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Merry Christmas! I hope your day is full of joy and merriment.

In the midst of much of the depressing retail news this holiday season, here's a good news story. With the rise of people making homemade gifts this year to save money, craft retailers, such as Michaels Stores and Jo-Ann Stores, are reporting sales increases, according to this New York Times story.

It seems that do-it-yourself Christmas gifting is a trend this year. Did you receive any homemade gifts today or this holiday season?

If you’re still hunting for Christmas gifts, you’re officially a very last minute holiday shopper!

Many malls have shorter hours today and other retailers will close their doors earlier than usual. Be aware of the following opening hours if you’re headed to one of these regional shopping centers.

Valley View Mall (Roanoke): 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Tanglewood Mall (Roanoke County): 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
New River Valley Mall (Christiansburg): 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.
River Ridge Mall (Lynchburg): 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Also, if you're in the mood for bargaining, Christmas Eve likely is your best time to get a great deal, since it's crunch time for retailers to move items off shelves. Check out this interesting story about how more shoppers are haggling for lower prices on holiday gifts this year.

If you have tried to negotiate for a deal this season, let me know how it worked out for you.

It's four days until Christmas, and retailers are hoping that you haven't finished your shopping and spending. Some national chains that do not typically pull 24-hour days are keeping their doors open at all hours through Christmas Eve.

They include Macy's and Toys R Us, according to this Wall Street Journal story.

Sorry night owls. The Roanoke locations for these chains aren't included in the all day and night shopping sprees.

Macy's has opened 13 stores in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Northern Virginia and Detroit for 24 hours until Dec. 24, when they all will close at 6 p.m.  Some began these all day shopping sprees on Dec. 19, for a total of 132 straight hours through Christmas Eve.

The department store chain opened its first 24-hour store during the holiday season in 2006. Last year, Macy's added more 24-hour stores.

This year, Macy's at Tyson's Corner in McLean joined the all day and night party.

This is the big last-minute shopping weekend for the holidays. In honor of this last weekend before Christmas, you may find amusing this video by J.C. Penney. It's titled Beware of the Doghouse.

The video is a humorous story about what happens to men who give their wives or significant others bad or inappropriate gifts. Here's more info about the campaign, which is meant to encourage men to shop at J.C. Penney for Christmas gifts.

And here's the latest from the National Retail Federation today. It reports that 20 percent of people have not begun their holiday shopping, and "millions" more have many names to check off their lists. The average person has completed 64.7 percent of their shopping, according to the federation.

This year, I seriously considered not sending Christmas cards. Like many people, I wanted to cut back my holiday budget. And paying for Christmas cards and postage really adds up.

I ended up mailing some cards (I'm stuck in tradition), but I reduced the recipient list and did not send as many as in years past.

It sounds like other people had the same idea. The U.S. Postal Services reports that the volume of mail is down this holiday season. Here's a story about it.

Locally, the Roanoke postal service said its mail volume has decreased 8 percent so far this month (from Dec. 6 to Dec. 26), compared with last year, according to Charlene Yeagley, a spokeswoman. This office processes mail from throughout the region, including Martinsville, Roanoke and the New River Valleys.

I'm interested in hearing from you. Did you send Christmas cards this year? Are you mailing as many packages to friends or family this year?

The five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year finally are catching up with people. The National Retail Federation reported today that the average person had completed 47.1 percent of their holiday shopping by the second week of December. That's 10 percent less than the 52.6 percent who had finished their shopping by the same time last year.

The NRF survey also found that 41 million people have not even begun to shop for Christmas. The biggest procrastinators are men (20.7 percent) and people in the 35 to 44 year old category (20.9 percent). Only 8 percent of people have actually finished all of their shopping.

As suspected, fewer consumers are buying gift cards this year. According to the NRF, 24.3 percent of shoppers have purchased gift cards, compared with 30.2 percent last year.

Though I've begun Christmas shopping, I definitely feel like I'm in a mad dash until next week! Let me know your thoughts on this final week and a half of holiday shopping.

If you're planning to do some last-minute Christmas shopping online, you may want to hold off until next Thursday.

Dec. 18 is free shipping day. On this day, a host of national retailers, including Macy's, Dell, The North Face and Sears, are offering free shipping on products with guaranteed delivery by Dec. 25.

