Have a Merry Christmas!

The Preacher’s Wife ( 1999)
Denzel Washington And Whitney Houston. Good natured Reverend Henry Biggs finds that his marriage to choir mistress Julia is flagging, due to his constant absence caring for the deprived neighborhood they live in. On top of all this, his church is coming under threat from property developer Joe Hamilton. In desperation, Rev. Biggs prays to God for help – and help arrives in the form of an angel named Dudley. However, Dudley’s arrival seems to cause even more trouble.
 

Miracle on 34th Street (1947 the original)
A little girl who doesn’t believe in Santa Clause comes to the aid of a man who believes he is Santa but it’s up to his attorney to prove it. Heartwarming story, the original is the best.

Elf (2003)
Buddy was raised by elves but he doesn’t fit in, so he goes looking for his real father in New York City and ends up saving Christmas for everyone. Funny, delightful film.
 

A Christmas Story (1983)  On TNT all DAY!
Ralphie wants a BB gun for Christmas but everyone tells him it’s dangerous, meanwhile his wacky family prepares for the holiday. Funny and engaging, a true classic.

The Santa Clause (1994)
Scott puts on the Santa suit when the real Santa is accidentally killed and he becomes Santa. He is not happy about it and neither are his family and friends. Very funny, but skip the sequels.

It’s A Wonderful Life (1946)
An angel gives George the opportunity to see what life would have been like if he had never been born. A touching perfect holiday movie.

Die Hard 1 & 2 (1988 & 90)
Officer John McClane has to stop terrorists and save everyone on Christmas Eve. The first time at an office party in a high-rise then in an airport. Great action films with just enough humor.

Trading Places (1983)
Two millionaires make a bet involving the old ‘nature vs. nurture’ conundrum by pitting a snobbish investor against a street con. Funny with a good cast.

Edward Scissorhands (1990)
A strange young man who has scissors for hands falls for a beautiful teenager there are complications in this modern fairy tale. Johnny Depp and Tim Burton started their partnership with this film.

Home Alone (1990)
Kevin is left behind when his family goes on vacation. He has a blast at first but ends up having to protect his home from two burglars with inventive antic and devices. Funny but avoid the sequels.

My family likes to invent new ideas for saving during the holidays. We have become professionals at saving money during Christmas. One year, all the adults bought 1 gift for the kids under 15; then we pulled names for the adults. The adult gifts were under 10 dollars and each kid was sure to get an item off there christmas list. To give the illusion of a big Christmas, we put all the presents under one tree. Usually, my mama’s house. The follow year, my big sister added to this tradition by having everyone put a note in a box with something you want to turn over to the Lord. Then we all say a prayer and the following Christmas we open the box to show how God has blessed us. I guess you can say it’s a Christmas time capsule! So many things you can do to make your Christmas fun and to remind everyone what Christmas is all about. You can adopt a family, give a Christmas cards to homeless, have a Christmas movie night. These are all things you can do without having to spend a lot of money. Let’s face it! We’re all broke this year! So share your small-budget Christmas-gift ideas and other insights on how to keep holidays from wrecking your financial plan with other listeners.

Merry Christmas
Marcus Wain
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Here’s a Black Friday reality check: Of the hordes of pre-dawn shoppers who line up for hours outside stores on the day after Thanksgiving, most will not bag the best bargains that appear in merchants’ circulars.

Look at the fine print that appears next to an advertised “doorbuster deal” at the bottom of the page in this year’s circulars.

It will either say “While supplies last,” “Minimum 2 per store,” “No rainchecks” or “All items are available in limited quantities.”

A quick scan through a few of this year’s Black Friday circulars show quantities as low as a “minimum of 5 per store” on some models of large plasma and HDTVs and popular brands of home appliances such as a washer-dryer pair.

Should Black Friday deal hunters feel cheated? Yes they should, say some retail experts.

“It’s a sleazy practice,” said Craig Johnson, retailing expert and president of retail consulting group Customer Growth Partners.

“I am old school,” said Johnson. “If a retailer is advertising a juicy deal and they are not prepared to have in sufficient quantity, don’t advertise it. Or give consumers a raincheck.”

Johnson said it’s not enough for retailers to mention that they’ll have such limited quantities of a product on one of the most-hyped shopping days of the year.

“Retailers aren’t winning any customers. They are just pissing off people,” he said. “It’s poor retailing practice.”

Unfortunately for consumers, more examples abound.

CNNMoney.com spoke to industry experts to uncover a few dirty secrets of Black Friday deals.

Limited quantities. Advertising a Black Friday deal as “limited quantities” is bogus, said Johnson.

“The only time it makes sense to have only two or three [items] in stock is if the deal is on a $2 million gift product that appears in the Neiman Marcus holiday catalog,” he said.

Edgar Dworsky, a consumer advocate and editor of Consumer World, agreed with Johnson.

“C’mon guys. Give me a break,” said Dworsky. “How can you be the size of a retailer like Sears and only get a minimum of five per store, yet devote big space in your circular to advertise that deal?

Sears has not officially revealed its Black Friday sales. However, the company confirmed to CNNMoney.com that two of its post-Thanksgiving deals include a Samsung 40-inch 1080p LCD HDTV for $599.99, “Only while quantities last, minimum three per store, no rainchecks.”

