CHOCOLATE

Strip Chocolate , $25

Hot Chocolate Mugs, $38

• The Mayans invented the drinking of cocoa, mixing roasted cocoa beans, water and spices for a drink called "chocolatl." The Spanish were introduced to the drink by the Aztecs, brought it back to Europe and began heating it up in the 1600s.

•The Spanish were very protective of their new beverage, and it did not spread into the rest of Europe for another hundred years, when a Spanish princess married a French king, and gave it to him as a gift, after which the French court began drinking it, and it spread across Europe.

•In the 1700's in England, "chocolate houses," where writers, politicians and socialites sipped hot chocolate, were as popular as coffee houses.

• Thomas Jefferson was an avid hot cocoa fan. In 1785 he wrote to John Adams, "The superiority of chocolate, both for health and nourishment, will soon give it the same preference over tea and coffee in America which it has in Spain.".

• Hot chocolate remained wildly popular until the Industrial Revolution, which brought about a more business-like atmosphere that many thought called for the stimulants of tea and coffee.

SALES

• The coupon was invented by Asa Candler as a way to promote the products of a company he had just purchased - Coca-Cola. In 1895 he started placing advertisements in newspapers offering a free Coke from any fountain, and the drink's popularity began to skyrocket.

• In Wal-Mart's early days in the 1960's, the store would frequently call attention to their sales by forming massive amounts of a discounted product into a giant tower. One infamous pyramid of detergent in a Hot Springs, Arkansas store was 18 cases high and ran almost 100 feet long by 12 feet wide.

• The first credit card was issued in 1950, and it only worked at restaurants. The card was created by Diners' Club, and American Express and BankAmericard (which would become Visa) followed with their own credit cards in 1958. They were first promoted as a device for traveling salesmen to use on the road, and eventually exploded in popularity among general consumers as a time-saver.

Pewter Money Clip and Key Chain, $45 - $56

PROCRASTINATION

Pin Clock, $90

Hour Glass Cufflinks, $30

• The busiest shopping day is actually not Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, but typically the Saturday before Christmas.

• Because he was so easily distracted by doodling and projects that he could not finish, Leonardo da Vinci, accomplished painter, scientist and inventor, was actually a constant procrastinator. Many of his pieces were never completed, and he only finished The Last Supper after his patron threatened to cut off all funds.

• Psychological explanations for procrastination include impulsiveness, attention deficit disorder, rationalizing, perfectionism, and low self-esteem. It is a difficult habit to break, but it can be done through planning, breaking down tasks into smaller steps and developing specific positive habits.

• Toted English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge's procrastination was exacerbated by an addiction to opium, and he almost never finished his poems. He could not even complete one of his most famous pieces, "Kubla Khan," and blamed it on a visitor to his house, a "Person from Porlock," coming along and interrupting him - an excuse that has been widely lampooned in literary circles.

• The word "procrastination" comes from the Latin "procrastinus," meaning "forward of tomorrow."

HOLIDAY ENTERTAINING

• In England by the end of the 18th century there were laws restricting the use of fruitcakes to Christmas, Easter, weddings, christenings, and funerals because they were considered so decadent. During the Victorian era (1837-1901), fruitcake was popular and Queen Victoria received a fruitcake for her birthday one year. Legend has it, she put it aside for a year as a sign of restraint, moderation, and good taste. There is a tradition in England that calls for unmarried girls to put a slice of fruitcake under their pillow at night, expecting to dream of the person they will marry.

• For Kwanzaa, the home can be decorated with art and sculpture, baskets and cloth patterns in the African colors of black, red, and green, a centerpiece featuring the various Kwanzaa symbols, and most importantly, the Kinara, which holds seven candles representing the seven principles of the holiday: Umoja (Unity), Kujichagulia (Self-Determination), Ujima (Collective Work and Responsibility), Ujamaa (Cooperative Economics), Nia (Purpose), Kuumba (Creativity) and Imani (Faith).

• Many historians think that the word "nog" in "egg nog" comes from "noggin," although in reference to an old name for a small wooden mug, not because of the headache you'll have the next morning if you drink too much of it at a holiday party. A few other theories have "nog" coming from the word "nutmeg," one of the spices in the drink, or "grog," a word that American colonists used for rum.

Tea Candles, $18

Martini Goblets, $60

CHILDREN

Reversible Winter Hats, $9.95

Soft Blocks Set, $32

• The original Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, was especially noted for his generosity and love of kids, and he became the patron saint of children, as well as sailors. The Dutch kept the legend of St. Nicholas alive by placing their wooden shoes by the hearth in hopes that he would fill them with a treat. The Dutch spelled St. Nicholas as Sint Nikolaas, which became corrupted to Sinter Klaas. When Dutch settlers arrived in what would become New York, they took their Sinter Klaas customs with them and the name got Americanized into Santa Claus, which soon became his nickname.

