Mariah Carey switched on the Christmas lights at the Westfield Shopping Center in London. Mariah's publicist said that Mariah Carey's rumored requests for items including 20 kittens and 100 white doves was a "load of rubbish." Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" played in the background as Mariah waved a wand and turned on the lights. Take a look:
Williams-Sonoma is selling organic free-range turkeys from the Willie Bird ranch in Sonoma County, California. The turkeys are raised on certified organic grains without the use of hormones or antibiotics. They are certified by the Oregon Tilth to be free of artificial pesticides and chemicals. A 12 - 14 lb. costs $89.95. You have to place your order by November 20th for Thanksgiving delivery. The ordering page on williams-sonoma.com also provides a video that shows how the turkeys were raised on the Willie Bird ranch.
Gap.com is bringing the Christmas cheer this year with its Cheer Factory. The ads consist of models dressed in gap clothes leading people in holiday cheers. The campaign has a viral component because you can personalize the cheer and send it off to a friend. A 20% coupon will also be delivered along with the cheer. In the viral cheer, the Gap cheerleaders hold up letters spelling your friend's name. The fact that a coupon is sent should generate lots of traffic for Gap.com. Some people like the campaign while others find it annoying.
Ivy Ross, executive vice president of marketing for the Gap brand at Gap in San Francisco, told the New York Times, that the ads were thought up before the hit Glee show and its Cheerios squad.
Although the development of the campaign "started before we saw 'Glee,'" Ms. Ross said, "there's no accident to" the resemblance between the series and the ads.
"We were very conscious of the environment we're in," she added, and the idea was to produce a campaign that was "optimistic and bold," countering the concept that "some people say you can't be happy this year because we're going through a crisis."
Gap has also added its holiday cheers to its YouTube channel. To send a cheer to a friend you need to use the cheerfactory.com website.
The Wall Street Journalreports that the Federal Reserve Board has announced proposed rules to limit gift card fees and expiration dates.
Gift card retailers and issuers are prohibited from charging fees to customers who have used their cards in the previous year.
Gift card issuers can only charge one inactivity, dormancy or service fee per month.
Expiration dates for funds underlying gift cards must be at least five years after the date of issuance, or five years after the date when funds were last loaded.
The proposed new rules are not in effect for this holiday season. They don't go into effect until next August. They are the gift card provisions of the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure Act of 2009.
Retailers make cards much less attractive if they implement penalties, expiration dates and inactivity fees. If retailers want consumers to buy their gift cards the less restrictions on the card the better.
Once again, the folks at Butterball will be available this Thanksgiving to answer all your turkey-related questions. Should you brine the turkey? How do you do it? What's the safest way to thaw a turkey? How long do you roast it? The Butterball people have heard it all, so call them at 1-800 BUTTERBALL with all your turkey angst. They've been waiting for your call since November 2nd.
To help out all the first-timers, Butterball has released its tips for planning and executing Thanksiving dinner without breaking the bank:
--Click and Clip to Save: Coupon usage is on the rise(1) and starting in
November, families can visit Butterball.com for $2.00 off a fresh or
frozen Butterball turkey while supplies last. Butterball will also offer
promotions online and in-store with several essential holiday brands,
including Stove Top stuffing, Heinz Home Style Gravy, Woodbridge wine
and Bruce's Yams. By doing simple research online or browsing the
newspaper before shopping, holiday cooks can realize great savings.
--Turn One Meal into Many: One of the best things about Thanksgiving is
leftovers, so make the most of your turkey this year. A 12 pound turkey
can generously feed a family of eight with plenty of leftovers. Visit
Butterball.com to find recipe suggestions for leftovers, including Four
Cheese Turkey Mac & Cheese.
--Cook from the Pantry: With 68 percent of Americans cutting spending on
nonessential grocery items(2), selecting recipes based on the
ingredients already in your pantry, spice rack or refrigerator is a
smart way to save. Clingman suggests looking for recipes that have fewer
than seven ingredients and that don't call for fancy spices or specialty
items as a way to curb costs. Her new favorite for 2009 is Roast Turkey
with Maple Mustard Glaze available at Butterball.com.
