In this article we present a few interesting tidbits for the holidays. There are some surprising facts about gift cards, a new online price shopping web site, results from a PriceGrabber online survey, and some tips for senior holiday blues.

Gift Cards—Not what you might think
According to one survey:
*46 percent of people plan on buying gift cards but only 15 percent want them.
*About 12 percent of people had yet to redeem at least one of the gift cards they received during the 2008 holiday season—merchants like this.
*65 percent of people who received a gift card in 2008 typically spent more than the value of the card—merchants really like this.
*41 percent of people with unused 2008 gift cards hadn't found anything they wanted to buy—that’s ok with merchants, they have the cash.

2 Orange County Companies Offer Another Site for Online Price Shopping.
This site claims to be the “only price search engine that incorporates coupon/deal finders and social shopping. Other key features include: store locators, price history graphs, reviews and personalized price alerts. Pricespider.com's powerful search technology shows the coupon, rebate or deal that is relevant to a product search in the "Related Offers" tab. All information is current, which means that all expired offers are weeded out. For any search, Pricespider.com also shows rebates, deals or coupons for similar products, which gives users a quick overview of what is the best deal out there.”

PriceSpider.com, based out of Irvine, has created this site in collaboration with Neudesic, also located in Irvine. Neudesic is a “Microsoft National Systems Integrator and Gold Certified Partner with a proven track record of providing reliable, effective solutions based on Microsoft's technology platform.”

Click here to go to the site.

Holiday Trends Consumer Behavior Report
Based on a recent PriceGrabber.com survey of 4,691 U.S. online consumers:
*45% of consumers plan to shop on Black Friday or Cyber Monday.
*80% of those plan to make a purchase on Black Friday.
*66% plan to make a purchase on Cyber Monday—for the math folks among us, yes, that means some will make a purchase on both days.
*58% of consumers are planning to give practical gifts compared with 66% last year—maybe people feel the need for a little anti-recession blues indulging.
*1 in 4 consumers will do some holiday shopping while at work.
*54 percent of consumers planning to spend less, 42 percent planning to spend the same amount and only 5 percent plan on spending more than last year.

Holiday Blues for Seniors
Last year at this time, we did an online literature search to see if we could find any substance to support the popular idea that suicides increase during the holidays. We did not find any conclusive information that indicated the phenomena actually occurs. Nevertheless, the holidays can be a time of increased depression for some, particularly for seniors.

According to Dr. Nitin Nanda, chief of geriatric psychiatry and behavioral health for the Los Angeles Jewish Home, "The sad reality is that for seniors loved ones may no longer be there, or they are separated from the people who help to make the holidays special. These losses take on even greater significance during the holidays.”

Recognizing the signs of holiday depression may be difficult and often are undetected by family and friends. According to Dr. Nanda, the signs can be as subtle as a loss of appetite or a change in sleeping patterns. Other warning signs of depression may include:
*Weight loss or gain.
*Behavior that is more nervous irritated or agitated than normal.
*Complaints of being tired all the time and having low energy.
*Unexplained sadness.
*Loss of pleasure and interest in usual activities.
*Feelings of worthlessness.
*Difficulty with thinking or concentration.
*Thoughts of suicide.

"If you or a loved one is showing these signs, it's important to contact your physician right away," says Dr. Nanda. "Silence is not golden in the golden years where issues like this are concerned. By letting others know how a senior is feeling, friends, family members and doctors can come up with strategies to help make things better."