Gifting as a Christmas tradition dates back far beyond the birth of Christ. We tend to look at gifting as the tradition born of the Wisemen, who came bearing lavish gifts for the Christ child. But gifting goes back much further in Christmas celebrations than the time of Christ. There might be a variety of either religious or societal influences for it but gifting as an idea is nothing new for year-end celebrations.

The dilemma therefore isn’t in why we give gifts. It remains in how we do it. For some, gifting isn’t solved by one singular item. For some, the gift of variety solves the gifting issue. And therein resides the beauty of Christmas hampers.

Christmas hampers allow for unique Christmas gifts all in one package. A Christmas hamper can follow a general theme — all Christmas, all wine, all bread & cheeses, all chocolate, etc. — or they can offer a potpourri of items designed to delight.

Bundling of gifts into one spectacular package is what makes gifting truly festive. Unwrap a hamper in a crowd and oohs-and-aws are sure to abound.

Hampers also make excellent gifts given in anonymity. Whether delivered by a service or left doorbell-ditch style the element of surprise pays dividends as layer after layer of small gifts reveal themselves to unsuspecting receivers.

While many companies bundle gifts in a variety of hampers many gift givers prefer to hand select the items, brands and variety to make the gift of a hamper more personal. This can make the gifting project more demanding- – and more satisfying.

Bear in mind: this isn’t a movie. It is a showcase. Filled with background music in various styles you select the visual part of the DVD is just slowly passing images of Christmas lights like you see during any Christmas season — from all over the United States. But now you don’t need to wait until post-Thanksgiving to see them. You can watch it at any time. Here is one of their samples:

When I sat down to view the hour long video I wondered if I would find it boring. In fact, the very thought of just seeing Christmas lights on a television seemed to me akin to watching paint dry. But as I got it started and turned up the music the kids started to come into the room. As each brilliant display passed by us the room filled with an energy as we talked about each one. The room soon filled with laughter and got us talking as a family about our plans for our own lights this year.

In talking with the production folks who made the video they acknowledged that this video isn’t like sitting down to a holiday classic movie. It might be more appropriate, they told me, as background material for a Christmas party.

I tried to think of it in that context but as I watched this and the kids dribbled into the room I was amazed at the reaction. My children span a wide gap — the eldest is 25 and the youngest is 9 — with all age inbetween. Each of them were enthralled with the images!

It certainly set a Christmas tone in our home early and for folks who can’t brave the snow and the ice or who just want to see Christmas lights long before or after they are displayed this video is a real treat.

The newest version, Christmas Lights DVD2, is just $9.99 and includes free shipping. It is now available for ordering via their website or on Amazon.com at the link below:

Black Friday is the day after Thanksgiving and it has everything to do with your money and separating it from you. It has grown into an event – a holiday tradition – as well-known and celebrated as football on Thanksgiving or Santa at Christmas. It is a wholly American tradition.

By strict definition, Black Friday used to be the day when retailers would celebrate reaching profitability – or in the “black” – for their operating year. With the busiest shopping days of Christmas ahead of them, the money for the year would really start to pile up. Modern retailers wish they could mark such a day on their calendars still. But Black Friday has in the last 25 years especially morphed from a milestone for retailers into something entirely different.

For our international readers here is how Black Friday is celebrated by many Americans: a Thanksgiving day of family devoted activities and feasting leads to the first activity of Christmas: shopping.

In some places it begins as early as midnight, with malls across America opening and hosting “pajama parties”, promising big discounts for the earliest shoppers. In some extreme cases the crowds are so thick that local police are called to direct traffic and ensure that fire safety laws are enforced. But more traditionally the real big retailers – WalMart, Best Buy, Target, Kmart, JCPenney’s and others – open their doors between 4am and 6am with highly touted and spectacular discounts on popular in-demand products.

How great are these deals? Last year you could get a computer for $200. A decent 32 inch flat screen TV was only $300. BluRay movie titles were as little as $5 and coats for kids were priced at as low as $10. With such attractive bargains, many people scour the ads on Thanksgiving Day and set up a strategy for their early morning buying.

For retailers, it is a game of necessity but not one they are particularly fond of. At such prices there isn’t any profit being made. And stores get trashed in the process. In some extreme cases, retailers suffer damages due to the liabilities they incur by drawing massive crowds. So why do they do it? Because competition demands it. To be seen and talked about on Black Friday could lead to a successful – or disasterous shopping season, depending upon what happens.

Black Friday therefore has become almost like a sport. Retailers play the game of what to stock and how to price it. And consumers have to strategize of where to be and how much to have in order to grab the bargain.