--Pick Vegetables Wisely: Frozen and canned vegetables can often be more
affordable than the fresh varieties, and still offer the same
nutritional value. If you do need to purchase fresh produce, select
vegetables that are in season, which are often less expensive. Clingman
recommends seeking out recipes that call for vegetables such as squash
and sweet potatoes, since they are in-season and are usually reasonably
priced.
--Go Potluck This Year: Celebrate with a big group and encourage guests
to bring their favorite side dishes, drinks or desserts to cut down on
costs. You won't be alone, as 1 in 3 entertainers said they often have a
potluck meal(3).
You can track down the turkey experts at Butterball four ways this year: go to the Facebook page at Facebook.com/Butterball, visit Butterball.com, follow them on Twitter at Twitter.com/Butterball or -- if all else fails -- text the word TURKEY to 36888 from your mobile phone and see what happens.
Chef Fabio Viviani, author of Cafe Firenze Cookbook and former Top Chef contestant, visits Kathie Lee and Hoda to demonstrate some Thanksgiving dishes. Fabio shows how to give an Italian flair to your stuffing for your turkey. For some reason Kathie Lee decided to give Fabio a really hard time, repeating over and over how much she hates green bell peppers. She was in a mood. Fabio was clearly puzzled, but he carried on like a pro. Take a look:
You can find Fabio's recipes for Italian Stuffing and Italian Macaroni and Cheese here.
Harrods has announced Maxwell, the Harrods Christmas Bear for 2009. Maxwell has a soft caramel coat and comes wearing a cheery red hooded jumper. Maxwell also has "Harrods 2009" embroidered in gold on his left foot. Maxwell has a smaller friend named Rufus. Rufus wears a cable knit scarf with an appliqued Christmas pudding and the Harrods signature. Maxwell costs about $33 and Rufus costs about $25.
Bloombergreports that it costs less make a Thanksgiving dinner this year than it did in 2008. A report from the American Farm Bureau Federation says a Thanksgiving dinner feed 10 people will cost $42.91. This is a drop of 3.8% from last year. A drop in the price of milk and the turkey helped lower the price this year.
This year's survey, released yesterday, put the cost of feeding 10 people at $42.91. The grocery bill fell 3.8 percent, the steepest reduction since its 4.3 percent drop at the start of this decade. The slump was also the first since 2004.
"Consumers are benefiting at the grocery store from significantly lower energy prices" and the effects of a U.S. recession, Jim Sartwelle, an economist at the bureau, said in a statement. Crude oil, for example, has cost 44 percent less this year on average than it did in the same period of last year in New York trading.
Milk dropped the most out of a dozen items surveyed, according to the bureau. The cost of a gallon of whole milk fell 92 cents to $2.86. Turkey slid 44 cents to $18.65, based on the cost of a 16-pound bird. These two items accounted for most of the overall decline, amounting to $1.70.
If you compared the cost to make a Thanksgiving dinner today to what it cost just four years ago it is much higher this year as food prices have really soared over the past few years. 2009 has been an exception from the trend. The price to make a Thanksgiving dinner in 2005 was $36.78. That is nearly 17% less than what is costs today. You can see a chart showing price changes for the 25 years here on fb.org.
New York City's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree was hoisted into place Thursday morning. The 76-foot Norway spruce tree was set in place morning near the Rockefeller skating rink. The lighting ceremony will take place on December 2nd. They still have a couple weeks to get the tree decorated before then.
Those rushing to malls and stores early on Black Friday should expect bigger crowds than last year. Reuters reports that a study conducated by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman Sachs found 16% of people will begin shopping the day after Thanksgiving this year. That percentage is higher than any of the previous three holiday seasons.
