Amazon.com is discounting prices on holiday decorations. They are offering up to 65% off on holiday home decor items including ornaments, ornament sets, trees, wreaths, garlands, Christmas lights, collectibles, nutcrackers, figurines and home accents. You can find the offers here. The sale ends on Dec 19, 2009.
HGTV will offer an insider's look at the White House Christmas decorations with its White House Christmas 2009 special. The holiday tv special will air on HGTV on Sunday, December 20, at 8 p.m. ET/PT. Designer Genevieve Gorder examines this year's decor theme, "Reflect, Rejoice, Renew," and its traditional yet eco-friendly decoratoins.
"HGTV is excited to continue its longtime tradition of bringing the splendor of the holidays at the White House to the American people," said Freddy James, senior vice president, program development and production, HGTV. "The special captures the energy and spirit that the new First Family brings to this historic place."
Inside the White House, Gorder chats with White House volunteers to determine how they interpreted First Lady Michelle Obama's desire for a contemporary twist on this year's decorations. The decorations use natural elements such as pine cones, dried flowers, pepper berries, painted magnolia leaves and cranberries. Viewers will also see the First Lady and daughters Malia and Sasha receive the Blue Room Christmas Tree from the West Virginia farmers who grew it.
In the kitchen, Executive Chef Cris Comerford showcases the holiday menu, while Executive Pastry Chef Bill Yosses displays a magnificent gingerbread house and other holiday pastries. The special also highlights the work of 90 volunteers as they adorn the White House in just two days.
You can see a short video of the 2009 White House decorations here.
Lowe's has a viral website called Super Elftacular. The website lets you decorate a virtual tree and then email your final result to a friend or share it with your friends on Twitter or Facebook. The little elves that help you decorate your tree are pretty amusing.
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.
Hallmark Jewellers has launched the world's most expensive Christmas bauble. The bauble which retails for £82,000 ($136,000) was designed by Mark Hussey and made in Hallmark Jewellers' workshop. Every millimeter of the 18 carat white gold sphere is covered. Over one and half thousand diamonds were used to cover the sphere. Three one carat diamonds adorn the center band of the 18 carat gold Christmas decoration. Two ruby encrusted rings orbit the bauble. You can find out more about the bauble here.
Home Depot is running its second annual Eco Options Christmas Light Trade In event this holiday season and its first ever Power Drill Trade In, Trade Up event.
The Home Depot Power Drill Trade In, Trade Up event begins Sunday, October 25 and runs through Sunday, November 8. It offers customers the chance to bring in their used or broken power drills and get 15 percent off a new lithium-ion drill. Lithium-ion is a cordless tools that offers more power and less weight. Home Depot says, "Lithium-ion chemistry is not harmful to the environment and it outperforms NiCad by as much as 50 percent, requiring less charging time and saving energy." Home Depot will also recycle your old drill if you upgrade.
The Eco Options Christmas Light Trade In event begins November 5th and ends November 15th. Customers can bring in their old working or non-working holiday light strings to be recycled and receive a $3 off coupon towards the purchase of energy efficient seasonal light-emitting diodes (LED) string lights. Customers must purchase their new LED lights between November 5 and November 15 and are limited to five redemptions. This event will also be valid at all The Home Depot U.S. stores.
A new survey of 1,050 Americans, conducted by Goodmind Market Research on behalf of GE Consumer & Industrial, found that over 82% plan to celebrate and decorate for the holidays. The survey also queried consumers on holiday decorating stressors and found untangling and stringing lights to be the biggest holiday hastles. Here are some of the responses related to holiday decorating stresses:
Untangling last year's lights was mentioned by 56%
Stringing lights on the house or in the yard was mentioned as the biggest hassle by 47%
Stringing lights on the tree was the choice of 39%.
Hanging ornaments and decorations (23%)
Getting the tree to stand up in the tree stand (19%)
The study also found a growing green trend. 24% plan on decorating with LED holiday lights this year. The green LED trend is strongest in the West with 31% planning to decorate with LED lights than people living in the Northeast (23%) or South (21%).
Sears Holdings Corp is starting Christmas very early this year. It's only July and the Chicago Tribunereports that Sears Holdings Corp has set up Christmas decor shops at 372 Sears store. They also have an online boutique up called Christmas Lane at Sears.com and Kmart.com that sells Christmas decor and gifts.
On Sunday, while most of America was recovering from Fourth of July fireworks and cookouts, the Hoffman Estates-based retailer launched an online boutique called Christmas Lane at Sears.com and Kmart.com. It also set up Christmas decor shops at 372 Sears stores, including one at Woodfield mall in Schaumburg.
Sears typically waits until Nov. 1 to unveil its holiday merchandise, said Sears spokeswoman Natalie Norris-Howser. But with the recession putting a crimp in spending, the retailer is hoping to attract holiday shoppers early.
"This is the first year we've done the Christmas Lane event," said Norris-Howser. "We're allowing customers to put these items on layaway and pay over time."
The Sears.com Christmas Lane site can be found here if you want to get a really early jump on things. They are promising free standard shipping on all Christmas Lane mailable orders of $75 or more until 7-11-09.
Aretha Franklin's famous big-bowed hat is now available as a Christmas ornament. Ornament designer Curtis Posuniak told WXYZ that he knew he wanted to make a tiny glass version of Aretha's hat the minute he saw it. The Aretha's hat ornaments will cost $43 and be sold at Bronner's in Frankenmuth, the Ritz-Carlton in Dearborn, and other gift shops in Detroit. You can also request one by emailing klassicsbykurtis@comcast.net. The designer has a website under construction at lassicsbykurtis.com.
MSNBC reports that artificial tree sales surged over 80% in 2007.
In 2007, 17.4 million people bought artificial Christmas trees -- a whopping 87 percent jump from the previous year's total of 9.3 million, according to a survey conducted for the National Christmas Tree Association, whose members are farmers and retailers of real trees. Rick Dungey, a spokesman for the association, could not explain the huge jump and said it seemed to be a statistical anomaly, although the margin of error for the survey is only 3.1 percent.
While live trees are still outselling fake ones, with about 31.3 million bought last year, all signs indicate their artificial counterparts are becoming a bigger and bigger piece of the Christmas tree buying pie.
Even though artificial tree sales are growing faster they are still outsold each year by real trees. There are expected to be 25 to 30 million live trees sold this year. The National Christmas Association dispels ten myths about Christmas trees that may help those who are trying to make a decision about whether to go with a real tree or an artificial tree.
Here's a video featuring advice from P. Allen Smith about how to decorate a tree. We used to watch P. Allen Smith when he gave gardening advice on the Weather Channel. He also has some advice for making wreaths on his website. In the clip P. Allen Smith decorates trees for three different budgets: $50, $75 and $150. Take a look:
Tiffany has some beautiful bone china, crystal and sterling silver ornaments this year including a signature Tiffany box, signature Tiffany Blue Box, an ice skate and a reindeer ornament in sterling silver. The prices range from $30 for the Ice Skate ornament to $195 for the Reindeer. You can find the ornaments in Tiffany's stores and here on Tiffany's website.
The Wall Street Journal has released this video of a billionaire's holiday lights show from 2007. This is the view the WSJ's Alan Murray captured in front of billionaire Paul Tudor Jones II's home in his neighborhood in Greenwich, Connecticut. The house even has a radio station that plays holiday music that you tune your radio to. The WSJ says they do this every year at Paul Tudor Jones II's home. Pretty impressive.
Swarovski's 2008 Christmas ornament in a beautiful, sparkling snowflake that hangs on a blue satin ribbon. The star in clear fully cut crystal comes with a silver tone metal tag with the year of issue. The 2008 Christmas ornament retails for $75. You can purchase it here from Swarovski's website. Swarovski also have a smaller $45 snowflake here.
Martha Stewart Living Radio and Taste of the NFL have teamed up on eBay to sell Macy's ornaments autographed by celebrities including Martha Stewart, Emeril Lagasse, Howard Stern, Pink, James Taylor, David Archuletta, David Cook and Jacqueline Bisset. 100% of proceeds will go to fight hunger across the country. You can find all of the ornament auction listings here. The auctions run until December 12th.
The Today Show has a video clip of its recent "Christmas Tree 101" broadcast with Ahmed Hassan of DIY Yard Crashers. Hassan gave a quick, helpful presentation of some of this year's Christmas tree trends and the latest Christmas tree technology. Here are some highlights of the products he mentioned.
Hassan mentioned the Best Christmas Tree Stand sold here at Hammacher Schlemmer. It's sleeve and lock design allows a person to "erect a tree unassisted in less than a minute, without ever having to crawl under the tree branches." For watering Hassan suggested the tree watering system (pictured on the right) from Ever-Green Seasons. As an added bonus this tree watering system looks like a present so it will only add to the holiday decor. Amazon.com sells it here.
For safety there is the no-burn spray available at noburn.com.
Several Christmas trees were discussed in the clip including a patriotic Christmas tree and a flat-back tree. The flat-back tree might actually be pretty useful if you have limited space. At the end of the video they show the upside down Christmas tree which we first started seeing a couple years ago. It's weird but it does make more room for presents and it would be a conversation starter. Hammacher.com sells an upside down tree - see here. There are also several other upside down Christmas tree styles here on christmastreeforme.com.
Amazon.com is discounting prices on holiday decorations. They are offering up to 65% off on holiday home decor items including ornaments, ornament sets, trees, wreaths, garlands, Christmas lights, collectibles, nutcrackers, figurines and home accents. You can find the offers 
Aretha Franklin's famous big-bowed hat is now available as a Christmas ornament. Ornament designer Curtis Posuniak 
The Today Show has a video clip of its recent "Christmas Tree 101" broadcast with Ahmed Hassan of 
