What will be the hot gifts this festive season?

Yes we made it to Thanksgiving, the unofficial start of the festive season, so can we get any indication yet of what are going to be the hot gifts this Christmas? First a quick history lesson – we all know that Thanksgiving started when the early pilgrims gave thanks for their life in the New World. But interestingly, many of the Pilgrim Fathers had lived in Holland before setting sail on the Mayflower and some suggest the festival is based on an annual October commemoration of the 1574 lifting of the Spanish siege of Leiden, a city in The Netherlands. Anyhoooo, it has now become a time for family reunions with 49 million people expected to travel 50 miles or more, so don’t be surprised by the traffic jams. Tomorrow is Black Friday, a day of special shopping bargains but where should we look to find the hot gifts for this Christmas? The National Retail Federation said this week it expects retail sales excluding automobiles, gasoline and restaurants to rise 3.6 percent in November and December, to $655.8 billion. NRF anticipates non-store sales, which skew toward digital, will increase between 7 and 10 percent, to as much as $117 billion; that’s a lot of gifts.  Amazon of course is always a good source of shopping ideas. For example here are their top picks for women’s gifts with make-up and beauty products leading the way. On ebay the best Black Friday deals are mainly tech. or fashion related. If our pictured Reggae Adult Onesies aren’t classy enough you can get help from Vogue’s Ultimate Black Friday Gift Guide but beware the prices. And how about this for a way of predicting the hot gifts in toys this Christmas. In the UK, Royal Mail deliver all of the letters which children post to Santa at the North Pole, and they carry all of Santa’s replies back as well, so they are in a great position to know what toys are in demand this Christmas. The top five bring few surprises: Lego, Scooter, Bike, Mobile phone, Paw Patrol Air Patroller. Our own USPS offers a Santa mail special too just follow these steps: Have your child write a letter to Santa and place it in an envelope addressed to: Santa Claus, North Pole. Later, when alone, open the envelope and write a personalized response. Insert the response letter into an envelope and address it to the child. Add the return address: SANTA, NORTH POLE, to the envelope. Then put a First-Class Mail stamp on the envelope, place it into a larger envelope with appropriate postage and address it to: North Pole Postmark, Postmaster, 4141 Postmark Drive, Anchorage, AK 99530-9998. Cool personalized hot gifts from the cold North Pole.