Is your house about to burst at the seams with all the stuff you've gained from the holidays? Do you feel compelled to just toss everything in the trash just to get it out of the way? Here are some tips to help bring sanity to your household and declutter for the new year.

If you can stand the thought of shopping for next year's holidays, now is the time to score deep discounts on Christmas and Hanukkah items.

Between now and mid-January, prices on everything from artificial Christmas trees to Hanukkah gelt will be marked down drastically. