Who’s the biggest fan of gift cards for special occasions like birthdays, anniversaries and Christmas?

If you guessed your spouse, children, grandchildren, co-workers, friends or business associates … you’d be wrong.

They may like them but the number one fan of gift cards is the retailers who sell them to you.

Are gift cards on your Christmas list? If so, here’s some information that you ought to know. . .before heading to the mall.

The National Retail Federation’s estimates that over $26 billion…that’s billion with a capital “B” will be spent on gift cards this holiday season. Yes, over $26 billion dollars with be spend on gift card this year even though over $8 billion dollars in gift cards purchased in 2006 have never been used.

Why do you think most people buy gift cards? Because it’s easy.

Set a Holiday Budget – A recent survey found that 44% of Americans don’t set holiday spending budgets and, of those that do, 12% expect to exceed it.

Establish your budget before you head to the stores; decide for whom you’re going to buy and assign a dollar amount to each person. Keep the list you create with you when you shop and stick to it. A little planning beforehand will help you keep your financial wits about you.

There are way too many believers in trouble because they’ve been shopping at Bed, Bath and Beyond Their Means. Here are 7 ways you can help yourself financially in the coming shopping season:

1. Reality Check: Get out your most recent credit card bills before you go shopping. Figure up how much you’ve paid in interest this year. You may also do the same with department store cards, as well as car and personal loans. Now plan your shopping list.

For most people this Christmas. . .gift giving may come as a challenge. Many people are facing harsh economic realities not of their own making or choosing.

But when it comes to Christmas, a desire to give good and often expensive gifts can tug on your emotional heartstrings making it tempting to unwisely increase your debt load.

Play now. . .pay later. . .is no longer an option.

Here are a dozen plus gift ideas that are either inexpensive or home-made.

You’ve heard of the 12 Days Before Christmas… well let’s end this very serious year on a comic note by looking at how we used to spend the Christmas holidays … before we “wised up” and “grew up” in the Lord.

1. December 25^th. . .the day you’ve waited for. . .to see the smiles on the faces of those you love as they open your Christmas gifts. As your kids open every present in record speed, they look at you as if singing the lyrics of the song, “Is that all there is?” and you’re wondering the same thing but in a whole different way.

2. December 26^th. . .you take back things you were given for Christmas that either: don’t fit, you don’t like or you don’t want. As your car nudges 20 feet in 20 minutes in mall traffic ... you vow to never do this again.

3. December 27^th. . .your memory of yesterday is gone and you’re back at the mall again for “After Christmas Sales” now in full-swing. The deal was so good you couldn’t pass it up. . . “God must have given you favor” because the credit card representative at the department store agreed to extend your credit limit.

I’m tired of retailers who gladly take my money this time of year but refuse to use the word “Christmas” … the name which symbolizes why I’m shopping in the first place and the reason they make more money this month than any other month in the year.

In writing this article I looked at ten or so websites and the only one to have Christmas on the front page was Walmart. All the others used the term “holiday.” That’s just wrong in my opinion.

Let me just tell you the next time I walk in a store and some sales representative says “Happy Holidays,” I’m going to smile and say, “you know I hope you have a nice day but I believe I’m going to spend my money with folks who say `Merry Christmas.’”

If you know anyone who is offended by Christmas as a “matter of principle,” then I have 10 guidelines for them to follow so they won’t be: Holiday Hypocrites

The howling wind was piercing the night so loudly. . .I thought about Googling to determine whether or not. . .Gatlinburg, Tennessee had ever experienced a tornado.

As I type this. . .I’m sitting at a desk in a room on the 13^thfloor of the Park Vista Doubletree Hotel in Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

I was awakened over two hours ago. . .at 4:30 AM by the very loud whistling of the wind outside our room.  The only light in this room. . .is the one emanating from my computer screen. 

According to an app of my iPhone. . .there is a weather advisory about winds from 25 to 40 miles per hours (mph) with gusts up to 70 mph.  The wind noise is so loud that it even woke our Babygirl Alex who was asleep in the next room.

I have a dear friend. . .a brilliant man. . .who is, in fact, a member of the Mensa Society, with an IQ of over 120.

In the midst of any conversation. . .whether about politics, people or ideas. . .he is prone to say. . . “Let’s get this conversation back where it belongs. . .on me.”

For my friend, the statement is just a way of having fun. . .or re-directing the conversation but it doesn’t have to be on him. . .he isn’t self-centered in the least.

However, we do live in a “me” society.

“What’s in it for me?”

Successful man can buy his wife everything she wants and pay cash for it.

Successful woman is someone who knows where to find such a man.

Single women?  “Girl, you’ve been running. . . .”

Who’s got some money? ((illustration))

“….Behold, the heavens and the heaven of heavens belong to the Lord your God, the earth also, with all that is in it and on it.”  Deuteronomy10:14  AMP