The holiday season is a time to treat yourself, and others, to a few hi-tech toys. Size matters. Small is beautiful.

As usual retailers are predicting strong sales of video games. That's an easy fix for the whiz kid in the family. How about the others. This year forget that Barney the toy dinosaur has a computer brain and a 4,000 word vocabulary.

The conquering toy is the Tamagotchi, by Bandai Corp. It's difficult for me to understand the appeal of this toy, but children love it. Who cares what I think. For the befuddled Tamagotchi, is an egg-sized virtual pet that must be fed, medicated and changed when it beeps, or it dies a cyber death. Yes. The only toy which committs suicide. The toy has become so popular some schools have banned it in the US.

At about $15 to $20 it's a cheaper stocking stuffer than Barney which sells for about $100. But Barney can interact with a personal computer using an add on radio transmitter. Barney sings along and plays games with the children.

It's supposed to be educational. The television adverts show children happily laughing along with Barney, but how many parents will be chuckling after four months of an annoying sound coming from the living room. Ok, it does beat television.

J&R Music World (a must visit for the computer and music buff if you're in New York) is predicting 3Com Corp.'s PalmPilot will be a big hit. The PalmPilot is an electronic organiser that stores addresses, phone numbers, and schedules.

It's really an electronic notebook which is ony four inches and fits in the pocket. Consumers seem to prefer it to the sporty hand held computers now available using Microsoft's new operating system Windows CE.

PalmPilot is selling for about $500 in Bermuda, and for about $100 less in the US after you pay customs duties on bringing it back. But hey, it fits in the pocket... Another big hit in the computer world is the ergonomic keyboard, which splits the keyboard and angles both sides to left and right hands. You can get one for about $100 on the Island.

You won't be able to buy Logitech International's cordless keyboard and mouse right now, so ask for a rain check. The company plans on introducing the package to the market early 1998. It allows users to use their computer from a distance using radio technology that works up to six feet away from the computer. The "Cordless Desktop'' system is marketing itself as the first dual device using a single wireless receiver.

Pentax is reporting strong sales of the Efina, a tiny credit card sized camera. The film comes prepackaged in a canister. Digital cameras sales are also getting stronger. The price is finally starting to come down for the cameras, which can store as many as 94 pictures in their memories. The pictures can be transferred to a computer or viewed on a television. Some models come with software which allows the user to fix them up, including changing Mom's hair colour.

Even with the price drop the cameras are still a pricey gamble for most consumers. They range from $600 to $1,300 and above for the more professional models. You're taking a chance on picture quality, but that's getting better every time so it might be best to wait while the manufacturers battle it out for another year. I know I am.