Time for the annual Christmas shopping thread. "How about what to get your favorite used house salesperson, or FB for Christmas?"

Several replies: "A pre-paid bus ticket, if it’s a metro area. Recommend a particular row."

"A gift basket with a squeegee, a spray bottle, and a piece of cardboard."

"Bullet-proof evening gown."

"Orange jumpsuit."

"For the used house salespeople I suggest a copy of M. Scott Peck’s 'People of the Lie.'" "Who would give a realtor a gift?"

"Donald Trump cologne?"

A reply, "How’d you get the goat to piss in the bottle?"

"A conscience?"

"Joshua Tree’s are the perfect gifts for realtors. In fact you should give them a few extra and ask them to share with their recent clients. Don’t need to tell them why. If I ever buy a house I plan to give out a few if I think they are needed."

Others want to know what you see locally, "This is the last weekend before Christmas. The retail 'analysts' have been constantly telling us that the shoppers are waiting until the last minute this year, as an explanation for why retail numbers are so low."

"This is an assumption that there are actually buyers out there with a pent-up demand, the same desperate assumption made repeatedly by NARies."

"What kind of frenzied buying activity are we seeing this weekend after all?"

One posted, "Our Malls have been packed to the max since last weekend, of course I have no idea if they are all buying like mad. The American consumer is well trained though, so I would expect they are doing their job. We’ll see."

One had a prediction, "Well if things don’t go as planned, they’ll blame the weather — copious snow in the Northeast, ice in the Midwest…"

One reported, "Actually I did see a last minute shopping frenzy. Kohl’s had been empty the 2-3 times I had been in it since Thanksgiving. Last weekend as I picked up my popcorn popper w/my earned Kohl’s bucks, the store had 2 lines at least 30 deep at one point feeding customers into the cashier lines. The shopping center’s parking lot was packed to overflowing. I think people were waiting for last minute bargains but in the end didn’t want to look like Scrooge."

"That being said, I did post earlier that the local media was interviewing shoppers in the mall and for several the cuts in the Christmas budgets from last year was deep. (ie, 50%, $600 down from $1600)."

One from California. "Here in San Diego, the malls are even busier this year than 2006 and 2005. Maybe people are depressed about the economic malaise and are doing some 'therapy' shopping?"