Holiday Season

From The Consuming Interests blog: All you big spenders out there are making retailers very happy this holiday season. So much so that the National Retail Federation is raising its sales outlook for the season. The trade group said that it is revising its forecast to 3.3 percent, up from 2.3 percent. Improvement in several economic indicators prompted NRF to issue the better forecast. Stock market gains, recent income growth and savings built up during the recession are all giving consumers better capacity to spend, the group said in a press release.

Editor: It was good to read that the homeless count in Harford County has gone down, but has it really? Do we really know how many homeless are sleeping in their cars every night? Do we know how many homeless go uncounted because they are wandering from place to place so not to draw attention to themselves or because of embarrassment or fear?  Let us not forget that homelessness is 24/7/365. During the holiday season, many of us reached into our pockets and helped those less fortunate.

100 Years Ago Paying a call From the Times' social column: "Miss Marie Wylie of Fairview has returned home after visiting Mrs. Estelle Bach of Walbrook. Mrs. Ella Tillman of Baltimore, visited her mother Mrs. Samuel Longfelter last week. Mr. and Mrs. F. Parhim Scott are spending the week in Philadelphia. Miss Amelia Pickett spent Friday last with Elsie and Dora Chaney. Miss Edith Christian spent Sunday at the home of her parents Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Christian" 1911 Version of The Mall: Seems one could find everything their family and their horses needed for the season at this Hammonds, as this December 1911 Times ad describes: "XMAS!

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"We're hiring" seems to have become all too rare a phrase uttered by businesses hampered by the sluggish economy. But with the holiday season approaching, prospects for job hunters are looking better — at least temporarily. Companies are preparing to increase hiring this holiday season with plans to bring on 550,000 to 650,000 people nationwide for seasonal employment, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm that tracks hiring trends. Last year, 501,400 people worked holiday jobs.

SYKESVILLE - The Town of Sykesville will host its Merry Main Street event Saturday, Dec. 3 from 2 to 9 p.m. The event kicks off the holiday season in Sykesville. As part of the event, the Sykesville Town House, 5747 Main St., will be open from 2 to 5 p.m. with children's activities, a visit by the "Grinch" and music by String Echoes. Shops will be decorated throughout the town, and Santa will arrive by fire truck at 6 p.m. Other events on Main Street include ice sculpting demonstration, carolers, the town's model railroad display, photos with Santa in the Pullman Car, refreshments and additional live music.

For most of us, this is a season of joy and hope, tradition and sentiment, celebration and sharing. But for those who have suffered an emotional loss through death or divorce, this season is often filled with loneliness and pain."

ATLANTA -- On Halloween, a sight at Lenox Square Mall struck fear in the heart of Andrea Blackwood. The 32-year-old mother of two gasped when she saw it. Santa's chair. "Literally, I was like, `I can't believe this. They can't be doing this already,'" said Blackwood. "It was Halloween day." Never mind that pumpkins still sit on our doorsteps, or that we've barely recovered from our Halloween sugar highs - retailers are ready and raring for Christmas. They're jingling bells, hiring seasonal workers, setting up Santa stations and advertising like mad in hopes that consumers will start their holiday shopping now - well before the traditional start to the holiday shopping season.

John A. Challenger, Forecasters predict a rosy holiday shopping season, but retailers are treading cautiously, wary of a trend of sluggish Christmas sales in recent years. Some of the nation's largest retailers are maintaining slimmer inventories and hiring seasonal workers at the same pace as they did during last year's dismal holiday shopping season when sales increased year over year by 1.5 percent - the lowest in three decades. "I think most retailers are taking a `wait and see' attitude.

SEATTLE -- Nordstrom Inc. shares fell 3 percent after the retailer's report late Friday that its fiscal fourth-quarter earnings will be lower than expected because of slow sales during the holiday season.The shares fell $1.125 to $36.375 after trading 2.06 million, almost four times the three-month daily average of 551,000. Earlier, they traded as low as $34.25, a 52-week low.The department store chain said sales at stores open at least a year declined moderately during the holiday from a year ago. It attributed the drop to a shopping season that had five fewer days than last year.

So much good community spirit has been shown to the Aberdeen Room, that it is difficult to know where to start. Thanks to all for the glorious holiday season! So much good community spirit has been shown to the Aberdeen Room, that it is difficult to know where to start. Just being a part of the Christmas Street program is a treat all in itself! So many attended our annual Open House, including public officials from Harford County. Incoming President of Harford County Historical Society, Henry Peden, was there to greet everyone.

