High Tech Christmas Decorations

With another holiday season upon us it’s time to decorate and when it comes to trimming our trees and homes for the season, the world’s largest Christmas store is the place to visit to to see how technology is making the holiday season brighter and… noisier.

When you talk about the holidays, there’s only one place to come, 25 Christmas Lane, Frankenmuth Michigan. There you’ll find Bronner’s, the world’s largest Christmas store… visited by millions of people over the past 60 years, a place that glistens and shines with Christmas decorations, nativity scenes, Santas, collectibles and tens of thousands of trims and holiday gift items… where things are the same and yet, every year, a little better.

Says Sandra Schafsnitz, the assistant salesroom manager: “We’ve seen bigger changes in lights and trees. The trees are becoming more realistic. They’re just unbelievable, all the features, the colors. We have a black tree. We have a white tree. Of course a silver tree. We have a wedding tree with a car in the middle of it. We have a guitar-shaped ree with Elvis ornaments on it. LED lights are beine implemented with the trees. You really can’t compare the imact of an LED light with a minilight. The colors are so much more vibrant.”

My favorite? Something called Lights and Sounds. You wire up your Christmas trees with Christmas music. They blink in sync with the songs and you can change the songs, too. Cost is $129.

Meanwhile, there are lots of other cool Christmas things you can do this year.

Here’s some info on Christmas crafts your kids can make.

Here’s a whole collection of do-it-yourself Christmas ideas and projects.

How about putting on a Nativity play? This is great for churches, schools and small groups that want to get the kids busy with a delightful Christmas musical play with all your favorite Christmas Carols.

Here’s my video report on my visit to Bronners:

Online Shopping Sites

It’s another holiday shopping season and this year, more than ever, consumers are expected to do almost as much shopping online as they do in brick and mortar stores. To help you find the best bargains – online and at the malls – I’ve put together some Websites that will help you get the very best deals.

Let’s start with discount coupons and DealCatcher, a great resource for coupons you can print out and take to the store or redeem online… as well as rebates that help you lower the price you pay.

The Black Friday 2007 site lists sales for the Day after Thanksgiving, Cyber Monday and has a page devoted to the best online deals offered by the big box stores.

Slickdeals.net is another great intelligence site to check before buying. They scour the ads and get tips sent in from real shoppers on unadvertised specials.

My favorite online resource for saving money is the forums at DealofDay.com. This is full of fresh info posted by shoppers who find freebies, discounts and deals that pop up before many of the other sites even hear of them.

Some sites even pay you to shop there. Here’s one that pays you to eat. Really. Here’s another one that claims you can get paid to shop.

Finally, before you head out the door or click the order button online, be sure to check the big comparison-shopping sites like BizRate, PriceGrabber and Shop.com. They will tell you where your gift item can be bought at the absolute best price.