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Home > Blogs > Holiday > Archives > 2008 > November
November 2008
Black Friday 2008 recap
The shopping is finally over (or at least dwindling for some brave souls). Like many of you, I ventured out after nearly no sleep at 3 a.m. to be in line at the Beavercreek Kohl’s by 3:30 (store opening at 4 a.m.).
I made the adventure a lot more fun by going with two friends. It’s much easier to get everything you’re after if you are in it together.
By heading for various departments and picking up each others desired items in said departments, we cut down on wasted time and met up at the checkout. We were in and out of most of our stores within (and sometimes much less than) an hour.
I will note that while we didn’t originally plan to, we did head to Walmart for a quick look at their morning bargains. While definitely not as violent as the tragedy in a New York Walmart where an employee was knocked down and died in a stampede of shoppers, we did notice an air of hostility and overall atmosphere of people being rude and flat out mean. The employees were doing the best they could and trying to move things along and keep things under control, but at least in the electronics area, it was an instant roar of people pushing, shoving and yelling when the 5 a.m. “Let the shopping begin” announcement was made.
I finally got what I was after (1 item!) and found a line that didn’t seem too long. 30 minutes later I was rethinking that analysis. I did witness a young man who payed for a video game system (luckily his only item!) at least partially, with a bag of change. In hard economic times, I understand you’ve gotta spend what you can in any way you can, but good grief, way to slow the line down! To her credit (and that of those in line with him) the cashier did not react negatively, she simply counted out the change as quickly as possible. And really, aside from some grouchy people when aisles were crowded, we didn’t see or hear any angry or violent people the rest of the day.
Other stores I hit up for deals were: Target, Circuit City, K-Mart, Walgreens, Cardboard Heroes and Elder-Beerman. In most cases there were plenty of the sale items available and I was able to successfully check off nearly every item on my Black Friday shopping list.
I was a pretty happy (if not exhausted) shopper by early afternoon. How’d you do?
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Black Friday is here!
The busiest shopping day of the year is here! Did you end up heading out to shop til you drop?
Did you score any great deals? Encounter any fights? Or better yet, kind people doing the right thing and enjoying themselves?
What’s your favorite part of Black Friday? Tell us about your experiences.
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Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is stuffed full of turkey and all the trimmings. Since it’s that time of year again, I’ll pose the obvious question: What are you thankful for?
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How will you spend Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving is tomorrow and what that really means is a day filled with food, family and friends and also it’s one last day to relax before the holiday madness starts.
For me, the day will also mean finishing putting up Christmas lights. Since the weather is supposed to be reasonably warm and sunny it seems like a good day to scale the ladder and get them up while dinner is cooking.
Once the lights are up (and let’s face it, probably before - like while I eat breakfast) I’ll be pouring over the ads for Friday’s sales and making a game plan.
Maybe if I’m lucky I’ll catch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on TV. It starts at 9 a.m. on NBC. On CBS they’ll have highlights of the Macy’s parade along with other performances and marches.
Will you be watching the parade?
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Charlie Brown Thanksgiving tonight!
‘A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving’ airs tonight, Nov. 25 on ABC.
Tune in at 8 p.m., EST to catch the 1/2 hour holiday classic. It will be followed by ‘This Is America, Charlie Brown: The Mayflower Voyagers’
It will also air on Thursday, Nov. 27 (Thanksgiving) at 8 p.m. in case you miss it tonight or want to see it again.
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Black Friday countdown: 3 days to go
Just 3 full days (and a few hours) remain until the doors start to open at your favorite retailers on Black Friday.
Whether the deals will be enough to bring hordes of shoppers out this year remains to be seen but if you’re going to shop, it’s nice to be prepared. You can:
•Peruse the ads early online (no guarantees as to the accuracy of these ads - I recommend checking the real ones on Thursday to make sure). No waiting here! Shop online now
•Clean out purses, wallets and trunks ahead of time. > Find more survival tips.
My biggest struggle so far has been getting my overall holiday gift lists ready. I’m at a loss for what to get most of the people on my list and some have been reluctant to send ideas my way. One nice idea though, that I think will make things smoother for list making this year are wish lists. Amazon of course has one and it’s easy to set up and fill out. Their wish lists can be populated with any item for sale on their site and they have many companies that work through their site. All you have to do is search and click “add to my wish list” when you find what you want (anything from music and movies to beauty products and tools).
Toys R Us also features a Wish List tool which makes sending wish lists for the kids to grandma and grandpa easier. Even if you make one and print it to send to them it gives a picture, the correctly spelled name of the toy and the expected price. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
The nice thing about wish lists, is that similar to bridal and baby registries, when someone purchases an item, it’s marked off on the list to avoid duplication. This is handy but unfortunately in the case of some lists, if you don’t buy it from the site (or in the store if applicable) it stays on the list and you can end up with two (or more!) of the same thing. That being said, if you know those who view your list are going to communicate, send them the list for ideas and they can purchase the items however they want and you can remove them from the list once you open the gift.
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It’s time for you to Be Claus
1 week to go until Thanksgiving. I can taste the turkey and dressing already! And once it’s all said and done, the holiday season can truly begin. To get in the spirit, why not write a letter to santa and take it to Macy’s this year? All Macy’s department stores have special Believe Santa Mail mailboxes out to put in Santa letters and for every one they recieve they’ll donate $1 to the Make a Wish Foundation (up to $1 million). And don’t worry, the letters still get taken to the Post Office for North Pole delivery. :)
Also on the Macy’s Believe site, they have additional fun and games. You can read the Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus letter and response, find a location to drop off your letter and Be Claus. Last year, everyone knew about the elves. Will this year’s internet sensation be Santa? See how I turned myself into Santa here…
Now it’s your turn to Be Claus.
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Get ready for Black Friday
A week and two days to go as of today (Tues.). And since I know you all want to be as fully prepared as possible for it, we’ve created a survival guide for you. It contains, survival tips, polls and best of all, a printable list template. Just print it out and fill in your Black Friday list in an organized fashion. With any luck, you’ll make it home with most of the items you were after!
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Black Friday’s almost here
After today, you’ve got 10 days until Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving in case you were asleep). Will you be heading out to shop and find the best deals?
[an error occurred while processing this directive]What deals are you hoping you’ll see in the ads next week? Are you searching for anything in particular?
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Christmas music starts at noon Friday
Christmas is coming pretty early to the Dayton area. Starting at noon tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 14 (yes, that’s two weeks before Black Friday!) Lite 99.9 will switch over to all Christmas music all the time. Take our Christmas song lyrics quiz to see how well you’ll be able to sing along this season.
They’ll kick it all off in the Christmas cottage in the middle of the Mall at Fairfield Commons food court at noon.
With that and today’s arrival of Dayton’s Christmas tree to Courthouse Square, it seems the holidays are creeping up earlier than ever this year. Everyone seems to already be getting their holiday shopping started too and the retailers are counting on that with so many people out of jobs and hurting financially.
But is it too early for all this Christmas cheer? Share your thoughts below and vote in the poll. [an error occurred while processing this directive]
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Setting the scene for Thanksgiving dinner
When it comes to turkey day, we all know what the important stuff is: turkey, dressing and of course the inevitable cranberry sauce (preferably with the rings from the can still there to cut by, right?!).
But what about the sides? And I’m not talking about noodles or green bean casserole here. I mean the napkins and the tablecloth and the centerpieces and that hearty autumn feeling we strive for in our homes as we welcome our family members and sometimes friends in to enjoy some turkey and pumpkin pie (with whipped cream of course!).
How to achieve it? Candles can’t hurt. If you strive for real ones, look for holders and dishes that offer a safe spot for them to rest (preferably seasonal ones!). These floating pumpkin candles offer a warm glow and a fall touch.
If you want to play it completely safe in unattended areas (think rooms other than the kitchen) a fake candle or light is your best bet. OrientalTrading offers a few varieties. The Autumn Candle Lamp is a wooden, box shaped candle decorated with a leaf and trimmed with berries for $6.97 and comes with an plug and on/off switch.
Similar to that is the antique glass bottle filled with an electric candlestick (pictured) which is also $6.97.
And finally, if you want to declare your thoughts on the holiday, go for the simple “Share they bountiful harvest” flameless candle for $4.97.
Tomorrow: Centerpiece ideas. Happy Wednesday!
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Peek-proof your holiday gifts
From Hallmark this year comes the ultimate in early-present opening prevention. Peek-Buster™ gift bags.
Armed with motion detectors and sound, the moment sneaky Sue tries to peek in her gift bag the bag will sound with sirens and a “red alert… PIP (that’s Peek In Progress)” sure to alert you to go check on your packages under the tree.
This medium sized one sells for $4.99, two other choices (a little bigger) sell for $6.99 at Hallmark stores.
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November already…
Can you believe it’s November already? It seems like just yesterday it was July and I was excited because Michaels had Halloween stuff out and here it is the 3rd of November. Thanksgiving and Black Friday will be here before we know it.
I spent the weekend taking down Halloween decorations and organizing them. I got some good deals on a few more of the black and orange plastic tote boxes and believe me, I’ve filled them all. Once the spooky stuff comes down, the fall stuff can stay and Thanksgiving stuff can go up.
Do you have any special Thanksgiving items you put out this time of year? Have you figured out how you’ll spend Turkey Day? If not, the time is now.
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Have you started your holiday shopping yet?
It may only be the first of November, but some people are already tackling their holiday shopping lists. I saw a woman in Meijer on Friday who was purchasing toys for Santa to give her grandkids. And let me tell you, they’ll likely be very happy come Dec. 25.
Everywhere I go though, I’m hearing people say they’re starting early, budgeting much tighter and a lot of people are even making their gifts this year (myself included!)
What about you? Will you make gifts or buy them? Or a combination?
Do you have unique ideas to pass on for homemade gifts for other readers?
And how much will you be spending this year?
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