How Didn't You Waste Money This Christmas?

Oh horrors! It looks like people may have actually spent less this holiday season than they did last season? Is that possible? What happened, did the value of the average American household's assets fall in half or something? Did you finally listen to reason and start to pay off your credit card debt? Join the Church Of Stop Shopping? Or are you just over it? Over the it bags, the it new electronic communication devices, the it the new unflattering cut of jeans you're supposed to wear that eventually you will see by repetition to be not-as-unflattering as it seemed at first? (Interesting dude query over the break: "So, who decided to make skinny jeans cling to girls' calves that way?" A: The same dark forces trying to get you to invest in wide-leg pants. Stop the insanity!) Or did H&M just suck this year? (Yes.) There's another theory, of course...

That barely keeping pace with the core rate of inflation isn't such a travesty for the retail business. That some years you're going to learn last year's lesson and cut back a bit and Target just has to learn to live with that.

Whatever. What did you get for Christmas, what do you still want, and what would you like to return to pay off that hospital bill you keep getting all those calls about?

Retail "Tipping Point" May Be Ahead [CNBC]
Christian Louboutin's Red-Soled Shoes Are Red-Hot [USA Today]