The day after Thanksgiving...the largest shopping day of the year may prove to be online this time. I don't think that any business this year, 2008, was exempt from the affects of our limping economy. With the gas prices just now showing some sympathy on our pocket books I must say they are still a little Johnny Come Lately. Especially as we have been trying to catch our breaths from other more difficult issues, such as lost jobs and bills of all sorts that have us all pooling together in our communities to help people stay in their homes. All of this and more will make gift giving this year as tough as it can be. But yes, the Internet just may prove to be the 'Greatest Mall of All' this season! As Forrester Research states U.S. Online retail sales this Holiday season will reach $44 Billion. Also 48% of consumers compared with 41% in 2007 said they can find the best values and deals online, so this is the possible explanation for the 12% increase over last year. Hard to find and unique Christmas gifts are successfully found online! Even personalized Holiday and personalized Christmas gifts are too.

Going Green as you may have noticed, is very prevalent on the pages of many magazines and articles on a variety of topics appearing in periodicals. Going Green in the ultimate hind sight relates directly back to our Oceans. So environmental gift giving that help spread the need for environmental preservation in nature on everything from saving the rain forest to preserving our oceans resources, etc., all try to give us a sense of helping and participation in spreading the word. While the Day after Thanksgiving may be the 'Busiest' shopping day until Christmas, why not make it the 'Buzziest' day and think of an Environmental gift of awareness.

Having been involved in ISLE SeaLand as 'Lori the Mermaid', I can speak about the conditions of our oceans and the need to educate our world on the endless resources that are rapidly being endangered. Ocean hobbyists and sea fanatics may be well in the know, but the key in all of this lies in the heart of the matter. Hundreds of
years ago men lived in peace about topics such as our oceans, but today they live in constant concern about what can we do to help all of us to get involved.

Envirnomental ocean gifts are very trendy these days, can streamline gift giving and can be financially beneficial with a lot of bang for the buck approach...propaganda has always brought. A sense of well being in the knowing, in other words, fear of the unknown is very real and has more weight with folks than we think. Many tips for sharing this Holiday season are
shared via the Internet, but none so sincere as our Last Final Frontier that can use your caring support, help generate positive and useful conversation and provide a smile on someone's face at the same time.