By Arline and Sam Bleecker - Chicago Tribune

One of the neatest holiday gifts to give someone you care about won't fit under the Christmas tree. Consider giving a cruise.

On holiday cruises - which can take in Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's - no one is obliged to stuff the turkey or bake the pumpkin pie. Or clean up after meals! Super chefs and staff on board will cater to everyone's tastes and proclivities.

Taking a Thanksgiving or Christmas cruise doesn't mean having to miss any of the fixings, either - whether your loved one's holiday hankerings run to traditional menus or to sushi.

Cruise lines have more to offer than a Christmas tree, a conga line and good cheer. Lines ramp up the entertainment and set tables for the holidays with special sailings. All a passenger needs to bring is the spirit.

Here's a sampling of holiday cruises:

On Carnival Cruise Line's Christmas sailings, passengers can sit down to a traditional oven-roasted turkey dinner and pecan pie on ships adorned with Christmas trees, wreaths and mistletoe.

Kids even get a special treat. Don't expect Santa to shimmy down the line's signature fantail smokestacks, but Carnival does cajole him to hand out gifts to youngsters. There's even snow to enjoy - churned out by special machines just for the occasion. Budding child stars also will love participating in special productions that welcome kids on stage and use the decorations made by them at Camp Carnival.

Italy-based MSC Cruises has a great Christmas gift for parents. On an 11-night holiday cruise departing Dec. 18 roundtrip from Fort Lauderdale, kids 12 and under sharing a stateroom with two full-paying passengers get to sail free. (Some restrictions apply.) Another Italian-styled holiday offer: Yuletide cruises aboard either the Costa Magica or Costa Mediterranea on Costa's 7- or 8-night Caribbean itineraries. Santa will make his appearance here, too. Kids on Costa might make out like bandits with the sack of toys reserved for them during St. Nick's visit. If you don't happen to consider lasagna a traditional Christmas meal, not to worry: Costa will have plenty of old standbys available.

Leave it to Disney to have some holiday tricks up its sleeve, like transforming its 1,000-acre private island, Castaway Cay, into a snowy "Magical Wonderland."

For Disney, it's not just boughs of holly. The line plans to dazzle celebrants with carolers, a gingerbread house and a cast of Disney characters all through the month of December. Even the island's tram gets decorated to resemble a reindeer, complete with antlers and tail. And Disney's Santa is no potbellied cherub but a slim doofus named Goofy, dressed as Santa. Mrs. Claus also makes a debut on Disney's two ships, Magic and Wonder, for a reading of "T'was the Night before Christmas."

Kids on Disney's holiday sailings get to make decorations. For Thanksgiving, it's turkeys and Pilgrim hats; for Christmas, think candy-cane reindeer, paper plate angels and snowflake mobiles.

On Crystal Cruises' holiday sailings, gourmands get more than plum pudding, according to spokesman Shawn Magnuson. "For Thanksgiving, a traditional five course meal will be served," he notes, including, "a maple-glazed Tom turkey with apple cider and fig gravy, a tower of Dungeness crab and palm hearts, cream of oven-roasted curried yellow squash with grilled bay scallops, and modern-style honey pecan tart."

As it does every year, Crystal will go out of its way big time on decorations.

"For our Christmas/Hanukah/New Year's voyages," Magnuson says, "hundreds of thousands of dollars of seasonal decor such as handcrafted ornaments, ornate sleighs, Old English toy soldiers and a dozen twinkling Christmas trees will adorn each ship."

A very busy Santa will give gifts not just to kids, but to adults as well.

Crystal's entertainers will perform "A Christmas Carol" and the line's big screens will light up with holiday-themed films such as "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," "Miracle on 34th Street," "A Christmas Story," "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Mannheim Steamroller's Christmas Live," and more.

Magnuson says "In-stateroom television programming is equally as festive with such classics as Tony Bennett's "A Family Christmas," Irving Berlin's "White Christmas," Johnny Mathis' "Home for Christmas," "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation," "The Santa Clause," "Scrooged," "White Christmas," "A Charlie Brown Christmas," "The Year Without Santa Clause," and "The Nutcracker Prince.""

Crystal celebrates Hanukah with the nightly lighting of the Menorah, commemorating the oil that burned in the Holy Temple for eight days. Traditional foods served include latkes and loukoumades, deep-fried pastry puffs dipped in honey or sugar, which symbolize the magic of the holiday. Crystal even turns out traditional butter cookies and pretzels shaped like Hanukkah symbols. A rabbi will be onboard each ship to conduct services.

Norwegian Coastal Voyages' northern Europe itineraries won't take the chill out of Christmas, but the line does plan to warm hearts with a traditional Norwegian Christmas and a gala New Year's Eve celebration on each seven- to 10-day cruise plying Arctic waters from Dec. 20 through 28.

NCV's ferry-like vessels offer a choice of Christmas and New Year's festivities at sea and unusual attractions on shore: a Christmas pre-cruise visit to Copenhagen and its famous Christmas market in Tivoli Gardens; New Year's celebrations at the North Cape, Europe's northernmost point; a Northern Lights Festival concert in Tromso's distinctive iceberg-shaped Arctic Cathedral; or with fireworks and Sami traditional singing (Joik) in Karasjok, capital of Norwegian Lapland.

On NCV ship, traditional Norwegian Yuletides include Christmas Eve celebrated together by passengers and crew with holiday specialties at dinner, carol singing by the tree and a visit from Santa; a lavish Scandinavian smorgasbord on Christmas Day; and an after-dinner dance on Boxing Day.

Looking for something equally exotic during the holidays, but closer to the Equator? Consider Silversea Cruises' offerings in the South Pacific on Silver Cloud's 16-day "Along the Barrier Reef" voyage, sailing from Singapore to Sydney on Dec. 22. It calls in Darwin, Thursday Island, Cairns, Townsville, Whitsunday Islands and New Castle, Australia; and Semarang, Indonesia.

Another enticing option: Silver Whisper's 14-day "Burmese Interlude" on Dec. 22, sailing round-trip from Singapore with calls in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Phuket, Thailand; Belawan, Indonesia; Penang and Malacca, Malaysia, plus a three-night visit to Yangon, Myanmar.

Even that far off the beaten track, holiday fixings come with the territory. Passengers enjoy Silversea's typically lavish gourmet meals. The Christmas gala repast offers such tantalizing appetizers as layered Russian Sevruga caviar blinis with marinated Maine lobster salad; and quail and smoked sausages Christmas gumbo.

Of course, celebrants can still get Tom turkey with chestnuts; and, for Hanukah, can dip their gefilte fish in red horseradish or drown their potato latkes in apple sauce. Kosher chicken is available, too.

And nobody will have to do the dishes!

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© 2006, Chicago Tribune.

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