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Alternative Gifts Week

Black Friday may be the traditional start to the holiday shopping season but Friday, December 5th is the first day of 'Alternative Gifts Week.' Gift fairs will be held around the DC region where instead of buying 'stuff,' you make donations to charities in the name of people on your shopping list. We're joined by J McCray, Co-Chair and Co-Founder of Alternative Gifts of Greater Washington.

Fred Fiske: Shoppers as Hyenas

Retailers saw signs of hope on Black Friday with some sales figures indicating a temporary rebound in consumer spending. But WAMU Senior Commentator Fred Fiske says in the wake of the death of a Walmart employee in Valley Stream, New York, it's time to rethink sales strategies.

Gift #1 - The Calendar

We kick off the 'Holiday Shopping Guide' portion of the show with the humble calendar.

Judging by the piles of calendars in book stores at the moment, everyone is in the market for a 2009 model. We jumped on the bandwagon a couple of weeks ago when we spoke about a dog rescue calendar, 'Pinups For Pitbulls.' This week - another calendar, and AGAIN the subject is pinups. This time, the women of DC theatre. The calendar doubles as a fund raiser to help launch a local film company - Outer Loop Films. Founders, Tara Garwood who performs with DC's Molotov Theater and actor/comedian Joey Cabrera, speak with Stephanie Kaye about the calendar and their celluloid dreams.

Outer Loop Film's launch party is happening on December 6th at the 1409 Playbill Cafe in northwest DC.

Gift #2 - A Bottle of Wine

We made it past Thanksgiving but the end-of-the-year holiday stampede is far from over. Wine writer Dick Rosano helps us choose wines to give as gifts at holiday parties. Dick Rosano writes about wine for Wine News and is the author of Wine Heritage: The Story of Italian-American Vintners.

Dick's Picks:

Best of Year - Arcanum I 2004 (Tuscany, $96)

Best of Year - Dow 1994 Vintage Port (Portugal, $105)

Best for under $25

Folie a Deux 2005 Zinfandel (Amador County, $18)

Joseph Carr 2006 Chardonnay (Carneros, $18)

Laird Family Estate 2007 Pinot Grigio Cold Creek Ranch (Carneros, $18)

Museum 2003 Crianza (Spain, $18)

Tormaresca 2006 Neprica (Puglia, Italy, $11)

Gift #3 - The Book... And the Music Collection

Tom Moon, who spent 20 years as a music critic at the Philadelphia Inquirer and contributes regularly to NPR's All Things Considered joins us to talk about his new book, "1,000 Recordings to Hear Before You Die." He also picks some albums as the perfect musical gifts.

Best Bets with Colleen Fay

It's that time of year - a time for seemingly every arts company in the DC region to unleash their year-end holiday productions. And that means it's also time for Metro Connection arts editor Colleen Fay to help sort it all out for us. Colleen Fay is back with her holiday best bets for 2008.