Over the years a number of online resources have developed to help both consumers and retailers inform themselves of Black Friday events. In some cases, early ads are “leaked” to these sites either on purpose or clandestinely, depending upon who you talk to. Some retailers will willingly serve up information to them to build up anticipation and “buzz” about their locations and products. Others will leak false information to tweak competitors. So as you peruse the following list of resources realize that what you read there may or may not be true. It is all part of the game.

BFAds.net
The granddaddy of Black Friday websites claims to be the oldest and most accurate. Few dispute this and even fewer really care because every year is a new story and what happened in the past rarely indicates what will happen this year. This site is known for gaining early season insights, often irritating retailers who claim they get their information in unauthorized ways. This site is almost as famous for the “cease and desist” orders they receive from retailers as they are from the ads they post. We have watched them for several years and have noticed a disturbing trend this year of continual marketing of Black Friday t-Shirts and other merchandise that gets plugged more than actual news that is published.

They too have taken to linking to certain products from certain retailers (both online and offline), leading us to believe they are affiliate marketers. I am starting to question their objectivity.
Traffic information and media mentions of this site appears to top all others and the site has to run on several servers to meet the demands of traffic upon it. The domain was registered back in 2005 and appears to be hosted out of Texas from IP 173.192.80.232 (Softlayer Technologies).

BlackFriday.Info
This site takes a cleaner, more graphical approach to Black Friday deals. They use vendor logos and present information in a straightforward way. It is one of our favorite resources because we can see all that is happening with Black Friday quickly and concisely. The site does not overwhelm you with ads or affiliate links. It has the experience to be credible and serves up straightforward feeds.

The domain was created in 2005 and is registered in France. Servers for the site are located in Texas from IP 74.86.181.237 (Softlayer Technologies) Traffic and ranking statistics are nearly identical to
BFads.net

BlackFriday.org
Out of all the sites we tested this year this one appears to have the consumer most in mind in the way it delivers news without selling. The site runs on WordPress, is fast and cleanly organized. There is not an overwhelming presence of ads, affiliate links or bias towards one retailer over another.

The only question: can they get the breaking news?

The domain was created back in 2003 and the site is served on several servers. It doesn’t rank as well for traffic or popularity. The servers are, curiously, also hosted in Texas from IP 64.228.3.152.

Black-Friday.net
This site appears to be a copycat of BFads.net. Nothing they offer is unique and what they do offer curiously appears only after BFads.net has posted it on their site first. What gives us pause is that this site carries product-specific information – much like you would see at the Best Buy website. That leads us to believe they are more of an affiliate marketer than a true news site. Proceed with caution. Created in 2005, and served from Texas at IP 74.86.202.132. Traffic and ranking stats are middle of the road by comparison.

BlackFriday.com
Not a lot of value in this site. The news is old, oddly presented and usually late.

Lower traffic and ranking in search engines, in fact, we think this site likely draws only traffic because it is a top level domain name and many folks just type in blackfriday.com. This site is located, curiously, in Vancouver and is served by a single computer.

Who has the real scoop when it comes to BF?
We like three sites that dedicate themselves to shopping year round and don’t just try to do this come every October. Without a doubt, they lead all the above mentioned sites for real news and information and we suspect this is true because they must have established relationships with the many retailers and etailers out there. Who are they? Gottadeal.com, WalletPop.com and DealNews.com.

In a down economy, layaway plans allow a Christmas shopper to select an item months in advance and pay it off in small increments while it sits on the retailer’s shelf. The advantage of this to the shopper is obvious: you hang on your cash, you get the item you want and you don’t have to pay interest charges. The potential downsides are these: the items may go on sale cheaper later in the season once you have already signed a layaway agreement or you may have cash flow issues that prevent you from making future payments (especially on high ticket items), which would cause you to lose any money you have paid towards the item and the item itself.

Christmas savings clubs work a bit differently. Born of retailers long before the turn of the 20th century, Christmas savings clubs are just as a name implies – plans devoted to storing money, not merchandise – until the holiday shopping season. They went by the wayside as American prosperity and the growth of revolving credit emerged in the mid-20th century – mostly due to the paperwork and bureaucratic nightmare it created for retailers and banks that administered the programs.

A nightmarish economy and gift-card technology of the 21st century have revived the concept and it is a good one – if you like to do all your Christmas shopping in one place.
The new Christmas savings clubs offer a 3% bonus on any money you deposit within a certain time frame. That is a better rate of return than most modern savings banks. There are no refunds on money you deposit but the money always remains available and the bonus is only good on total deposits received within a certain time frame (usually from early spring to around mid-October to mid-November, depending upon the retailer).

Christmas savings clubs – available at major retailers like Toys R Us and Kmart and some smaller retailers – can be a boon for the tightly budgeted Christmas shopper. But folks can just as easily save their cash and get a slightly lesser return at a bank and then have the flexibility of spending their Christmas money wherever they want.