• The Hebrew letters on the dreidel in the game that children play during Hanukkah - "nun," "gimel," "heh," and "shin" - are an acronym for the phrase "nes gadol haya sham - "A great miracle happened there."

• The poinsettia's popularity at Christmas derives from a Mexican story of two children and a gift. Legend has it that two poor peasant children, Maria and Pablo, had no gift to lay before the manger at church, so they picked a nearby plant and gave that instead. The other children laughed at them, as the plant was a mere humble weed, but it suddenly turned into a bright flower, which became known as the flower of the Holy Night. The plant remained in Mexico until the first Minister to Mexico, Joel Poinsett, returned to the United States with the flower in 1825.

ORNAMENTS

• Barnum's Animal Crackers were introduced in 1902 as a Christmas ornament by the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco). To this day, the Animal Cracker box includes a string for hanging on a tree.

• The Aztec Indians used popcorn as ornaments on statues of their deities, particularly that of Tialoc, the god of rain, fertility and maize.

• The first Christmas tree was placed in the White House in 1889 during the Benjamin Harrison administration and was decorated with candles and toys for the Harrison grandchildren. The first electric lights on a family tree were used in 1894 during the presidency of Grover Cleveland, just three years after the White House first acquired electricity.

Pewter Reindeer Ornaments, $15

THERAPY

• Dayton University's psychology department has reported that loud talk can be ten times more distracting than the sound of a jackhammer. Loud, incessant chatter has a tendency to make a listener nervous and irritable, and even start him on the road to insanity.

• In a recent UCLA psychological study, not only did 38% of patients tested report improvement after taking a placebo pill (a pill that does not actually do anything, used in experiments to compare to an effective pill), about 25% reported negative side effects from the pill.  The color of the pill had a strong impact on which side effects were reported.

• Sigmund Freud was actually an early proponent and user of cocaine.  After three years of using the drug, though, he saw its adverse effects in an acquaintance of his, Dr. von Fleischl-Marxo, and discontinued all use of it both personally and professionally.

THANKSGIVING

• The first national day of Thanksgiving was declared by the Continental Congress in 1777 to give thanks for the Americans' victory over the British at Saratoga, a decisive battle that has been considered a turning point in the Revolutionary War.  After a few more national Thanksgivings, the holiday returned to its status as a regional celebration around 1815.

• Starting in 1827, for thirty-six years a magazine editor named Sarah Josepha Hale wrote editorials in "Godey's Lady's Book" suggesting an annual national day of Thanksgiving. She finally wrote a letter on the subject to Secretary of State Wiliam Seward in 1863. He showed it to President Abraham Lincoln, who liked the idea and proclaimed the last Thursday in November Thanksgiving Day. Later, Franklin Roosevelt changed it to the third Thursday in November, which caused an outrage, so then he changed it to the fourth Thursday in November.

• The only two items that we know for sure were eaten at the original Thanksgiving, which was really a harvest celebration between the pilgrims and Wampanoag Indians, were venison and wild fowl. They are actually mentioned in primary sources.

• The cranberries in cranberry sauce got their name because when the colonists saw them, they noted how the flowers of the berries bent the stalk over, resembling a crane, and named them "crane-berries."

Pewter Salad Servers, $60

Fromage Cheese Plate Set, $24

TELEPHONES

Vintage Restored Phone, $145

Restored 1920's Candlestick Phone, $700

• The telephone was invented separately by two men, Elisha Gray and Scottish-born Alexander Graham Bell. Remarkably, both men filed their inventions at the New York patent office on February 14, 1876, with Bell's superior design beating Gray by only two hours! It was Bell who started the first telephone conversation in history, famously uttering to his assistant, "Come here, Watson, I want you."

• A commission set up by President Johnson in 1968 selected the number "911"as an emergency number for all phone systems in the country. At that point all emergency numbers in other countries had been three digits. They picked a 9 to start because it was the easiest for the system to clear for access, because it could be found easily in the dark and because the first digit could not be a 0 or a 1. They chose a 1 for the second and third digits probably because it was the fastest number to dial on a rotary telephone, and also easily found in the dark.

• While the cell phone did not achieve mass appeal until the 1990's, the first mobile phone call was actually placed by a driver in St. Louis in 1946. By 1948, wireless technology had spread to 100 cities and highway corridors, although no more than three people could make calls at one time in any city, and a mobile phone weighed about eighty pounds.

TYPEWRITERS

• The first practical typewriter was invented by Christopher Latham Sholes of Wisconsin in 1866, and first sold by the Remington Arms Company in the 1870's. There was a serious problem with jamming, so one of Sholes's business associates, James Densmore, suggested splitting up keys for letters commonly used together, thereby creating the slowest keyboard arrangement possible. In a supreme irony, this arrangement - known as the QWERTY keyboard - is still used in almost all computers today.