Your wonderful friends and family made sure you had enough Gift Cards (GC) to Shop Your Heart Out. But if you shop smart you can get more out of that GC than it’s face value!

A few tips:

1. Go Directly to Clearance – Clearance items are not bottom of the barrel items that you wouldn’t dress your scarecrow in. And they’re not the clothes no one wants either. At least not at the popular stores like American Eagle, JC Penney & Sears.

2. Be sure to always shop while the store is having a sale. After Christmas the sales are huge and in early January everyone is trying to move inventory.

3. Sign up for the newsletters of all online stores you have a GC for. More often than not, upon signing up the store will send you a New Customer appreciation coupon that can be combined with regular price or sometimes even items on sale or clearance.

4. Check Deal sites such as Dealtaker for a one stop site to see all of the coupons, deals, sales, gifts-with-purchase and more specials available for your store.

The bottom line? Just like any purchase – spend 5 minutes or so checking out what is happening at the store, what deals are available and what promotions are upcoming and you’ll surely get more value out of your GiftCard!

Oh and if “It’s the thought that counts”:

Have a GC from a store you don’t like? You could give the card to a friend, or buy something and donate it to charity (a homeless shelter for example) or sell it on the web! There are lots of online sites that will buy them from you. Two of note are GiftCardGranny and PlasticJungle

I was up at 6:30 a.m.  I’m sitting at the table sipping my first cup of coffee.  Daylight is slowly creeping in and through the etched glass I can see the couple of inches of snow on the ground that fell yesterday.  Mother Nature decided to give us a white Christmas after all.  It’s been years since I’ve seen snow on the ground for Christmas.  It’s not much, but I’ll take it.  The counters are covered with platters filled with baked goods that I was up until 1 a.m. baking.  I’ve concluded that it’s going to be at least a month until I bake again.  In the past week I’ve made a total of 15 platters stacked with baked goods.  That’s the most I’ve ever done.  I’m officially sugared out.  The gifts are wrapped and ready to be taken to their rightful places. 

We’ve got a few visits to make before we head to our final destination.  This year dinner will be at my brother’s house where we will spend the night (mom included).  For the first time in about 20 years we’ll all wake up in the same house Christmas morning.  I can tell mom is excited about this.  She’s already announced that Santa will be coming soon as if we’re 5 years old.  Although my brother and I are in our late 30′s, we decided to just go with it.  Presents will be opened Christmas morning instead of tonight.  The morning will end with a breakfast of homemade waffles, bacon, ham and coffee.  I couldn’t think of a better way to start Christmas day.

This year Christmas is special for all of us.  For the first time in 8 years I will be with my family and someone very special whom I was reunited with after 12 years.  A very dear friend of mine, earlier this year, told me the universe was shifting.  There were big changes ahead.  The signs were obvious and, as usual, she was right.  Change isn’t always easy, but at times, it’s necessary and the right thing to do.  My world shook, fate stepped in and six months later, I’m here.  Home… sipping coffee out of snowman mug and feeling the warmth of being where I should be.

And, that’s what the holiday season is all about.  Aside from the rush, chaos, last minute touches and gifts, there is the comfort of being surrounded by loved ones.  It’s that time of year to slow down a little bit, enjoy that togetherness and put the usual daily schedule of work, routine, and running ragged aside.  It’s that time to indulge, flirt with the platters of cookies, and to laugh until your tummy hurts.

And with that, from all of here at Dealtaker, we wish you a Happy Holiday Season!

I was in Hallmark looking around for gifts and I saw one of those books that you can record in your voice for a child. I looked through a few of them and it dawned on me that with a little help from Grandma & Papa he could read this book to his Mommy & Daddy. What a cherished gift!

So I bought the book “All the Ways I Love You” and last Sunday we read the book and made the recording. It is filled with missed and repeated words, whispers from us for prompting and every so often an “I know, I know – I can do it.” In other words just PERFECT! And the Love that you hear in that little voice on lines such as “I love you further than the moon and higher than the sun” melted my heart and I know will melt theirs.

My Grandson wrote MOM & DAD and his name on the inside and I titled it Christmas 2011 – Age 4. I think we may have a tradition brewing here!

Oh and if you’ve already celebrated Christmas think about this gift for Birthdays, Mothers Day, Fathers Day or to send to Grandparents who live far away like we use to.

LLBean – Order by tomorrow 12/21 at noon ET – Also $10 gift card with $50 purchase!

National Geographic – Unique Gifts and pay standard shipping charges to get your item in time for Christmas if you ORDER TODAY – 12/20!

Best Buy – Check if your products can be picked up at the store for FREE

For last-minute gifts, buy online as late as 3 p.m. local time, December 24, when you use store pickup.

$110 off Philips – Android Connect 16GB MP3 Player – Now $109.99, originally $219.99

1. We have a new President.  His name’s Kevin, and he’s awesome so far!

2. One of our Moderators has been published in an article in the Richmond Times: http://www2.timesdispatch.com/

3. If you like quirky YouTube videos, we have some for your enjoyment: http://www.youtube.com/adealtaker

4. Black Friday will be here soon.  Check out the latest ads now: http://www.dealtaker.com/blackfriday.html

Sorry this was so quick.. it’s a busy day at the DT HQ.

If you don’t get our Daily newsletter yet, Be sure to sign up today.  We’ve re-formatted it, so now you can see pictures of the deals, and it’s even easier to read!

We promised some great new features coming soon, and we’re slowly rolling them out now.  If you want to know when coupons are posted for particular stores, be sure to sign up, and add those stores from our Free Online Coupon section to your subscriptions.

Yes, it’s early, but Black Friday will be here sooner than you know.  We’ve initiated our #1 Black Friday page, as well as opened our Black Friday 2007 forum, so if you have any tips / advice or want to start talking, now’s your chance to join the fun early.

Do you have a suggestion for our site?  If so, be sure to use the contact-us links we provide at the bottom of each page on DealTaker.com and our related sites.

One last thing before I finish this post.  If you’re stuck at the office, and tired of the same old pictures on your desk, be sure to pick up a Digital Picture frame.  I have one, and it’s always great to update it with the latest pictures of my family!  And it brings a smile to each day.

Mustek 7″ Digital Frame $59.98 shipped

If you’re one of the folks who likes to tell your friends & family what you want, now you can make it even easier with our new Universal Gift Registry, GiftTaker.com!

To make this holiday even easier, last month we gave out $50/GC day, and now for December we’re going to hold weekly contests, and possibly more, so be sure to check our homepage often for the latest!