This holiday put a new twist on the gift-giving season and wrap up a few Kansas City trinkets. Many of our museum and attractions offer fun and unique Kansas City memorabilia.

 1. Build your own Connie

Lockheed Super G Constellation Model Kit. You can create your own Lockheed Super G Constellation with a model kit from the Airline History Museum. In 1986 a group of Kansas City aviation enthusiasts sought to find and restore a Lockheed Super G Constellation, a plane that TWA majority stockholder and filmmaker Howard Hughes requested Lockheed to create in the 1940s. By the time the Kansas City group sought out a Connie, the plane had long disappeared from the skies. Fortunately, they found a derelict Connie in a Mesa, Ariz., storage field. After painstakingly restoring it, the group of volunteers brought back to life the only flying Lockheed Super G Constellation in the nation. The Connie’s permanent home is at the Airline History Museum but makes several appearances at air shows each year. The Connie has also been involved in television shows and movies such as, "Ace Ventura - When Nature Calls" and of course the 2004 blockbuster about Howard Hughes, “The Aviator.”

• Product: Lockheed Super G Constellation Model Kit
• Price: $20. Add $4.95 if ordered online.
• Where to Purchase: Airline History Museum, Hangar 9, 201 NW Lou Holland Drive, Kansas City, Mo., 816-421-3401. Or online at www.airlinehistorymuseum.com

2. Hot jazz for the cool holiday season

Holiday Jazz CD and Coffee Mug. Heat up the holiday season with fiery jazz from the legendary Jay McShann and several Kansas City musicians in their collaboration, "Warm Christmas," which recaptures the sound that was, and is, Kansas City-style jazz. A portion of the CD's sales benefit Project Warmth, which provides food, clothing, blankets money to Kansas City area residents in need this winter. You'll also want to pick up an American Jazz Museum or Blue Room coffee mug to enjoy a hot drink while listening to Kansas City jazz.

• Product: "Warm Christmas" CD and American Jazz Museum or Blue Room Coffee Mug
• Price: CD $15.97; Coffee Mug $10.95
• Where to Purchase: Swing Shop at the American Jazz Museum, 1616 East 18th Street, Kansas City, Mo., 816-474-8463

3. Discover a fragrance from a time when the West was young

Perfume from 1856. In 1856, the steamboat Arabia hit a snag in the Missouri River and sank on its way to deliver cargo to a trade post in the West. When excavators recovered the steamboat Arabia in
the late 1980s, they found more than 200 tons of cargo, making it the largest collection of pre-Civil War artifacts in the world. Among the items were precious bottles of French perfume. The perfume traveled half-way around the globe by steamship, locomotive and finally riverboat, only to be lost in one brief moment more than 140 years ago. Thanks to a little help from modern science, anyone can experience the excitement and romance of the western frontier with this replicated fragrance of 1856.

• Products: 1856 Perfume, Size: 1/2 fl. oz.
• Price: $24.95. Add $7 if ordered online.
• Where to Purchase: Arabia Steamboat Museum, 400 Grand Boulevard, Kansas City, Mo., 816-471-1856. Or online at www.1856.com.

4. One rockin’ gift

Pebble from Jesse James' gravesite. After an assassin killed Jesse James in 1882, Jesse’s mother, Zerelda James Samuel, started tours of his childhood home near Kearney, Mo. Knowing that visitors would want a souvenir from their tour, she sold pebbles from his grave site for a quarter. As her pebble inventory grew low, she replaced them with pebbles from a nearby creek. Today, visitors to Jesse James Farm & Museum can still purchase pebbles from his grave site for only a quarter. Although these rocks are purchased from local stores and inscribed with his name and date of death by volunteers, they still sit on his grave site for a while before being sold.

• Product: Pebble from Jesse James’ Grave site
• Price: 25¢
• Where to Purchase: Jesse James Farm & Museum, 21216 James Farm Road, Kearney, Mo. 816-628-6065

5. Find a true animal print

Elephant Painting. Deja Zoo, the gift shop at the Kansas City Zoo, carries paintings by Lady, a 37-year-old African elephant. Lady creates her works of art by grasping a brush dipped in paint with her trunk and brushing it across a canvas held by an elephant keeper. The keeper alternates colors, and the result is a modernistic patchwork of color. The keeper then dates the painting in the corner and signs Lady’s name. Interested art aficionados can also order custom works from the painting pachyderm. Lady, who arrived in Kansas City in 1994 from Kings Island, N.Y., learned to paint in three weeks.

