Holidays

The Five Greatest Toys of All Time -- That Are Free

Have we been duped? Fooled by toy marketers into thinking the greatest toys are the most expensive? Yes, if you ask Dr. Gabrielle Principe from Psychology Today. She says the greatest toys you can ever give a kid are absolutely free. Here are the top five.

5. Sock

For puppets
For a purse for dressup
A beanbag for tossing
A tube top for Barbie
A potholder for mudpie baking sheets
A beer can koozie for dad

4. Mud

Pottery
War party face paint
Exfoliating body shampoo
Pies

3. Ball

She says her kid's school has banned chase, tag, and dodge ball. Teachers hand out balls like controlled substances. this is why every kid should find a ball under the tree Christmas morning.

2. Pebbles

Collecting
Trading
Exploring for..
"... there has never been a single study showing that any "educational" toy is better for children's brain than Pebbles. Nor will there likely ever be."

1. Backdoor

Shoved out the backdoor opens their world to hide-and-seek, dandelions, snowballs, fireflies, and stuff they can't get away with indoors.

She makes a point, you know. The greatest toys and activities in the world cost close to nothing. You can think of a few right now I bet. How about:

Building a fort out of boxes
Building a tree house out of scrap wood
Making a BMX trail in the woods
Skipping flat rocks across the water
Snow forts
Snow man
Frisbee tag/golf

I named those in 30 seconds...any to add?

The Five Stupidest Kinds of Christmas Gifts

From Gawker.com, classes of gifts that you should never buy from ever again.

A Tie ("You just gave someone something that reminds them of something they hate. Congrats. You ruined Christmas.")
Celebrity Perfume ("as sure as the sun will rise and the Dow Jones will fall, celebrity perfumes will be putrid.")
Sex Toys (This is not sexy, and neither is Christmas)
Anything Intangible (name a star after me, for example)
iPod (everyone who wants an iPod, HAS AN IPOD)

Number of the Day

26

...the age of the world's oldest dog, Pusuke, who passed away on Monday at his home in Sakura, Japan. The previous record was 28, held by a beagle in the U.S. until it died in 2003. Photo

Relationships

Holiday Boyfriends

Two girls had their Craigslist post taken down after requesting temporary boyfriends for the holidays. They posted "holidays are the worst time to be single and some of us are just sick of it." If you're interested, you better respond to their tumbr.com page before their first holiday party on December 11th.

Question: Ever arranged a temporary relationship? For what reason -- were there any problems?

Temporary BF, Part 2

Back to Craigslist for a boyfriend! This woman is looking for a specific guy for a specific reason. She needs a hot guy to make her ex fiancee jealous. Oh, and she's willing to pay. Here's her post:

I'm in need of a good looking guy to pretend to be my boyfriend at a holiday party that my ex fiancee will be attending. The date of the party is December 18, and its an afternoon event. You must be reasonably attractive, a quick learner and one hell of a liar. If you are interested, please reply with a headshot and a full bod picture, why you would be a great fit for this, and what your fee will be. Just to be clear, I am not looking for a prostitute or anything like that; I just need someone who is cute and can be believable enough to make my ex fiancee think I have found someone better than him.

Have you ever dated someone just to make someone else jealous?

Primetime, Baby!

ABC: Wipeout (NEW), America's Funniest Home Vid's (NEW), The Great American Auction (NEW)
CBS: The Big Bang Theory (NEW), Rules of Engagement (NEW), Person of Interest (NEW), The Mentalist (NEW)
NBC: Community (NEW), Parks and Rec (NEW), The Office (NEW), Whitney (NEW), Grimm (NE)W
FOX: The X Factor (LIVE), Bones (NEW)
CW: Vampire Diaries, The Secret Circle

Christmas Specials

Jack Frost (Rankin/Bass)
ABC Family 6:00 p.m.

The Christmas Choir
Hallmark Channel 6:00 p.m.

Frosty's Winter Wonderland
ABC Family 7:00 p.m.

Cranberry Christmas
ABC Family 7:30 p.m.

Holly Jolly Secrets
Cartoon Network 7:30 p.m.

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town
ABC Family 8:00 p.m.

'Twas the Blight Before Christmas
TV Land 8:28 p.m.

sANTa's Little Helpers (NEW)
Disney Channel 8:30 p.m.

America's Funniest Home Videos : Christmas Spectacular
ABC 9:00 p.m.

The Year Without a Santa Claus
ABC Family 9:00 p.m.

Christmas Story (Jessie) (NEW)
Disney Channel 9:00 p.m.

A Miser Brothers' Christmas
ABC Family 10:00 p.m.

The Christmas Card
Hallmark Channel 10:00 p.m.

The Christmas Picture
TV Land 10:00PM

Joke of the Day

A kindergarten teacher was observing her class of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child's artwork. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was.

The girl replied, "I'm drawing God."

The teacher paused and said, "But no one knows what God looks like."

Without missing a beat or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, "They will in a minute!"

Surf This!

Chrift.com is a handy little site that helps you decide what to buy your friends and family for Christmas by analyzing their Facebook profile data. They look at their profile and gift you a list of recommendations, custom tailored towards their interests. Takes all the work out of actually "getting to know them". Exhausting!