Free shipping day was created by Luke Knowles, the founder of http://www.freeshipping.org/ to drum up online retail sales as Christmastime nears. Traditionally, online holiday shopping declines after Dec. 12.  Marketing free shipping later in the month is a strategy to raise holiday sales for online retailers, according to this Web site about free shipping day.

Check here find out which stores are offering this annual shipping freebie.

There has been much buzz about free shipping this holiday season as more retailers wave these freebie offers to entice people to shop online. But the deadline for shipping those prized presents is approaching fast if you want your packages delivered by Christmas Day.

Dec. 19 is the deadline to place orders for ground shipping for two thirds of the retailers surveyed by Shop.org, according to a news release by the National Retail Federation. Dec. 16 is the deadline to place your order for some other retailers' shipping plans.

Most free ground shipping offers will end on Dec. 20. Expect your inbox to be flooded with last-minute advertisements for these offers in the next two weeks, peaking on Dec. 16, according to the survey.

Click here to find out which retailers are offering free shipping.

Shopping this weekend? Check out these details about two holiday open houses that might fit your gift shopping pleasures. Also, keep reading to learn about a shoe drive and a coat collection at local stores.

Saturday, Noon to 5 p.m.: Grandin Village Open House in Roanoke. The Grandin Village shops will offer refreshments, food tastings at the Roanoke Natural Foods Co-op, and door prizes.  Click here to read how you sign up for a chance to win gift cerficates and four Grandin Theatre tickets. The gift certificates are valued at $300, $150 and $50, to be used for dining and shopping in the Grandin Village.

Today, 6 to 8 p.m.: Holiday Open House at West Village shops in Southwest Roanoke County.

Warm Hearts & Warm Coats Drive: Through Jan. 16, the Burlington Coat Factory in Roanoke is collecting coats for men, women and children. The Salvation Army will distribute these coats to the needy. The coats must be in good condition. They should have working fasteners and no stains or rips.

Giving Soles Shoe Collection: Dandelion Feet, a women's shoe store in downtown Roanoke, is collecting gently worn shoes for men, women and children to be given to the Rescue Mission for families in need. Last year, the retailer collected more than 1,200 pairs of shoes. This is the third year for the shoe drive.

Shoe drop-off locations in the Roanoke Valley include Bella Magazine, the Roanoke Athletic Club, the Botetourt Athletic Club, K92 and Dandelion Feet.

Hello, blog readers. I hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving Day holiday. Have you recovered from the big shopping weekend?

It sounds like last weekend was a good one for retailers for the most part. Friday was the busiest day with shoppers spending an average of $372.57 each, which is up 7.2 percent from last year's $347.55, according to the National Retail Federation's findings. The NRF estimated that 73.6 million people shopped on Black Friday.

To the left is a picture of some of the early bird shoppers lining up at the Disney Store in Roanoke's Valley View Mall, which opened at 3:30 a.m. on Friday.

Traffic subsided after Friday, though 56.9 million people shopped on Saturday, which is up from 48.3 million last year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, the NRF reported on Sunday.

Also, the number of people shopping on Thanksgiving Day jumped 48 percent, with 16.2 million people in stores last Thursday, compared with 10.9 million last year, according to the NRF.

Don't forget to let me know about what deals you found, or expected to find, last weekend.

And the spending is expected to continue today. It's the official kickoff to online holiday shopping, known as Cyber Monday. This is the day when online sales typically heat up as people start heading to the Internet for gift buying.  A survey by Shop.org conducted last weekend predicts that 84.6 million people will shop online today from home or from work. That's up from 72 million last year.

Expect the most popular online promotions to include email campaigns, one-day sales and free shipping, according to the survey.

Below is a sampling of some online deals going on today (Eastern time), according to Shop.org:

10 to 11 a.m.--Sierra Trading Post: 20 percent off with no order minimum, free shipping (excludes bikes, boats and sports optics)

11 a.m. to 12 p.m.--eToys.com: $5 off an order of $35 or more

1 to 2 p.m.--Discovery Store: Receive 50 percent off plus free shipping when you purchase Planet Earth DVD set, the When We Left Earth, the NASA Mission DVD Set and the Blue Planet DVD set

5 to 6 p.m.--Red Envelope: 20 percent off sitewide

7 to 8 p.m.--eBags.com: Buy one, get one 25 percent off, free shipping

8 to 9 p.m.--ProFlowers.com: 20 percent off sitewide on holiday flowers and gifts