It’s official.  The holiday season has started.

I’ve spent weeks and weeks bemoaning the fact that Christmas commercials were airing in November. Macy’s has had their holiday decorations up for months. The Starbucks baristas have been wearing Santa hats since the day after Halloween. “It’s not even Thanksgiving yet,” I kept saying. “Why are people already doing their holiday shopping, why are the decorations already up? The holiday season starts after Thanksgiving. That’s the way it goes!!” The early start seriously upset me. And I refused to take part in it. But now, it seems, I have nothing to complain about.

Thanksgiving is over.

We’ve watched the parade. We’ve carved the turkey. We stuffed ourselves with stuffing and cranberry sauce and ate pumpkin pie until we wanted to puke. And then, when the feeling passed, we ate more. The holiday season is upon us. So I better just get in the spirit. Here’s how.

10. Watch a Christmas movie. Everyone has a favorite holiday movie. So what better way to get into the holiday spirit than by watching Tim Allen in The Santa Clause or the Olsen twins in To Grandmother’s House We Go? There’s always the recently made into a musical, Elf, or the kind of creepy but still enjoyable The Polar Express. Everyone has a favorite. Just find yours on YouTube and enjoy.

9. Order a peppermint mocha or a caramel latte. These have been available since the first of November and although I drank my coffee from Starbuck’s Christmas cups I refused to indulge in a peppermint mocha until the day after Thanksgiving. So after I did some cyber shopping, I went out and got one. It was worth the wait.

8. Decorate your dorm room. Don’t wait until you’re back home to decorate for the holidays. Get into the spirit now. Studying for finals and finishing out a semester that should have ended the day before Thanksgiving is depressing enough without prolonging your holiday cheer. So don’t. Hang twinkle lights. Make paper snowflakes. Throw tinsel everywhere. And while you’re decorating… Read More »

Because I’m usually a sane and rational human being, I never dared go out on Black Friday. Until last year, when I saw a killer sale on something I really wanted.  It was a scary, adrenaline-rushing, almost death-inducing experience that I survived with success. So I’m here this year to give you the ins and outs to getting what you want (without being trampled by a crowd of screaming soccer moms) on Black Friday.

Trust me, it isn’t an experience you want to go into blindly.

1. Have a Plan of Attack in Advance

Planning ahead for Black Friday is essential. Running into a field of mayhem with nowhere to go isn’t usually the best offensive plan.  (Have you ever tried walking into Ikea just to look around? Yeah, you know what I’m talking about.) Give yourself a head start by checking out some sales that you should definitely be checking out.  As always, Macys is offering insane deals, Urban Outfitters is offering 50% off on everything in the store, and those aren’t the only clothing racks offering great sales.

2. Pack Some Heat Energy Shots

Let me tell you right now, you’re going to need more than your natural energy to get through the craziness that is Black Friday.  Go to your local gas station and pick up a Five Hour Energy. It’s powerful as powerful as a Venti coffee, but it goes down quick so you aren’t stuck toting it around as you fill your arms with goodies.

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It’s that time of year again. The time of year when rational, mentally stable people go absolutely crazy just to get a good deal on a flat screen TV. Whether you hate the day or you camp out nights before, you’ve got to agree it’s a crazy holiday. Our friends at the Credit Score Blog have done a little research and dug up some fun facts about the upcoming stampede.

Read More »

[There are over 100 million sites on the Internet. 100 million! You might think you know about all the important ones (CollegeCandy, Gmail, Google, Facebook…), but there are thousands of other sweet sites out there (like GoFobo, FashionStake, and Philo) and more showing up every day! We get it – it’s not easy or fun sifting through the crap and porn to find those gems, so we’re gonna bring the gems to you. Just sit back, kick up those feet and allow us to introduce you to the diamonds in the internet rough.]

The holidays are almost here again, and if you haven’t finished (or even started) your gift shopping yet, you’re in luck: it’s almost Black Friday.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is the biggest shopping day of the year.  Malls are absolutely crazy on this day: expect huge crowds, long lines at checkout, and parking lot road rage… but if you’re willing to brave all that (and wear a helmet), you can get some amazing deals.

Black-Friday.net posts leaked ads and sale info for Black Friday ahead of time, giving you an edge over the other shoppers.  Come up with your plan of attack before hitting the stores by searching through the ads (which are organized by store and product category) and making a list of items you want to purchase–there’s even a feature on Black-Friday.net that lets you create one and either save it or print it out!  Then, when Friday morning rolls around, you’ll be able to enter each store and go straight for what you need, cutting down on the amount of time you’ll have to spend dealing with all the craziness…and the risk of losing that $9.99 42-inch plasma TV. Read More »

[It's pretty obvious that the average CollegeCandy reader has some very strong opinions. Opinions that she likes to share with everyone on the site. Sometimes with mean words. And threats. We love a strong woman (unless she happens to be charging at us with her fists raised), so we thought we'd give her a real forum to discuss her thoughts, feelings, and perspectives. Every Friday I'll be featuring a hot topic (like the NCAA's first transgender player!) and leaving it up to you, the readers, to duke it out. So, read it and get your debate on in the comments section below!]

