant and toddler toys; dolls and action figures; stuffed toys; electronic games; and miscellany.

Infant and toddler toys: Babies are wonderfully predictable. The same things we played with and loved when we were drooling and pooping in our pants are just as popular with our crawling and waddling progeny today. Babies like colors and buttons and lights, so get anything that has these features and you will pretty much be in like Flynt. Fisher-Price stuff always charms, and they offer an endless variety of playthings; from the stackable doughnuts (if you don’t have these, by some freakish accident, get them) to this Sparkling Symphony selection. Playing-grown-up toys like toy phones and lawn mowers enjoy a limitless popularity.

Also big this holiday season will be electronic music toys like Music Blocks, which uses plastic removable sound cards that allow youngsters to rearrange melodies by Bach, Mozart, and others ($75). This is a sure bet (a hipster dad I know swears by the one they got for their daughter). If you have a nostalgic turn, equip your mobile tyke with the timeless Radio Flyer tricycle ($49.99) or their de rigueur red wagon ($89.99). And you’ll be pleased to know that See ’n Say’s Barnyard Bring-Along is still educating little folks in how to moo and baa for a mere $10.99.

Dolls and action figures: You can buy Barbie dolls in a staggering array of incarnations. Barbie can do anything. She is a dentist, safari photographer, gymnast, fashion designer, and star ballerina in The Nutcracker. There even exists a Barbie who pops out of a giant cake. (“Bachelor-party Barbie”? Not even going there.)

African-American, Latina, and So-Cal blond ‘n’ bronzed, Barbie comes from every country on earth—she has mutated so many times, she is all but unrecognizable. Recently Barbie, already flawlessly lovely, has become … younger. A line of dolls called Generation Girls features Barbie-sized teens living hip “realistic” lives. We have Mari, a goofy techno-geek; the Diana-Ross-as-Mahogany-esque Nichelle; and even a rocker dude, Blaine, who has his own badass guitar and DJ turntable. For those seeking something more pedestrian, you can buy the McDonald’s employee Barbie. Cheering fact: The Mickey-D uniform looks as bad on her as it does on everyone else.

Barbie prices are all over the map: Wal-Mart features selected Barbies for about $14; but some of the deluxe models can cost $100 plus no matter where you buy them (one 5-year-old friend of mine was intensely distressed when Mom said that the ravishing, $300 Bob Mackie-designed mermaid Barbie was simply out of the question). My choice would be the Fashion Model Barbie (around $40 for the pared-down, underwear-clad-only version) with her retro 1950s sidelong glance; she is the most stylish and the most versatile.

Virtually every kids-themed or fantasy movie now boasts its own line of action figures—last year we saw X-Men and Austin Powers dolls—and this year will be no different. It’s a safe bet that the Harry Potter figures will be hot this season. You can get doll versions of most of the books’ characters, and Mattel has had the good sense to make them small and reasonably inexpensive. (Gund makes more costly, larger, slightly softer figures with more detail for $28.) Also in evidence are Sully and Mike figures from Monsters, Inc.; these cuddly guys talk in John Goodman and Billy Crystal’s voices, but are they worth $89.99? The movie isn’t even out yet!