Joel Waldfogel, professor of Business and Public Policy at the University of Pennsylvania, has calculated the global cost of “deadweight loss” – the monetary value of unwanted or unappreciated Christmas gifts – to exceed $25bn annually.
Waldfogel’s central insight is that if I give you a £50 shirt for Christmas, and you hate the shirt, that [...]

Flip flops, or jandals or thongs, would probably be my choice of work shoe, rather than slippers, but each to their own of course.
My favorite present this year, by far, is a pair of slippers. Or as I call them, my work shoes.

Another advent calendar idea to try (though time is running out this year), the make your own Star Wars advent calendar.

Posting Christmas wishlist letters to Santa at the North Pole is sooooo last century.
With that in mind @tashmahal has posted her (er, somewhat trifling) requests to Flickr. (I wonder who Santa is meant to be? ;)

The Match Calendar, a gift for that someone who has everything perhaps?
Via Design Crush.

Since I’ve mentioned advent calendars of the geeky and galactic variety in recent days, I think it is only appropriate to see a few of the artistic and creative stock, courtesy of Design Crush.
(Thanks Coffeegirl)

At least according to reasonably circumstantial evidence based on the Alexa traffic rankings of online flower vendors.
When comparing the traffic of three major online florists and one gift site, Tiffany.com, I notice something interesting: moms don’t make out as well as sweethearts. For all of these sites, there are the predictable spikes around holidays. Christmas [...]

Almost $1b spent on unwanted Xmas gifts.
Not to spoil the fun in anyway, but one billion dollars?
A Galaxy survey commissioned by online auction website eBay has found two-thirds of Australians have received at least one unwanted gift.
The survey estimates $985 million was spent on unwanted Christmas gifts, up $35 million on last year.

And guess where [...]