The other is a Kenmore 3.5-cubic-foot high-efficiency washer and 5.8-cubic foot dryer pair for $579.98, “Limit four per store, no rainchecks.”

“Sure, you probably have more, but how do you put out a circular to millions of households and only have three?,” Dworsky asked.

When asked for a comment, Sears spokesman Tom Aiello said he was “not comfortable” addressing the issue of limited quantities for some Black Friday deals.

Such short supply on deals are not only annoying but can also be dangerous to Black Friday shoppers.

“We saw the stampede at a Wal-Mart store in New York last year on Black Friday that led to an employee’s death,” said Burt Flickinger, managing director of consulting firm Strategic Resource Group. “The stampede happened because so many of the deals were advertised as limited supply.”

One retailer, while not explaining why its advertised deals are in such limited supplies, said it is taking measures to better handle the Black Friday rush.

“From going down the line and handing out doorbuster tickets that guarantee a purchase in advance of the store opening, to printing the minimum quantities in the circular, we go to great lengths to ensure that the Black Friday consumer knows exactly how many items will be at the store and whether or not they will be able to purchase one prior to entering the store,” Best Buy wrote in an e-mail.

What do you mean this HDTV is a “derivative?” Some of the holiday electronics with those low sale prices are derivatives, models that have a few less features than a standard model in that product line, said Dworsky.

The difference can be subtle. “The image contrast ratio might be 20,000 in a derivative model versus 30,000 in a standard model,” he said. “Most consumers probably won’t even notice the difference.”

A report earlier this month in Consumer Reports called attention to HDTV models from Samsung and Sony advertised in Black Friday deals that appear to be “derivatives.” The report said these one-off TVs “with unfamiliar model numbers” are usually cheaper than the standard model in their class.

Dworsky cautions that retailers usually don’t advertise these models as derivatives. “There’s no way the average consumer will know that the TV model they are buying is not the standard one unless they are savvy enough to compare their model numbers,” he said.

Which Black Friday deals are online? “Many retailers will say that their Black Friday deals are available online,” said Dworsky. “But they’re not nice enough to tell you which ones.”

“How about telling me which exact ones so I can shop online from home and I’m not in my pajamas at 5 a.m. in front of your store,” he said.

Online deals that never get shipped. Case in point: Sears. Last year, one of Sears’ hottest Black Friday doorbuster deal was on a Kenmore washer-dryer pair for $600.

Even though the retailer advertised that deal to be in “limited quantities,” the company decided to honor every customer order made on that deal last Black Friday.

Big mistake. The manufacturer could not ramp up production fast enough. Some customers waited months before their order was shipped. Others were sold a substitute model, that was “comparable or even better” for the same deal price, said Sears’ Aiello.

Lesson learned. “We will not be doing that again this year,” he said.

Be careful if you’re shopping online on Black Friday, said Dworsky.

“Since retailers don’t have a live inventory online you run the risk of getting an e-mail weeks later that your order had been delayed or worse, cancelled, because the product is out of stock,” he said.

About those rainchecks. Finally, if a retailer does offer you a raincheck on a deal, it could still turn out to be an empty promise, Flickinger warned.

“A raincheck doesn’t guarantee that you will eventually get that elusive Black Friday deal,” he said. “Consumers can go weeks waiting and hoping, and the retailer may never get more of the product shipped to its stores.”

2008 was the worst holiday sales season in 42 years, according to the National Retail Federation, and the projections for 2009 are even worse. The NRF is expecting another drop of 1 percent in sales, which amounts to a whopping $4 billion. Hobson says that’s causing retailers to roll out the red carpet to consumers earlier than ever to get your holiday dollars.

BOOKS

Where the Deals Are:
$9 book deals at Walmart, Amazon.com, Target

Hobson says the fierce competition for book sales started when Walmart announced that its online stores would charge just $9, with free shipping, for some of the biggest books coming out for the holidays.

With Walmart offering that price for books, such as John Grisham’s latest and Sarah Palin’s upcoming biography, retailers, such as Amazon.com and Target were forced to match them. That’s great news for shoppers with book lovers on their list.

Toys, Electronics and DVDs

Where the Deals Are:
$10 Toys at Walmart
$10 DVDs at Walmart
$10 Toys at Toys “R” Us

Toy retailers make 40 percent of their money in the final three months of the year, so the holiday season is very important to them, especially since sales have faltered in recent years.

Walmart is advertising 100 different toys for $10 or less, Hobson says, up from 10 toys last year. The newest DVDs are also on sale for $10 at Walmart, and shipping is free. You’ll also find big discounts in electronics.

This season Toys “R” Us is having one of the biggest toy sales ever. It is selling 6,000 toys for under $10.

If you buy through the Toys “R” Us Web site, shipping is free for purchases of $45 or more, and almost anything you want is deeply discounted. Hasbro board games, such as Candyland, are selling for $1.99 after rebate. Many brands of bikes, scooters, and power wheels are 25 percent off. You can also save on electronics like the Sony clock radio for your iPhone, which has an instant $20 savings.

To read more deals logon to: http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/MellodyHobson/holiday-christmas-gift-shopping-deals-sales-savings-mellody/story?id=9066061&page