Even with all the warning, I just can't see to get up to speed with the holidays. Way back around Halloween when the first hints of Christmas decorations were sprouting like too-early crocuses poking through a February snow, I looked around and figured there was plenty of time. My kids still had uneaten candy from trick or treating. Thanksgiving, which I swear someone moved so it fell the week after Halloween this year, was fast upon me and there was a lot of cooking and cleaning to do. By now Christmas hype was, as it always is at Thanksgiving, turned up to full volume.

In the final week before Christmas 2011, The Aegis Empty Stocking Fund is closing in on its fundraising goal for this year. Each Christmas season, the committee of volunteers of The Aegis Empty Stocking Fund is overwhelmed by the generosity of Harford County residents, organizations, businesses, schools, Scout troops, churches, individuals and others who give thousands of dollars and thousands of new toys to help their Harford County neighbors in...

100 Years Ago Paying a call From the Times' social column: "Miss Marie Wylie of Fairview has returned home after visiting Mrs. Estelle Bach of Walbrook. Mrs. Ella Tillman of Baltimore, visited her mother Mrs. Samuel Longfelter last week. Mr. and Mrs. F. Parhim Scott are spending the week in Philadelphia. Miss Amelia Pickett spent Friday last with Elsie and Dora Chaney. Miss Edith Christian spent Sunday at the home of her parents Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Christian" 1911 Version of The Mall: Seems one could find everything their family and their horses needed for the season at this Hammonds, as this December 1911 Times ad describes: "XMAS!

As usual, it looks like the Orioles are celebrating this holiday season on the cheap. No big-name free agents under the tree to energize the fan base. No va-va-voom trades to get folks counting down the days until spring training. Instead, here's a sample of who the O's have acquired thus far to reverse 14 straight losing seasons: A light-hitting backup catcher. A soft-throwing lefty starter from Japan. A journeyman lefty starter who has kicked around six other major league teams.

Christmas is a sacred day to many, a time to celebrate with friends and family. You'd think comedians would make fun of it at their own peril. But no less an authority than John Waters, an unabashed Christmas fan who will be bringing his "A John Waters Christmas" to the Lyric on Dec. 21 , says that's simply not true. Audiences — at least his audiences — love it when he takes on Christmas, Waters promises. The only stipulation, he says, is that he had better be funny. "If you're coming to see 'A John Waters Christmas,' you pretty much know what to expect," says Waters, who's been touring the world with his yuletide celebration the past few weeks.

Shoppers are going to be out in force Friday. But at many of the nation's retailers, the holiday season started weeks ago. Promotions and sales have been running full bore as nervous companies try to get an early start in putting consumers into a holiday buying mood. The fear for retailers was that waiting until the day after Thanksgiving, traditionally the year's busiest shopping day, would be too late. The portion of household income spent on holiday gifts has been edging lower for years, while family debt is at an all-time high.

Kim Letke bought her first Christmas gift of the season recently when she found the Moon Sand castle play set for her kids. But the Timonium woman believes it's probably going to be a tough season for her family because the work her husband does in the home improvement business has slowed along with housing sales. "We might be spending a little less this year," said Letke, as the stay-at-home mom watched her kids run around the play area at Towson Town Center recently. Retailers are hearing similar consumer concerns, and many merchants are braced for sluggish sales as they prepare for the holidays.

Some workplaces hope to shake off the economic doldrums this year with holiday affairs for their employees. But few are going to party like it's 2007. IMRE, a Baltimore advertising and marketing firm, struck a balance between the extravagant pre-recession bash and the quieter affairs of recent years, with a night out to dinner for employees at Power Plant Live last week. Employees at Devaney & Associates, a Towson public relations company, will get a night out for a holiday dinner this week and a day trip to a Hunt Valley spa for facials, manicures and massages.

Mild weather and a strong dose of holiday spirit brought out a healthy crowd on Dec. 3 for the lighting of the Baltimore County holiday tree at Olympian Park near the Towson roundabout. At Saturday's event, County Executive Kevin Kamenetz presided over the lighting of the 25-foot-high nylon evergreen. The evening included musical performances by the Perry Hall Middle School eighth-grade Jaguar Choir, the Chapel Hill Music Sensations, Anna Apicella's School of Dance and the Towson University group, Purrrfect Pitch, as well as hot chocolate and cookies provided by Sheraton North Hotel and the Towson University Marriott Conference Hotel.