Next Friday marks the start of the holiday shopping season with the single most anticipated shopping day of the year here in the good ol’ USA – Black Friday. A day when stores mark down items to ludicrous sale prices and people all over the nation line up in the early dawn hours to snag those bargains (and occasionally trample their fellow human beings). My guy refers to Black Friday as his favorite holiday – I don’t get it. So I think it’s time we talked this one out, ladies.

Is Black Friday a do or a don’t?

As I said, my man is an avid Black Friday-er, so just this once, I’m going to let him chime in. In his own words, “Black Friday is Christmas for every college student, unemployed citizen, and starving artist, If you’re living paycheck to paycheck or in debt, this is the day when you don’t have to feel like the child left behind. It’s a celebration of capitalistic consumerism, when everything is supposed to be affordable for everyone. You have the chance to redeem your self-enforced diet of Ramen noodles and buy an Xbox360. You have the opportunity to erase some of the classist line that has you treading in the waters of lower middle-class. If you’ve got the guts to go for the glory, you can achieve your heart’s desire (commercially speaking) on this day.” Yep, that’s what I live with. Love you, baby! Read More »

[The following is a guest post from our gal pals at CollegeFashion.net. They're like college Rachel Zoe (with a little extra meat on their bones). Have you checked them out yet?!]

Stripes can be intimidating. They’re bold, they’re brazen and they can be a little difficult to wear. Some people fear that horizontal stripes make you look wider (totally not true!!) and they can be a little too bold for the wallflowers among us. So it’s understandable that some would be hesitant about them.

But stripes can also be fun and exciting, injecting a little bit of punk rock into an everyday outfit. Stripes were a big trend on the Spring/Summer 2011 catwalks, and they’re an easy way to get a next season feel right now.  Read More »

Here at CollegeCandy, we’ve sort of been obsessed with sequins lately.  And why shouldn’t we be?  Sequins are fun, glam, and, depending on what you style them with, you can rock them day or night.  And while designer sequined clothing can get pretty expensive, these pieces are all under $20! Read More »

I just love purple clothing and accessories for fall.  The deeper and jewel-toned shade you see in stores this time of year are flattering on everyone, and you feel instantly more sophisticated when you wear it (it is the color of royalty, after all).

And not to mention it looks amazing with gray, my other favorite color for fall.  Here are some great purple items to add to your wardrobe this season for $20 or less each! Read More »

As temperatures start to drop, and you get to that pesky stage between needing a sweater and needing a jacket, the scarf becomes a key item to fill in. Wrap it around your neck over your favorite cardigan and you’re all set to face the fall chill. And if it gets too warm, you can always use it instead of your sweater, or tie it to your bag for a chic look! A scarf will instantly dress up your otherwise basic outfit – so even if you’ve woken up, picked up your jeans, a tee and a cardigan off the floor, a scarf will make it look like you put some thought in.

Sigh, aren’t scarves wonderful?

The other essential (and almost magical) item for the girl in a morning rush: a hat! If you’re having an off hair day (or you haven’t washed your hair all week. I get it – midterms are rough) toss on a cap over top, cover up that mess and look super chic. There are lots of styles to choose from this year and that means there’s one for you, no matter what your face shape! And while hats always scare people who think they are so hard to pull off (not literally, of course), but don’t be afraid to take the plunge.

If nothing else, at least you can hit snooze five more times and still end up in class in style.

Below, just a sampling of my favorite scarves and hats of the season. Click each pic for more info! Read More »

[When moving into either a dorm or an off-campus apartment, your wardrobe will face two major challenges: 1. A major lack of funding (to add more to it). 2. A major lack of storage space. For these two reasons alone, maximizing what you do own becomes essential. That's why you need to learn to Shop Your Closet. Each week, I’ll show you how to wear 1 item 3 ways – with the stuff you most likely already own! – to get the most out of your purchases.]

Every year when I start school I get so excited to show off my summer wardrobe (that no one got to see for three months) for a few weeks. But then the leaves start to change, the Halloween stores pop up, and my cute summer clothes get banished to the back of my closet, where they sit taking up precious space for the rest of the year.

It’s a shame, really. I hate forking over cash for cute clothes that I only get to wear for maybe 4 months (and that’s only because of Global Warming….). Not anymore. I’ve started looking at my summer staples in a whole new way, coming up with fun new outfits that let me wear them long into the fall. And the results have been stellar! You want to give your summer goods a little more traction? Just add layers! Read More »