There are Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) 
Mac users -- folks who happen to own a Mac and use it for e-mailing, blogging, browsing, buying and social networking. Then there are the Apple diehards -- the Mac fans who buy Apple products and accessories that maximize their Mac life. Some of these zealots buy two iPhones -- one for themselves and the other just to take apart, to see what it looks like on the inside, and maybe, just to marvel at Apple's ingenious ability to cram so much into a tight little elegant package.
I fall somewhere in between. I've been using Macs before they were even called Macs, and I'd be an Apple zealot if it weren't for one nagging problem: constricted cash flow. Consequently, while a Mac laptop upgrade every two years is a no-brainer for me, I've got to seriously think about which Apple products I can afford to buy.
Still, there are some Apple products and accessories that make most everyone's must-have list. Realistically, of course, the list is affected by cash flow, and if you want to make a Mac-lover ecstatic this holiday season, any of these items (if he or she doesn't already have it) will do the trick:
The iPhone
Most every Mac owner wants an iPhone -- the sheer elegance is appealing, no doubt, but integrated functionality is what they're drooling for. The iPhone seamlessly works with OS X's Mail, Address Book, and iCal, plus it's a music-jamming iPod and video player. If you can't take your Mac everywhere with you, an iPhone is the next best thing.
The only downside is the cost -- US$399 -- and the AT&T (NYSE: T) service plan, plus the possible cost of ditching a non-AT&T service provider. The iPhone joy, however, is eternal -- just ask any iPhone user if they can imagine life without their iPhone.
To Touch or to Nano?
Ah, the iPod -- for many Mac lovers, the iPod represents their first date with Apple. For those who are now married to the Cupertino company's products, owning an iPod is a given. The question is, which one?
The iPod shuffle ($79) is a trinket, a toy, handy but not necessary, and the iPod classic ($249) is brilliant but old school. The only real decision is the iPod nano ($149 to $199 depending on storage 
capcity) or the iPod touch ($299 to $399). Fortunately, the decision is mitigated by the iPhone -- if you own an iPhone, you don't really need the iPod touch, and while you can get the touch in a whopping 16 GB version, it's a bit redundant.
As for the iPod nano, it's small and light, making it suitable for packing around, leaving in your car or taking to the gym. Working out with an iPod touch just seems silly in a world where the nano exists. However, there's one caveat: Hooking up an iPod touch to a dedicated speaker system -- and leaving it there -- is a drool-worthy addition because, hey, eventually you'll want to make calls on your iPhone.
A Second Mac
In most Mac user homes, second and third Macs are hand-me downs from previous systems. If a diehard Apple fan has an enormous cash flow, the decision gets easy: a fully-loaded Mac Pro with two 3.0 GHz Quad-Core Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) Xeon processors, 16 GB of memory, a Mac Pro RAID Card, four separate (count 'em -- four!) 750 GB hard drives, an Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 512 MB graphics card , a stereo 3-D dual-link DVI graphics card, a 30-inch flat panel Apple Cinema HD Display, a second display for wicked-cool screen spanning, two 16x SuperDrives, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme wireless connectivity, a keyboard, and a Mighty Mouse -- all for a cool $14,976.
For your average middle-class user, however, a new iMac ($1,199 to 2,299) or MacBook ($1,099 to $1,499) seems entirely reasonable: If a Mac user already has a MacBook, the iMac is the accessory, and vice-versa.
Apple TV
The Apple TV is an enigma device. It lets you connect your Mac to your HDTV and use Apple's elegant Front Row application to browse and play movies, videos, TV shows, podcasts and songs. If it's on iTunes, it's on TV.
Why the enigma? Apple TV is cool, but for an Apple product, diehards know it could be so much better ... and they don't really understand why it's not. For instance, why limit it to iTunes content? Why can't it record TV like any number of digital video recorders available on the market, many of which come with cable or satellite TV service? Why can't you record a TV show and store it in iTunes and sync it with your iPod or iPhone? The excuse, of course, is digital rights management (DRM) issues, which make legal and moral sense to everyone except consumers, who are already paying for the content in the first place by watching the ads or buying the TV service.
Also, why no direct Internet connectivity from the Apple TV, through the TV? Why no wireless keyboard with touch pad, or a fresh touch-screen controller? You don't even have the ability to attach a USB external hard drive loaded with movies and TV shows.
The Apple TV is brilliant but lacking, so while most Mac lovers would happily take one for free, the purchase is a bit of a head-scratcher. When's the next -- and presumably much improved -- version coming out?
Mighty Mouse
If it weren't so small, the Mighty Mouse could easily be at the top of any Mac user's must-have list. The Bluetooth wireless Mighty Mouse has a surprisingly effective tiny rubber scroll ball at the top that provides horizontal and vertical scrolling within applications on a Mac.
Plus, the right click button used in the Windows world also works in a Mac world. While the Might Mouse doesn't have a separate button on its smooth surface, it's smart enough to recognize a right-side click and act accordingly. You can also use side pressure buttons. Using this thing can become quite a hard habit to break -- take away a user's Mighty Mouse and watch productivity slide while frustration rises. For a measly $49, it's a steal.
OS X Leopard
Apple's latest release of its OS X operating system is 10.5, aka "Leopard," and it's such a no-brainer upgrade that it's easy to forget.
Packed with more than 300 new and upgraded features, Leopard changes how users find and access files of all sorts, plus it looks sharper and is better integrated with all Apple solutions than its predecessors. The best feature, however, is the new backup and recovery application, Time Machine. Finally, backups are easy and useful -- easy to set up and useful in that you can go back to yesterday and retrieve the file that you deleted today.
External Hard Drive
Pick any brand-name hard drive, ideally at least 500 GB, and you've got the Time Machine backup brother you need for peace of mind. For an even better setup, get a separate Firewire-compatible drive and use it every two weeks to create a bootable backup drive that will let you use most any new Mac to launch your backed-up environment.
Use SuperDuper or Carbon Copy Cloner as the software to help you make the bootable backup copy of your Mac.
Airport Extreme Base Station
Your Mac works with other wireless network routers, but none are as easy to use and as integrated as the Apple Airport Extreme Base Station.
Well worth the premium $179 price. 'Nuff said.
iLife '08
Of all the Apple products, outside of Mac OS X, iLife '08 is the best. Mac lovers can survive without iWork '08, but iLife contains iPhoto, Apple's awesome photo and movie clip management application. It lets you do light editing on photos, such as touchups and red-eye removal, plus it lets you change contrast, color and exposure settings. It's no Aperture or PhotoShop, but it's solid for most users.
In addition, you can easily create slide shows that you can export to iDVD and create your own DVDs. iWeb and GarageBand are cool, too, for those who want easy-to-build Web sites or know a thing or two about music making.
Everything Else
Anyone who's really into Apple is likely also into all sorts of other technology, so there's a wide variety of electronics that most constantly crave. First on the list are digital cameras and digital camcorders, followed by iPod speaker dock systems and decent computer speakers designed for MP3 players -- like the ubiquitous iPod.
Finally, for those looking for small-budget stocking stuffers this holiday season, iTunes gift cards are always great for any die-hard Apple fan.
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