• Product: Painting by Lady the Elephant
• Price: $25-$160
• Where to Purchase: Kansas City Zoo, 6800 Zoo Drive, Kansas City, Mo., (816) 513-5700.

6. Take home art at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art

Works by American glass artist Dale Chihuly. After seeing three monumental works by American glass artist Dale Chihuly, visitors may add a stunning work of art to their own collection by purchasing one of Chihuly’s 2005 Studio Editions, available in the Museum Shop at the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art. This year’s editions are colorful, playful and a delight to see first-hand. The Museum Shop specializes in handcrafted items from artists from around the country, making any gift from the shop a great addition to your collection. All sales benefit the Museum and its programming and are tax free.

• Product: Works by American glass artist Dale Chihuly
• Price: $3,500 to $6,000
• Where to Purchase: Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, 4420 Warwick Boulevard, Kansas City, Mo., 816-753-5784.

7. Give a brick of honor Liberty Memorial’s Walk of Honor Brick

National World War I Museum's Walk of Honor Brick. The Liberty Memorial, the nation’s World War I monument, honors those who served in defense of liberty and our country by remembering the sights and sounds of what those dedicated soldiers experienced. You too can honor a friend or relative who served in the Great War, pay tribute to someone who has served since the war or recognize an individual dedicated to liberty by buying a brick on Liberty Memorial’s Walk of Honor. The Walk of Honor, located on the grounds of the museum, includes sections for WWI veterans, veterans of other conflicts, women in service and civilian individuals or organizations. A purchase of a brick includes a choice of three sizes and a special message. Walk of Honor supporters also receive a certificate suitable for framing, featuring the inscription on the brick.

• Product: Liberty Memorial’s Walk of Honor Brick
• Price: $125, $250 or $1,000
• Where to Purchase: Liberty Memorial, 100 W. 26th Street, Kansas City, Mo., 816-784-1929. Or online at www.libertymemorialmuseum.org.

8. Build a piece of transportation history

Do It Yourself Wooden Covered Wagon Kit. The story of overland migration across the western American wilderness during the mid-nineteenth century remains a fascinating chapter in U.S. history. Nearby Independence, Mo. was the principal "jumping off" point for the three trails heading West-the Santa Fe, Oregon and California. Thousands of wagon trains slowly snaked their way along rugged trails, crossing wind-swept prairies, barren deserts and formidable mountain ranges. Children can learn about this adventure on a miniature scale by building their own covered wagon with a kit from the National Frontier Trails Museum.

• Product: Do It Yourself Wooden Covered Wagon Kit
• Price: $4.99, plus shipping if ordered online
• Where to Purchase: National Frontier Trails Museum, 318 W Pacific Ave. Independence, Mo., 816-325-7575. Or online at www.frontiertrailsmuseum.org

9. Wear a part of baseball's past

Kansas City Monarchs 1942 Replica Cap. The Negro Leagues were established Kansas City in 1920, bringing the thrill and innovative play of black baseball, as well as some of the sport's greatest players, to major urban centers and rural countrysides in the U.S., Canada and Latin America. The Kansas City Monarchs, arguably the Negro Leagues' all-time greatest team, won five consecutive Negro National League championships during the 1920s, with six more titles between 1937 and 1950 as members of the Negro American League. Monarch greats included Satchel Paige, Buck O'Neil, Hilton Smith and Jackie Robinson. Keep the legacy of the Monarchs and this historic league alive by sporting a replica 1942 Monarchs wool cap from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

• Product: Kansas City Monarchs 1942 Replica Cap
• Price: $14.95, plus shipping if ordered online
• Where to Purchase: Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, 1616 East 18th Street
  Kansas City, Mo., 816-221-1920. Or online at www.nlbm.com

10. Let the buck stop on your desk

“Buck Stops Here” desk sign. The 33rd president of the United States, Harry S Truman, made the words, “The Buck Stops Here,” famous when he placed a sign with these words on his oval office desk. A replica of the famous "Buck Stops Here" desk sign is available for purchase at the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and Museum, in his hometown of Independence, Mo. Each sign is individually handcrafted in the United States with an inscription on the back that reads, "I'm From Missouri.”

• Product: “Buck Stops Here” desk sign
• Price: $55
• Where to Purchase: Harry S Truman Library & Museum. 500 W. US Hwy. 24. Independence Mo., 816-268-8200. Or online at www.trumanlibrary.org.