This Christmas is being celebrated as the Year of the Web the first big year for Internet shopping. Web sales may reach $7.8 billion, says Forrester Research in Cambridge, Mass., less than 1 percent of total retail sales, but more than double the $3 billion rung up in 1997.

When interviewed for news stories, mouse-clicking shoppers seem to fall into ecstasies. “How simple and fast,” they say. “How thrilling to avoid the crowds at the mall.”

But why compare Web shopping with malls? The mall lost my Christmas dollars years ago. I’m a catalog shopper. It’s simple, it’s fast and there aren’t any crowds in the catalogs, either.

So the real question is, what advantage does the Web hold over paper catalogs? “Not much,” I’d say, having tried both in my annual, last-minute shopping rush.

Here’s a typical Quinn Christmas shopping day: A late breakfast. A list of people to shop for, with only a few specific gifts filled in. A soft chair with a side table. A stack of catalogs (so many that I think they’re meeting and mating in my mailbox). I flip through the stack, mark pages and make notes.

When I finish, I tackle the phone. All the catalogs I use have 24-hour service. If I have to hold for an order-taker, I read a magazine.

So my question this season was, can the Web offer anything better? I dropped in on some sites whose stores or catalogs I like, and browsed the virtual malls.

In most cases, I found the Web slower and more annoying than my annual catalog flip. That’s because it takes ages to browse. You click through Web pages, asking for different merchandise, then sit back and wa-a-ait for the pictures of the merchandise to come up on your screen. You click on another page and wa-a-ait again. While waiting, I could have gone through a dozen catalogs. The Web will have to be a lot faster before it appeals to shoppers poking around for just the right thing.

I liked the Web when I knew exactly what I wanted and where to find it. Going to www.etoys.com and typing the word “blocks” produced the wooden blocks I was looking for. Typing “Sonicare” in a search engine gave me the online buying site for this electronic toothbrush.

But after I clicked through the shipping and billing information, I can’t say the Web saved me time over an 800 call.

I used a comparison-shopping service, www.jango.com, to find out who was selling a piece of software at the lowest price. But the screen froze while I was calling up my choice fortunately, with an 800 number at the top. So I telephoned instead.

Because of shipping and handling charges, you generally pay more than you would at the mall, but that’s true of catalog shopping, too. For finding low-priced goods and sales, you’re better off in real stores. There aren’t many discounts or specials on the Web.

Pre-philanthropy

When it comes to charitable giving, baby boomers get a bad rap. Opinion writers blast them for failing to give enough of their stock-option fortunes away. But the critics are ignoring two things:

First, the boomers are still young. Major philanthropy tends to come at a later age. Second, the boomers are plenty engaged in philanthropy or “pre-philanthropy” already. People just don’t see it.

The wealthier boomers are piling money into their own private foundations, says attorney Joshua Rubenstein of Rosenman & Colin in New York.

The gift you make to your private foundation is irrevocable. You’re allowed the full charitable tax deduction up front (consistent with the limits the IRS puts on large write-offs for gifts). But you don’t have to give away all the money at once. The IRS requires you to give only 5 percent of the assets each year. The rest can be left alone to grow.

With a private foundation, you can manage the money while taking your time to look around for causes you might want to be involved with. Your children can manage the foundation, at your death.

Of course, you need a lot of money typically, $1 million and up to make a private foundation worthwhile. It might cost $5,000 to $10,000 in setup fees, plus another $2,000 to $3,000 in annual legal and accounting costs.

There’s a simpler and much lower-cost way of achieving what amounts to a private foundation: Make a gift to a community foundation, or to one of the two charitable funds created by mutual fund companies.

When you give the money, you put it into a private account, which you can name anything you want. It’s an irrevocable gift; you get no money back. So you can take the full income-tax deduction all at once.

But the money can remain in the account to grow, even into the next generation. At present, you’re not even required to give 5 percent of it away each year, as private foundations must.

If you choose a community foundation, it will manage the money for you. If you choose the charitable fund, you can put your money into one of several mutual funds. Whenever you want, you can direct that some of the money in your account be sent to a particular non-profit organization.

Community foundations accept cash, securities, real estate and other assets. Some let you set up private accounts with gifts as small as $5,000, but most require larger gifts.

There are some limits on what you can do with this money. For example, you’re not allowed to use these funds to fulfill a personal pledge (say, a pledge of $10,000 to your college’s capital campaign), give to foreign charities, make donations to your private foundation, provide a private benefit (say, tuition for your grandchild), make political contributions or buy benefit tickets.

The IRS OK’d these mutual-fund charities as consistent with the law. Congress, however, may revisit this issue. There’s talk about requiring you to give away at least 5 percent a year from your account at a mutual-fund charity or community foundation, just as you would with a private foundation.

Syndicated columnist Jane Bryant Quinn can be reached in care of the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th St., Washington, D.C. 20071-9200.