NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Booze, beach and barbecue -- all things synonymous with summertime, when the living's easy and the stock picking is hard.

The period of May through the end of August is a notoriously skittish time for the major averages, further complicated this year by the upcoming presidential election, the events in Iraq and the zooming price of oil.

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But if you embrace the "buy what you use" philosophy of investing, you might want to consider investing in some of the products and services that summer depends upon -- including alcohol, sunglasses, amusement parks and ice cream. Then again, maybe not.

A sample of a variety of stocks you might think would peak in summer have been surprisingly sleepy.

"There aren't many consistent big summer stock winners," said Jeffrey Hirsch, editor of the Stock Trader's Almanac. "In our sector watch, biotech is the one sector that tends to perform well in the summer months, starting in August, and July tends to be the best summer month overall for the S&P 500 stocks."

Sam Burns, an analyst at Ned Davis Research says of the stocks that he covers, financials have traditionally performed the best in the summer, although the rising interest rate environment may change that this year. Healthcare was the second-best performer.

But what about sectors that Standard & Poor's and others don't specifically track, such as sunglass and eyewear stocks?

Investors who hoped to see short-term returns by investing in companies such as sunglass maker Oakley (OO: Research, Estimates) would have been disappointed, with the stock declining in the period of May through August for five years running.

However, investors in Luxottica Group (LUX: Research, Estimates) -- parent of LensCrafters and the Sunglass Hut -- would have been happier with returns in that same five-year period. The stock was pretty flat in the summer of 1999, and declined 30 percent in the summer of 2002, falling in tune with the broader market. But the other three years of the period, the stock was just peachy, climbing an average of 19 percent.

Here's a look at other summer winners, and mostly, snoozers.

Hot weather and a cold beer seem to go hand in hand, but you wouldn't know it from the dearth of alcohol stocks reveling in summer stardom.

Big leaguers like Adolph Coors (RKY: Research, Estimates), Anheuser-Busch (BUD: Research, Estimates) and Diageo (DEO: Research, Estimates) have all kinds of factors unrelated to weather that determine the direction of their stocks and haven't shown any taste for summer rallies.

Boston Beer Company (SAM: Research, Estimates), the producer of Sam Adams, Redhook Ale Brewery (HOOK: Research, Estimates) and Kirin Brewery (KNBWY: Research, Estimates) also showed little reaction to the summer.

But Constellation Brands (STZ: Research, Estimates), which imports and markets a slew of beers and wines, tended to have a mini-rally in early July for each of the last five years.

However, both Pepsi (PEP: Research, Estimates) and Coca-Cola (KO: Research, Estimates) both showed few consistent summer trends.

Dreyer's Grand Ice Cream (DRYR: up $0.04 to $79.14, Research, Estimates) has a stock transgression that's nearly as smooth as vanilla ice cream, with little variation in summer. A look at the stock's performance over the last ten years showed no great rallies in summer or any other time of the year, with little volatility in the stock overall.

Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory (RMCF: Research, Estimates), Tofutti Brands (TOF: Research, Estimates) and Hershey Foods (HSY: Research, Estimates) also had little reaction to summer.

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. (MLP: Research, Estimates), which has two divisions, one that sells real estate, and one that sells pineapple products, showed the potential to be a summer star in the summers of 1999 and 2000. In '99, it rallied 31 percent, before easing for the rest of the year, while in 2000, it gained 17 percent, before pulling back. It also had a good summer in 2003. But in 2001 and 2002, it stumbled with the rest of the stock market.

Dick's Sporting Goods (DKS: Research, Estimates) led a list of sporting goods retailer stocks that have had little or no reaction to the improved weather. Callaway Golf (ELY: Research, Estimates) tended to see a mild decline in the summer months over the last five years. And Travis Boats & Motors (TRVS: Research, Estimates)' stock has been on a slow decline for much of the last decade, summer or not.

Shares of Six Flags (PKS: Research, Estimates) not only don't see a summer rally, but they tend to see summer selloffs, looking at the last five years of performance. Plus the company has been posting some pretty discouraging financial results recently. Smaller rival Cedar Fair (FUN: Research, Estimates) has shown a fairly unremarkable summer performance, one way or the other.

Royal Caribbean Cruises (RCL: Research, Estimates) and Carnival Corporation (CCL: Research, Estimates) have been all over the place in the summer.

You may like NASCAR and auto racing, particularly when it's warm out, but steer clear of International Speedway (ISCA: Research, Estimates) and Speedway Motorsports (TRK: Research, Estimates) in the summer, as they both provide expressways to no discernible trend.

A promising summer star to watch for the future is Barbeques Galore (BBQZ: Research, Estimates), an Australian-based specialty retailer that makes its money in high-end barbecue sales. The company's only been publicly-traded for four years, making it too new to provide a clear trend, but it's got potential.

The stock showed little summer promise in 2000 and 2001, when it declined with the rest of the market.

However, investors who purchased shares at the end of May 2002 and sold them at the end of August 2002 would have been pretty happy, with the stock gaining 14 percent in that period and then declining in the months after.

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Investors who bought shares in the same period a year later would have been awfully happy with a 70 percent return, particularly since the stock did nothing for the rest of the year.

But this year, the stock may have peaked early. Shares are up more than 80 percent through the first five months of the year thanks to strong fourth-quarter and first-quarter earnings. Its questionable whether the company can build on that too much this summer.