For most people, the holidays are a time of gifts, fun, and family.

But to Wharton economist Joel Waldfogel, the holidays are celebrated with an "orgy of value destruction."

In his new book Scroogenomics: Why You Shouldn't Buy Presents for the Holidays, Dr. Waldfogel explains why gift giving is so prone to value destruction -- and how we can make it less of a waste and still enjoy the holidays and gifting.

WalletPop editor-at-large Jason Cochran and I recently spoke with Dr. Waldfogel in a podcast, touching on a wide variety of topics: from crying babies to candy corn to giving cash to drug addicts to regifting.

So you missed the doorbusters. No worries. Who wants to cram into a store at dawn or set the alarm for 2 a.m. to get a virtual doorbuster? The best thing about Black Friday is you can go later in the day and still use many of the coupons retailers are sharing. Here are some of the best coupons out there.

Get 25% off your purchase at Michael's before noon local time or get fixed dollars off your purchase, depending on the total. Coupons here.

Spend $60 at Victoria's Secret and get a free runway bag. Print the coupon here. Online use code VSFRIDAY. If you're buying jammies, get a pair of free slippers with code PJGIFT. If you buy a sweater get a free scarf with code SCARF09. Some caveats.

This is the home of our Black Friday LiveBlog, where our correspondents from across the country will be reporting in on the action, the mayhem and the bargaineering. For the latest news up until the doors open, check out these links, and then watch our new video report from Toys R Us on the scene of Black Friday to get yourself in the mood:



Black Friday Deals Scorecard

Black Friday breaking news

Download our Black Friday toolbar

Holiday spending poll results

If you want your Christmas shopping dollars to go further and support a great cause, then the Pink Friday charity fundraiser is the answer.

Systemax Inc., whose companies include CompUSA, Tiger Direct, TigerDirect Canada and Circuit City, will be hosting the third annual Pink Friday on the day traditionally known as "Black Friday."

The consumer electronics and technology retailer expects Pink Friday to help raise more than $100,000 for Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the world's largest breast cancer organization.

Cyber Monday deals traditionally come once a year, the Monday after Thanksgiving, when online retailers cut prices to lure in workers who have returned to work but still need to get some shopping done.

This year there will be plenty of Cyber Monday sales on Nov. 30, but according to the CEO of Coupon Craze, that's just the start of Cyber Monday deals this year.

By working with retailers and observing the online shopping trends, which show that online shopping jumps significantly on the Mondays leading up to Christmas, Christian Gordun, the Coupon Craze CEO, has come up with a list of additional Cyber Mondays and a Shipping Monday to keep in mind.

Forget about getting a deal on Black Friday. There's tons of free stuff to be had! Here are the top freebies I found for Friday, Nov. 27.

Get a coupon card (a plastic version of the Entertainment Book with thousands of 2-for-1 offers) for free from MyParentRewards.com when you are one of the first 1,000 people to sign up starting at 11:59 p.m. EST Thursday, Nov. 26. The card normally sells for $20.

If you are doing any Black Friday shopping at Target, make sure to print this coupon for a free medium soda from the Target cafe. Good Friday Nov. 27 to Saturday Nov. 28. One coupon per customer.

Get a free gift card at REI -- in $5, $25 or $100 denominations - for being one of the first 300 customers on Black Friday. Check when your local store is opening and call to make sure they are participating.

Make sure to hit up your local Westfield Mall for a free gift from Real Simple. The first 500 shoppers will receive one in Westfield's 50 malls across the country. The actual gift will vary from mall to mall. Click here to find your local mall, then click on "12 Days of Shopping" and scroll down to events for Nov. 27 to see if the giveaway is listed.

At GGP malls you can get a free "Mistle Tote" bag starting when the mall opens, according to The Freebie Blogger. Limited number available.

Walgreens has a handful of products that are free on Black Friday after coupons and register rewards (dollars-off coupons you can apply to future purchases). Check them out here.

Rite Aid also has some great freebies, like Sally Hansen Lip Color and Tampax, when you fill out their online single check rebate forms (which means you submit all your rebates for the month at once). See them here.

Not to be outdone, CVS has 14 freebies on Black Friday. Holy cow! Check 'em out here.

On Black Friday, shoppers across America will set out in search of bargains on flat screen TVs, Verizon Droids, Snuggies and... guns? Only in South Carolina.

The Palmetto State is offering its residents a sales tax holiday beginning on Black Friday. For guns. It is the only two day sales tax holiday of its kind in the country.

The South Carolina Department of Revenue issued reminders earlier in the week for what has been dubbed the "Second Amendment Sales Tax Holiday for 2009."

The two day sales tax-free event begins on 12:01 a.m. on Black Friday. During the sales tax holiday, shoppers will pay no state or local sales taxes on handguns, rifles and shotguns. Generally, the statewide sales tax rate for retail sales in South Carolina is 6%. Counties may impose an additional 1% local sales tax.

Many retail employees are forgoing Turkey Day with their families to offer a jump start on the Black Friday shopping mania.

According to the USA Today, Wal-Mart, Old Navy, and Radio Shack on the West Coast will entertain shoppers who decide to splurge after a hearty meal.

