Day After Christmas Sales: A Guide to Shopping and Returns

Need to return that ugly sweater Santa got you? Here are the shopping hours for DC area malls and retailers—including Kohl's, Best Buy, Apple store, Walmart, Target and more.

Want to know when you can start shopping with all the money relatives gave you this Christmas? Or do you just need to return the gifts you don't want? Well, many malls and retailers are opening early for the day after Christmas sales on Wednesday, Dec. 26 and some customers can return unwanted presents. Here's what's open and where they are located: The Mall at Prince George's: 3500 East West Highway, (Route 410) Hyattsville, MD 20782 Hours: 8 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Beltway Plaza Mall: 6198 Greenbelt Road  Greenbelt, MD 20770 Hours: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Bowie Town Center 15606 Emerald Way Bowie, MD 20716 Hours: 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Westfield Montgomery: 7101 Democracy Boulevard Bethesda, MD 20817  Hours: 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Westfield Wheaton: 11160 …

• Photos (1)

Shopping Alert: 5 Hot Holiday Toys

What toys are kids asking Santa for this year in Prince George's County and Maryland?

Topping off the toys' list the week before Christmas, this year's best sellers at Toys"R"Us include the Time For Your Checkup Doll and the 1980s comeback, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, according to Adrienne O'Hara, Toys"R"Us spokeswoman.  The items that are selling best in Prince George's County and Maryland are also the ones selling best nationwide at the toys store, according to O'Hara, who described them below: HOLIDAY TOY BEST SELLERS #1 - Disney Doc McStuffins Time For Your Check Up Doll Doc McStuffins is a Disney Junior show that features a girl with stuffed animals and dolls that she nurses back to health. Time For Your Checkup Doll is one of the most popular in the series. She comes dressed in a lab coat and sings songs and repeats…

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

Announcement: Mompreneur's Holiday Boutique in Greenbelt Hilton Thursday

Twenty plus vendors will feature fashions, custom-made jewelry, gourmet foods, holiday decor, children's gifts and more at the Hilton Garden Inn.

How to Track Down the Hottest Toys

Tips for getting the presents they want without having to hoof it from Prince George's County to the North Pole.

Santa’s awesome, but he doesn’t always deliver the hottest toys of the season on demand, no matter how nicely we ask. If the kids – or wannabe kids – in your life happen to have their hearts set on presents that are hard to come by, it can be torturous running from store to store only to find what they really want just isn’t available. Whether your little girl has her sights on the latest Lalaloopsy, your son wants a Hot Wheels R/C Terrain Twister or that “big baby” in your life is yearning for a copy of Halo 4, here are some ideas on how to track down what’s in demand without putting miles and miles on your vehicle in the process: Tips for Shopping in Town If you hate ordering online and love the gratification of being able to hold the …

•  2 Comments
• Photos (1)

Are Target, Walmart, Other Retailers Ruining Thanksgiving?

Retail 'sale' creep hits the all-American holiday big time this year.

  If all you can wait to do after you chow down on your Thanksgiving meal is start the holiday shopping marathon, retailers are ready to help you. Other Americans, including some retail workers, are saying they want to keep one Thursday in November free of American capitalistic intrusion. Target, Walmart, Sears, KMart and Toys"R"Us have all announced they will open as early as 8 p.m. Thanksgiving Day, making 2012's holiday shopping season of 32 days and four hours perhaps the longest ever due to the way the calendar fell this year. At least one online petition says enough, already. A campaign on the site Change.org entitled, "Target: Take the high road and save Thanksgiving," had been signed by more than 230,000 users as of Friday night. …

•  14 Comments
• Photos (2)

Peggy Anne

10:31 am on Friday, November 23, 2012

Black Friday ? Why not play the Funeral March ? Of course consumers in human form have the right to shop 24/7. They have a right to be trampled, poked in the eye with an umbrella, make fools of themselves, and buy discounted caskets. Why not ?everything else is on sale. Big brother brainwashing is alive and well. I like to shop sensibly. Give me an old thrift shop, a rainy Monday, and an ebay …   more ›

Blog: Mishakan Torah Sisterhood's Annual Rummage Sale Starts Sunday

Get a jump on early holiday shopping.

A Shop 'Til You Drop 2012 Holiday Season

Early Thanksgiving means more shopping time.

While you may just be putting the Halloween decorations away, retailers are already getting out the Christmas trees, Hanukkah menorahs and Kwanzaa candleholders, prepping for the longest holiday shopping season possible. For decades, now, Black Friday has heralded the start to the month-long holiday shopping season. Thanksgiving, celebrated the fourth Thursday in November since 1941 when Congress passed a law, falls on Nov. 22 this year, which means that there are a whopping 32 days of shopping, assuming you are not the type who buys gifts of lottery tickets and beef jerky from the convenience store on the way to your Christmas celebration. In that case, you have 32 days during which to procrastinate. According to the National Retail …

•  1 Comment
• Photos (1)

Consumers Plan to Spend at Least as Much as Last Year This Holiday Season

New study finds two-thirds of respondents expect to spend same amount as 2011.

The percentage of consumers who plan to sustain or increase their holiday spending in 2012 when compared to 2011 is growing, according to a recent survey by the NPD Group. The survey saw increases in respondents who plan to spend “About The Same” or “More” and a decrease in those who plan to spend “Less”: Survey Response 2012 2011 “Plan to Spend More” 10% 9% “Plan to Spend about the Same” 67% 64% “Plan to Spend Less” 23% 27% An article in the Baltimore Sun quoted NPD’s chief industry analyst Marshal Cohen as seeing “a light at the end of the tunnel with more consumers telling us they plan to 'spend about the same' and less planning to 'spend less.'" While the survey results paint a somewhat rosy picture for retailers such as Target, Sears…

• Photos (1)

The Ride is Half the Fun for Greenbelt Holiday Shoppers

Greenbelters team up with a Proteus biking group and glide through more than 30 miles for holiday shopping at Washington, D.C. markets.

When it comes to holiday shopping, most of us travel in a heated car, then sprint from the parking lot to the mall, heading straight for the Starbucks to warm up with a coffee. But 17 people made the trek the highlight of holiday shopping this past weekend. Greenbelters and other area bike riders rode more than 30 miles from Proteus Bicycles in College Park to Washington, D.C. markets, then carted the presents back on their bikes.  Jeff Lemieux, captured it on his bike cam. The first stop was Eastern Market in Northeast D.C. for lunch, and some riders also picked up some gifts and food. "But the best shopping was after lunch at the Downtown Holiday Market [in the Chinatown area]. Nice antiques, jewelry and crafts," Lemieux stated in an e-…

• Photos (1)

Festival of Lights Offers Unique Gifts from Local Artists

Artists and crafters will travel to Greenbelt from across Maryland this weekend — and Santa will fly in from much further north.

It’s that time again for an artists fair extraordinaire. This weekend arts and crafts makers will converge on Greenbelt to kick off its Festival of Lights. Festival-goers can buy unique handmade arts and crafts for holiday gifts, including pottery, jewelry, wood working, fine arts, stationery, handbags, textiles, spa products and more. Many of the artists and crafters are Maryland locals from cities such as College Park, Riverdale Park, University Park, Laurel, Silver Spring, Takoma Park, Ellicott City and Greenbelt — of course. Santa Claus will start things off on Friday night when he helps light the holiday tree. Afterward the Greenbelt Museum will offer free tours of its historic home, decorated for the season. A juried art and craft …

•  5 Comments
• Photos (1)