Page 32 2024 Home For The Holidays Lincoln Daily News videos. This line of toys was so popular that copycat counterfeits were massed produced where police seized 150,000 from an overseas factory. Shopkins Toys were priced anywhere from $5.00 and up. 2024 If asked, most will say that the holidays are about family, friends, eating, and gift giving, but secretly or more importantly, gift receiving! Last year the holiday spending reached $955.6 billion according to the National Retail Federation’s holiday forecast. And you guessed it, this year’s forecast is going to surpass that number by 2.5 to 3.5-percent, putting the retails sales between $979.5 and $989 billion for 2024. So with the holiday getting closer every day, and it is expected that people will be shopping and spending even more this year, you better get started, because the window is shorter this year. The time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas will be a whopping fi ve days shorter this year, giving only 26 days of shopping!! And if you need a little extra money for gifts, it is predicted that retailers will hire between 400,000 and 500,000 seasonal workers this year, which is down a tad bit from last year’s approximate 509,000 seasonal workers. Christmas has defi nitely evolved over the years. Not too long ago, it was that one gift that your child wanted and waited all year for from Santa. It was prized, treasured and taken care of. Nowadays, adults and parents fi nd themselves having to purchase gifts for all sorts of reasons. The kids need a gift for the Girl Scout/Boy Scout party, church Sunday School or youth group party, Athletic club parties, not to mention the parents’ work gatherings or secret Santa’s or corporate giving trees in which they receive gifts for other programs like Angel Trees, or local gift giving programs like fruit baskets for the elderly. All kids want to take and get the best present at these parties, and it can put a real strain on parents, especially if the family is large or have suff ered recent fi nancial setbacks. All this giving, giving, giving, might start to get to you where you might get a little ‘Grinchy,’ but just remember, you do not have to let this get you down. If the cost of all these parties is straining your budget, talk with your family and set goals for the year such as a portion of their allowance goes toward the giving fund for these expected or unexpected parties. Or start early by talking to teachers or employers and making suggestions on how to give your time as a group instead of spending money on gifts, or plan ahead and make homemade gifts such as cookies, brownies and hot chocolate for kids and jams, candles, or ornaments for adults. We all know that it’s not the price of the gift that matters, that it should be the thought that counts. Right or wrong, we all know that Continued --
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