Long Story Short Offering up a Great Holiday Gift Idea

Westchester, NY (PRWEB) December 12, 2011

Iris & Frances are two 77 year old identical twin sisters. They are the mother (Iris) and aunt (Frances) of my very close friend named Joanie. Long Story Short immediately saw their charm and unique personalities and asked Joanie, "Could Long Story Short film their oral histories?" which happened only a few months ago. The way one moment they spoke in unison, the next they were insulting each other was so charming and funny. Long Story Short posted the video on our Facebook pages, and the response was fantastic. Everyone loved them. So in an attempt to get a YouTube following going, we filmed them talking about current events and anything else they wanted to talk about. This video fell into the hands of a casting director looking for twins for a Walgreens flu shot commercial. And the rest is history! Since then the twins have visited both Dr. Phil and Rosie O'Donnell just a few weeks after the Walgreen?s commercial aired! Talk about 15 minutes of fame, which is turning into 30 minutes!

Long Story Short was founded in Westchester, NY, by former advertising editor Larry Horowitz, the business offers to capture and document your personal history on film. The films are made for all sorts of reasons, from a birthday or anniversary to a retirement, Sweet 16, Bar Mitzvah, secret family recipe and sometimes just to capture the life of a loved one. An ideal holiday gift for any family this season. A holiday film would include a multi-faceted process with loved-ones interviewed in their own home or filmed walking around a childhood neighborhood. As well as reaching out to old associates and extended family. The documentaries also include other documentation like family photographs, slides, home movies, newspaper articles, birth certificates, heirlooms and more. No detail is left untouched or overlooked. This is a simple opportunity to capture and preserve the people, place or event that helped shape who you are today. Long Story Short?s in-depth process allows families to experience the richness of their history, literally, right in front of their eyes.

Long Story Short was developed by Larry Horowitz who has been in the TV business for over 30 years doing, editing and advertising for many companies including Proctor & Gamble, Coca-Cola, L?Oreal and AT&T. He combines his artistic and technical craft with an unsurpassed ability to listen & learn from his clients and tell their story in the best possible way. This is a unique historic gift to share about the history of one?s life, an event or how a corporation became successful. So, what's your story?

Please visit the website to learn more about this business at http://www.longstoryshort.com or call at 917-882-7580 and learn more. Facebook: Long Story Short and Twitter: lstoryshort

See the twins discussing the talk show circuit: http://longstoryshort.com/the_twins.php.

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Cabin Creekwood Creates Opportunities for Real Family Togetherness this Holiday Season with their Getaway Cabins in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia

Waynesboro, VA (PRWEB) December 13, 2011

Holidays and family...they go hand-in-hand, like peanut butter and jelly, or wine and cheese. People all over this county and beyond travel hundreds of miles to be with family for the holidays.

This Christmas, Cabin Creekwood is offering fully furnished vacation cabins for true family togetherness. Imagine a holiday away from all the distractions of home. The phone is not ringing, the TV is off, and the kids are not glued to their video games and cell phones. There is peace and quiet in the air, and the entertainment is spending time together. There's time for a puzzle and a board game, and real, face-to-face communication happens almost spontaneously when there is little noise to compete.

Cabin Creekwood has two and three-bedroom cabins available during this Christmas holiday, to accommodate a family of up to eight very comfortably. Fido is welcome too. After all, he is part of the family.

Building family togetherness doesn't mean always staying inside and huddling around the fireplace. There are a host of wintertime activities close by to take in. Wintergreen Ski Resort is right around the corner with skiing, snowboarding, snow tubing, and a zip line. Hiking in the winter can be lots of fun too. The views are fantastic, and with all the leaves off the trees, wildlife are easier to spot. Crabtree Falls and White Rock Falls are simply amazing this time of year, with ice forming in the fall.

Whatever activity a family chooses, the important thing is spending time together. And time together means so much more than just being in the same building.

To find out how Cabin Creekwood can help you build family togetherness during this holiday season, visit their website at http://www.cabincreekwood.com.

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ESRB Offers Helpful Tips for Parents Buying Video Games This Holiday Season

New York, NY (PRWEB) December 13, 2011

Whether it?s a new video game system or the latest ?must-have? video game, interactive entertainment tops holiday wish lists again this year. But for many parents, it?s not always easy to determine which game is the right one for their child. The Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), the organization that rates all video games, offers helpful advice for parents when buying a game or introducing a game system to their family this holiday season.

Check the rating: Just like movies and TV shows, some games are meant for children and others are really intended for adults to play. From ?E for Everyone? to ?M for Mature,? ratings and content descriptors appear on nearly all video and computer games sold in the U.S. and Canada and are an easy guide to gauge age-appropriateness.

Get the detailed facts: For parents who want more specific information, ratings summaries provide a detailed description of content that factored into a game?s rating, including examples. These can be found on the ESRB website or via their free mobile app, which is available for iPhone, Android and Windows phones. By simply taking a picture of the game box or typing or saying the name of game parents can look up ratings summaries and have the information they need to make a truly informed decision about a game?s suitability for their child.

Refer to the experts: Video game store associates (who are often gamers themselves) and other parents can be valuable resources for guidance about a game, and game review websites often have photos and videos to help a parent get acquainted with game content. There is also a Parent Resource section on ESRB.org with additional tips and resources for parents.

Activate parental controls: Game consoles offer parental control features that allow parents to restrict games by ESRB rating, manage online access, and even limit how much time a child can use the system. Follow these instructions for your system to help you manage your children?s video game play.