So will Toys R Us, says an earlier Walletpop post and Boscov's and certain Banana Republic/ Gap stores. These retailers will join Kmart, Walgreen's and other drug and grocery stores who began the tradition years ago.

"It's a big trend for retailers," said Scott Testa, professor of business administration at Cabrini College in Philadelphia in a phone interview. "I think a certain percentage of the population will go and shop especially if they can beat the Black Friday crowd."

Have you ever shopped online through a "cash back" site? The main ones are ExtraBux, eBates, and Cashbaq.

The way it works is you register for free at one of these sites, then click through to the retailer of your choice. They track what you purchase and send you a check a few weeks later with a percentage of your purchase. The percentage back varies widely, from 1-50% back.

The cash back sites are gearing up for Black Friday with some pretty hot deals. Each site negotiates their own deal, so if you have a specific purchase in mind, compare the offers to get the biggest discount.

If you're looking for great Black Friday deals you should read WalletPop's Black Friday Shopping Guide, which will tell you the best places to shop for specific items, but if you still need to compare the Black Friday sales we have five tools to help you find what you're looking for.

First off Cheapism.com points us to an interactive online Black Friday offer browser that lets you sort, compare and filter on many categories so that you can compare the Black Friday sales that matter to you. It is easy to sort by store, price, category, brand, and even if there is a rebate involved.

Cheapism also pointed out a Black Friday Twitter aggregation tool put together by the Washington Post that is pulling in Black Friday deals from companies that Tweet. This is a great place to watch for last minute deal announcements and coupon codes.

The down side of saving a big chunk of change on Black Friday is that you usually have to spend a lot of money to realize those savings. That's why we at Walletpop were happy to see a Black Friday deal that is literally just about the savings.

On Black Friday, online bank ING Direct will announce special interest rates for opening a CD or the brand's signature Electric Orange checking account (they're keeping mum on the details of those rates until Friday but have added a teaser page to their Web site).

This blog has details of two other promotions, though: a $683 discount off an ING mortgage (the amount is the average dollar cost Americans spend on holiday gifts annually, according to the National Retail Federation) as well as a Cyber Monday 20% discount on trades through ShareBuilder, its trading subsidiary.

In her second annual Mega Holiday Gift Away celeb cook-turned-entrepreneur Rachel Ray is increasing odds of winning by offering more presents, more time to enter and more chances to walk away with the Grand Prize. Featuring free gifts totaling $145,463, Ray's successful Everyday with Rachel Ray Magazine is cranking up the heat this holiday season with daily "gift aways" from November 16 through January 27, 2010.

The Grand Prize allows two foodie fans to attend a taping of the Rachel Ray Show in New York City . However, if you don't wind up on set, the consolation prizes are pretty sweet too.

Black Friday's prize offers the chance to win $500 dollar American Express gift cards. On other dates in December, enter to win an HP mini notebook or desktop computer, golf clubs from Callaway, an Orbitz ski vacation, a culinary weekend for two at Hotel Viking in Newport, RI, a Jacuzzi hot tub or a week on a Norwegian Cruise Liner - to name a few.

The ramp up to Black Friday has been more energetic this year than any I can remember. There's a near insatiable thirst for discounts and door busters and retailers are more than willing to do whatever it takes to satisfy that thirst.

I've been covering national big box retailers for nearly 15 years now, and the volume of discounts this Black Friday is simply astonishing. All the national retailers like Best Buy, Target, Toys R Us and Walmart are rolling out new deals so fast it's difficult to keep track (although WalletPop does, check out our Black Friday listing). But there's more to retailing than national chains, and it's important to remember that mom and pop shops need to ring their registers too. This year, more than ever.

Seasoned Black Friday shoppers know that the best way to save during this all-important shopping day is to plot out a course of action ahead of time. That means knowing what you want and where to get it -- at the lowest possible price, of course.

Such planning entails scouring the Black Friday ads and comparing prices and selection. To help ease the load, WalletPop has done some of the legwork for you. We've combed through the ads that have been released so far and dug up the best deals on everything from high-definition TVs and Blu-ray players to tools and sweaters.

Not to be left out of the Black Friday hype, Beazer Homes is offering special Black Friday deals at five of its Orlando-area communities.

What's being given away is up to $2,000 in "free" appliances for contracts signed on Friday. But before you give up your place in the Wal-Mart line at 4 a.m., just know that in today's buyers-rule-and-developers-drool market, you can likely mosey on in any old day of the week and let the good folks at Beazer know which dishwasher you want them to throw in for free before you'll sign on the dotted line. Just saying ...

Beazer Homes USA, according to its Web site, "builds for the middle-class buyer who's ready to make the move into the white-picket-fence scene." They build homes with an average price of about $248,700 and courts the entry-level, move-up, and active adult markets.

As for Orlando-area buyers who want to be able to gloat about how they got their house in a Black Friday special, here's the skinny: The special one-day incentive is being offered at Heritage Commons in Winter Springs, The Legacy in Orlando, The Enclave at Moss Park, Sawgrass, also in southeast Orlando, and at Victoria Park Trails in DeLand.

The Federal Tax Credit for qualified new home buyers at $8,000 and $6,500 for existing home buyers is still available.