Make your list, Check it twice

How much gift giving do you do? How much do you have to do? After all, these are tough times. Your generosity just might be putting the squeeze on a loved one or close friend who might feel obligated to reciprocate your gift giving nature. Are these the best times for this kind of practice? Do you really need to participate in every gift exchange? Now is the time to take inventory of it. Talk about it now, while the glow of Christmas lights are far away. You may find your list a little shorter this year with a little proactive planning right now.

Dream, Dream, Dream

What will be the hot thing this Christmas? Start asking around right now. Just this week Microsoft made waves with a new product called Kinect which is a motion sensing camera attached to an Xbox gaming system. Big deal, you say? It might not be a big thing to YOU but it got a lot of buzz via Facebook and in the media this past week. And in just a few short days it has already been identified as one of the must-have gifts for Christmas 2010.

What does this mean for you?

It means you’ve got to plug in, tune in and turn on the media to find out what the deal is for Christmas. Many folks — especially kids — want the “in” thing. Now is the time when that buzz builds. Often, these items are impossible to find come Christmas. Sometimes your only shot at them is to get them before Labor Day. Pre-ordering through Amazon, for example, is a great way to beat the holiday rush — or the holiday out-of-stock situation. Ask anyone trying to buy an iPhone a couple years ago. Listen well and act fast, Savvy Shopper.

Strike while the iron is hot

Retailers love Christmas. They love Thanksgiving, Halloween and Back-to-School time. But they hate June and July. They detest those months because nobody has much of a reason to buy. After all, folks are drenched in sunscreen and thinking vacation right now. And that means opportunity for the Savvy Shopper. Malls are not only air conditioned but they are empty — and full of bargains. On some purchases retailers are so desperate for sales they just might barter a bit with you. What have you got to lose?

There is a lot of wisdom to beating the Christmas rush. And nothing beats it better than getting it done now.

Take some time out this holiday season to show your spouse how much you love them.

Set a date night to go shopping for friends and family. Make a list in advance so that you know what you are purchasing for whom in advance. This way you know how much you are spending ahead of time and there is no arguing over what you are going to purchase each person on your list!

Ride around in your car and look at the Christmas lights in your neighborhood. It is nice to see what different decorating ideas others have come up with. There is something about the lights that can bring a smile to your face.

If there is a place in your town that you can take a horse drawn carriage ride, take your spouse out for dinner then for a ride.

If you have a Christmas tree farm in your area, take an evening and go pick out a Christmas tree together.

Turn off the computer, your cell phones, television and decorate your Christmas tree together. Ignore all distractions and just spend that time together. Turn on some Christmas music, make some hot chocolate and spend the evening decorating the tree. Be sure to take a picture of you and your spouse in front of your tree after decorating it.

Make a cocktail, turn on some Christmas music and wrap Christmas presents together. Sure they may not turn out like they were wrapped at Macy’s but it is the memories you make wrapping the presents, not the wrapping job that you are doing this for!

There are always Christmas functions in each city. In Orlando there is an indoor park that has slides made out of ice. When you go in they give you a rain jacket to put on and you go through sliding down slides and playing with fake snow.

Disney World at night during Christmas is always a romantic way to spend an evening together. Disney pulls out all the stops every year and decorates the castle in a holiday theme. It would hard to not be in the Christmas spirit at Disney during the holiday season!

This year for Christmas don’t buy a box of generic cards to sign your name in and send out. Send out personalized cards. It is much cheaper than you think!

You can purchase a box of generic cards that you slide a 4X6 picture in. Open your picture folder on your computer and pick out a favorite picture of you and that person that is receiving the card.

You probably have funny pictures of the two of you together or a funny picture of that person from the summer. Go to Walgreens.com and upload the picture to their site and have it printed out. They will print your pictures in an hour and it will only cost you are .25 cents per picture.  Do this for each of your recipients. If you do not have a picture of that person, send a funny picture of you!

This is such a personalized way to send out a card that doesn’t cost a lot and won’t take you long to put together.

If you have a lot of pictures of a close friend, send them a picture book for Christmas. Kodak has a great site that you can upload your pictures to and personalize each page to have a caption with each picture. You can print your favorite picture on the cover and it comes out just like a hard-back book would. You can write them a letter on one of the pages letting them know how much you appreciate their friendship.

This is a great personalized gift for under thirty dollars. You could do this for your closest friends and family. It is something they will proudly display on their coffee table that their friends will come over and look through. It is better to spend money on a personalized gift that you know they will love then purchase a thirty dollar sweater they may or may not wear.

Another great personalized gift is to purchase someone a digital frame and upload a bunch of pictures to it. When they open it they can immediately plug it in and see the pictures start to scroll through. If the person already has a digital frame, you can purchase a memory card and upload a new set of pictures to it.