Protect kids? privacy: Because online-enabled games can allow players to speak with one another, kids should know that they shouldn?t share personal information with others, even people they think they can trust. And that?s not limited to e-mail addresses and phone numbers, either; kids should know not to share personal details like where they go to school, where their parents work or what their weekend plans are.

Be vigilant about cyberbullies: Cyberbullying is a growing concern as more and more kids go online, and just like on a real playground there can be the occasional bully in the game world as well. Talk to your kids about their online gameplay and make sure they know who to turn to if they encounter a bully, online or off. And do everyone a favor by reporting misbehavers to a game publisher or its online community moderator.

For more information about the ESRB and video game buying tips, visit esrb.org, ESRB?s Facebook page, follow ESRB on Twitter (@OKtoPlay) or view video tips on YouTube.

About Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB):

The ESRB is a non-profit, self-regulatory body established in 1994 by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). ESRB independently assigns computer and video game content ratings, enforces advertising guidelines, and helps ensure responsible online privacy practices for the interactive entertainment software industry.

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NPD Releases Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends Report For The Week Ending Dec. 12, 2011

Port Washington, NY (PRWEB) December 13, 2011

For the week ending December 12, 2011, The Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends* report from leading market research provider The NPD Group, Inc. shows a decrease in the number of shoppers^ in the market. Sixty-seven percent of U.S. consumers went shopping at brick & mortar retail compared to 66 percent the prior week. However, this week?s results do show consumers are more actively shopping in channels that drive holiday gift purchasing.

Over the course of the previous three weeks, the retail channels that contain products thought of for holiday gift purchasing have consistently seen increases in shopping visits. Those retailers are home specialty stores, beauty specialty stores and toy stores. Since the week that included Black Friday there are a handful of other channels that have experienced continuous growth in shopping visits. Among them are book stores, craft stores, department stores, mass merchants, and off-price stores.

Despite the decrease in the number of shoppers in the market, brick & mortar shopping conversion remained relatively stable, even showing a slight increase over last week.

See Chart: NPD's Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Brick & Mortar Shopping Conversion Rate

???????????????? Week Ending 12-12-11

Those channels that increased their shopping conversion rates significantly this week included factory outlets, up from 48 percent to 61 percent, and book stores, up from 45 percent to 52 percent. Additionally, national chain retailers, up from 51 percent to 53 percent, department stores, up from 43 percent to 45 percent, and warehouse clubs, up from 82 percent to 84 percent, are meeting with some success getting their shoppers to buy.

However, according to this week?s report, the average amount spent by shoppers during their brick & mortar buying visits was down five percent from the prior week. This is the first decline seen in the average amount spent after five consecutive weeks of increases.

?There is good news and bad news in these holiday results,? said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst, The NPD Group, Inc., ?The good news is that the consumer keeps shopping and some categories are seeing nice growth week over week. The bad news is that the post-Thanksgiving lull continues. Retailers need to be more aggressive in luring consumers into stores by using online and by offering more deals. We do see that some stores continued door-busters and it has paid off.?

This past week the online share of buying visits remained stable. This week?s 17.4 percent of online share of buying visits marks the second consecutive week at this record high level.

See Chart: Online Share of Buying Visits

???????????????? Week Ending 12-12-11

While holding steady in their share of buying visits, online spending levels declined from the previous week. The amount spent per online buying visit dropped 18 percent this week down from the previous week which did include Cyber Monday.

A closer look at the Online Share of Buying Visits shows that vertical retailers continue to have more success growing their share of online buying visits. Those retailers are: home specialty stores (up to 11% from 6% the prior week), specialty apparel stores (up to 28% from 25% the prior week) and sporting goods stores (up slightly to 23% from 22% the prior week).

?Online continues to be the bigger story for Holiday 2011,? said Cohen, ?There are more people visiting retail sites, but not quite ?pulling the trigger? on purchasing as much as they have in prior week?s promotion filled offerings. What I think will be next is more deals offered online that will help to regain the momentum that online has been building. Look for retailers of all kinds to being pulling out stops and start offering more and more deals as we enter the two week countdown to Christmas.?

*The Shopping Activity Weekly Holiday Trends is special report from The NPD Group, Inc.?s Shopping Activity Service. The Shopper Activity Weekly Holiday Trends report will follow the weekly holiday shopping trends over the course of the 2011 holiday retail season and will be released weekly. Shopping Activity Services is a study fielded to 4,750 U.S. consumers daily. It captures brick and mortar shopping behavior and online purchase behavior in categories from Apparel to Entertainment to Groceries to Video Games. In response to demand for more granular data this report has been enhanced as of November 7, 2011 data has been restated to reflect that enhancement. The result is a shift in the actual values however the directionality of the results remains in-tact.

^Shoppers include those consumers shopping in channels including grocery stores and drug stores.

About The NPD Group, Inc.

The NPD Group is the leading provider of reliable and comprehensive consumer and retail information for a wide range of industries. Today, more than 1,800 manufacturers, retailers, and service companies rely on NPD to help them drive critical business decisions at the global, national, and local market levels. NPD helps our clients to identify new business opportunities and guide product development, marketing, sales, merchandising, and other functions. Information is available for the following industry sectors: automotive, beauty, entertainment, fashion, food, home and office, sports, technology, toys, video games, and wireless. For more information, contact us, visit http://www.npd.com/, or follow us Twitter at twitter.com/marshalcohen and twitter.com/npdfashion. Become a fan of Marshal Cohen at http://www.facebook.com/npdmarshalcohen and watch more on NPD?s YouTube channel.

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