Some 16 percent of respondents said they'd begin their holiday shopping the day after U.S. Thanksgiving this year, up from 10 percent in 2007 and 2008 and an earlier high of 13 percent in 2006, according to a holiday spending survey from the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs.
Reuters notes that the ICSC has been more bullish than other holiday shopping forecasters this year.
The ICSC has forecast holiday sales to rise about 1 percent to 2 percent this year in one of the more bullish predictions.
"ICSC Research thinks the holiday spending performance will be better than these pre-season consumer expectations, which is often the case following business cycle turning points in the economy," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's director of research and chief economist, in a statement.
The ICSC Research could be wrong. The economy has not turned around from a consumer's perspective. Layoffs are still increasing and salaries and bonuses have not increased. The stock market has climbed some since the beginning of the year which could make some consumers with larger portfolios less nervous about spending more this holiday season.
FedEx says it expects to move more than 50 million packages through its FedEx Express, FedEx Ground and FedEx Freight networks during the week of December 14, 2009, its busiest week of the year. On December 14 alone, FedEx expects to ship more than 13 million shipments, an increase of 1 million from 12 million packages on last year's busiest day of December 15, 2008.
Forrester Research, Inc. is projecting an 8 percent increase in online holiday sales compared with 2008. This increase means more packages for FedEx to deliver.
Tip: If you are on Twitter you can use a service called @trackthis to track packages deliveries by FedEx, UPS and USPS.
ElfYourself.com is returning for its fourth year this year. The service is provided by OfficeMax and powered by JibJab Media. Some of the new features this year include:
Users can star in two new dances including "Hip Hop Elves" featuring modern break dancing and "Singing Elves" that perform a melody of holiday music.
Facebook Connect capabilities enable users to access their photos from directly within the ElfYourself experience and transform them into elves.
Personalized videos can be posted directly to a user's Facebook wall or to a specific friend’s wall.
Users can now share their ElfYourself videos via Twitter from within the web experience.
Videos will include any combination of up to five elves.
ElfYourself.com will also feature the most widely celebrated dances from years past including "Disco Elves," "Country Elves" and the "Elf Classic" that started it all in 2006.
OfficeMax said in a press release that the website has received over 284 million visits since it launched in 2006.
Selena Gomez got into the holiday spirit Saturday at Disneyland in Anaheim, California. Selena was taping a a segment for the 2009 Christmas Day Parade. In this photo she's hanging out and having some fun with Stitch.
A Christmas Carol wasn't as big of a box office take as insiders anticipated but it was still a box office win for Jim Carrey and Walt Disney. The film made $30 million as it opened in first place but it didn't do as well as Carrey's other Christmas film, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Michael Jackson's This Is It came in second and made $13 million. The Men Who Stare at Goats opened in third and made $12.7 million. It was followed by the The Fourth Kind which opened fourth and made $12.3 million. The viral marketing hit Paranormal Activity came in fifth and made over $8 million to bring its box office tally to $97 million. The suspense thriller The Box, starring Cameron Diaz and James Marsden, opened in sixth place and made $7.5 million. Precious, a film that has considerable Oscar buzz, made $1.8 million despite a limited release opening.
The box office will probably belong to 2012 this coming weekend and it will certainly belong to New Moon the following weekend.
Word from London is that Claridge's, the city's most storied hotel, has asked the Christian Dior designer to decorate the Christmas tree that greets the guests in its Art Deco lobby. (Trimming duties were previously handled by an in-house team.) Galliano may be based in Paris, but he is, after all, a Commander of the British Empire.
The tree will be unveiled on December 1st. We look forward to seeing photos of the Claridge's tree when they become available.
Once again, the folks at Butterball will be available this Thanksgiving to answer all your turkey-related questions. Should you brine the turkey? How do you do it? What's the safest way to thaw a turkey? How long do you roast it? The Butterball people have heard it all, so call them at 1-800 BUTTERBALL with all your turkey angst. They've been waiting for your call since November 2nd.