Give them the memory card and they can plug it in to their frame.

Personalizing a gift doesn’t take a lot of time or money, get creative and make your loved ones feel special this Christmas!

When you and your family or friends gather this year to exchange gifts, come up with a theme.

You can draw names to exchange the gifts, or put all the gifts in a pile and draw numbers. Number one will pick the first gift. Then number two will either take number ones gift or pick another gift out of the pile. The person that draws the final number has the best advantage cause they can see all of the presents to choose from.

Some ideas for different themes are you can do a funny theme. Each person brings one gift and it has to be a funny gift. It may bring back a memory of something funny that happened or just a funny gift.

You could do a memory theme. Each gift has to have a story to go along with it from something that happened during that year.

A spa theme is perfect for a group of girlfriends. Each person can bring nail polish, bath salts, a robe or slippers and exchange them in a gift exchange.

If you have a group of friends that like to read a book exchange would make a great theme. You can either purchase new books or use books that you have read before and could recommend as a good read.

A home-made them would make each person be creative in what they are going to bring. You could require each person bring something they made. You could bring food, an ornament, a frame with a picture in it, anything that the person would have to put some thought in to and can’t stop at the store on the way to your home.

You could have an under ten-dollar theme. This will force people to not over spend and it will force them to be creative with how they are going to spend the ten dollars.  This will help if you have a diverse group, some people can afford to spend more than ten dollars and some cannot afford it. This will put the whole group on the same playing field and will not make those that cannot afford expensive gifts feel bad.

Be creative and come up with a fun unique idea that will bring lots of laughter and memories to the group.

This year, come up with some ideas that you can do with your friends and family that does not cost a lot of money. Get your camera out, take pictures and videos and create lifelong memories.

Invite your friends and family over to make Gingerbread Houses. This is not only fun, you spend time with your loved ones and everyone gets to be creative with their houses.

Have a cookie making night at your home. Ask each person that is attending to bring one of the ingredients to the cookies. Not only does this help the host not spend all of the money for the craft but everyone feels like they contributed. Spend the evening making your favorite Christmas cookies. Take pictures of each step and each of the different cookies with the person that made that cookie.

Let each person take home their cookies or go as a group and give them to people. It will bring a smile to your face and the person receiving the cookies.  Bring the cookies to your local convenience store clerk, pharmacist, hair dresser, bartender, mail clerk, school office, teacher or anyone else that you see all year long and would like to give them a little something at Christmas.

Ask around at your church or ask your friends what families are not going to have a Christmas dinner this year. Find out their name, phone number and address. If you would like, you can call them and ask them what they would like for Christmas dinner or you can surprise them with dinner.

Gather your friends and family and go to the grocery store to purchase items to make dinner for the needy family. Go home and spend time together peeling and mashing potatoes, carving the turkey and baking a pie.

Once dinner is finished, bring it over to the family and present it to them. Be sure to bring them paper plates and napkins, you never know if someone has dishes in their home and it makes an easy clean-up for them.

Bring your camera along and take pictures of your kids bringing in the food to them and the proud look they will have on their face.

Creating last memories during the holidays doesn’t have to involve toys and a lot of money. Just being thoughtful and having your loved ones around is all you need.

If you plan in advance for the holiday season it will reduce your stress. Make a list of every person you are shopping for this year. Make this list far in advance of Christmas.

Write down what you want to purchase each person. Things you need to think about are, how much are you going to spend on gifts this year and how much are you going to spend on each person. Are you going to a lot fifty percent of your budget to your children and the other half for the remainder of your family and friends.

Make an announcement to your friends and family that this year you are on a limited budget and that you will be making minimal amount of purchases.

If you have a large family, draw names. This way each person does not have to buy a gift for each person. It lightens the stress burden and the financial burden to only have to purchase a gift for one person.

Shop early! It is stressful to go in to the stores at Christmas time.  Stores are crowded, the traffic around the stores are horrible and finding a parking spot can be impossible sometimes.

If you can get all of your shopping done before Thanksgiving you are doing yourself a huge favor. The stores are less crowded before Thanksgiving than after.

Do not feel obligated to run out and purchase a gift for each person that may have given you a gift. Gifts are not supposed to be given with the expectation of getting something in return.

Some people just have too many people in their lives to purchase something for each person. Spending a night together having a nice dinner is far more memorable then buying them a coffee mug that they are going to forget about next year.

Make sure you have purchased all of your decorations for this year in advance also. Ultimately you are trying to avoid going to stores during December. This can help with the stress load.

If you have to go shopping during the busy month, go during the day during the week when most people are at work. Or if you are a night owl, go shopping at twenty-four hour stores late at night. The crowds and parking are going to be far less stressful during this time.