We here at Listicles are very much in denial of recessionomics. We don’t buy the idea that we won’t be able to buy another yacht every year, or get each of our kids a slick hybrid car for their middle school, high school and college graduations, or that there’s something fundamentally unsustainable about blowing $1,830 on three shoes. Late-stage capitalism is still chugging away comfortably if you ask us, and the austere new era supposedly being ushered in with our newly-elected leader tomorrow doesn’t phase us one bit.

To keep the spirit of bountiful luxury and narcissistic flaunting alive, our weekly financialisticle Big Money Mondays will take a look back at what many of our friends are dubbing “The Year That Luxury Died.” Newsflash friends: luxury doesn’t die, it has enough money to make sure it can live forever. In that spirit, we join our posh friends at Icon Magazine to look at some of last year’s most expensive objects for the ages, the 5 Craziest Luxury Items of 2008.

Jade Jagger’s Belvedere Icepick

Who doesn’t have a cool quarter milli (that’s $250,000 in non-playa speak) to drop on such an integral party accessory? When we’re breaking chunks off the block of antarctic ice that we have helicoptered to our tropical compound every time we have a party, we want to have a firm grip on this bad boy’s white gold handle, with its ergonomic embedded diamonds, sapphires and lapis lazuli.

The Samsonite Swarovski Black Label Trunk

Vintage cool circa 1920s luxury travel culture updated for post-millennial ostentation, these beautiful travel pieces (only thirty were made) are just the perfect size to be wheeled right onto your private jet.

Vertu Boucheron 150

Created by luxury cell phone designer Vertu for jewlery and perfumery Boucheron’s 150th anniversary, this tasty handheld unit is carved from solid gold, its buttons are sapphire, and it comes in a custom, hand-made walnut box. No word on what kinds of ringtones come with it.

Veuve Clicquot’s Yellowboam Champagne with ostrich skin label

We didn’t actually know that ostrich skin was a luxury item (we knew about diamon-encrusted ostrich eggs, of course, and Siberian tiger skin, but not ostrich skin…). However, since we felt it resting comfortably in our hand as we poured this 130th anniversary champagne into one of those huge glass pyramides like they have in movies and wealthy homes, we’ve decided to have the upholstery of our private train re-done with baby ostrich skin.

Billionaire Couture Umbrella

We had a prototype baby ostrich skin umbrella made, but it didn’t fare very well. Using crocodile scales for an umbrella seems much more sensible (and at $50,000, this umbrella is just about the most sensible thing we’ve bought all year).

Strangely Absent: $1.5 Million Christmas Tree

We totally meant to take pictures with this tree in our living room before putting it out on the curb. Oh well, this advertising image will have to do. It went over really well at our various holiday parties (no decorating, not gaudy lights to hang, no needles all over the floor), and it’s ecologically friendly: no trees were chopped or unsustainably farmed to provide our Christmas centerpiece, just lots of 24k gold and over 240 jewels. Luxury lives in 2009!