Saks Fifth Avenue turned up the heat on the holiday shopping season last night with an event that paired up their best male customers with eight Playboy playmates.

The former centerfolds from Playboy Magazine, a mix of scantily-clad women who wore the trademark bunny ears, helped the department store’s VIP clientele choose holiday gifts for their wives, girlfriends, or, more credibly, themselves.

As the competition for holiday shopping dollars reaches fever-pitch, the event, named “Shop with a Bunny,” was a device for trapping big spenders. Many of the shoppers, donning sharp-looking pinstripe suits, appeared to be wooed by the scotch, and, well, the playmates.

The general manager of Saks’ flagship Fifth Avenue store, Robert Wallstrom, said, “We always want to find a unique experience for our customers, whether that is in unique product, or this event tonight. Our customers like to have fun, too.”

The ploy appeared to be working. Playmate Nicole Wood, a New Jersey native, said, “Usually men hate to shop. But tonight I’ve met some very nice men. They bought a lot of shirts and ties.”

Playmate Jennifer Wolcott, of St. Louis, will be in New York for only one day. Last night, she ice-skated at Rockefeller Center. “We’ve got bankers and we’ve got construction workers here tonight,” she said.

Another playmate, Courtney Culkin, of Long Island, said that for Christmas she wants a cashmere robe with a fur collar, anything at all from Louis Vuitton, and an engagement ring from her boyfriend.

Several of the playmates recently returned from a grueling five-month bus tour through all 50 states. Playmate Colleen Marie, also a veterinarian in Hoboken, N.J., said the trip was a whirlwind of “shopping and pajama pillow fights.”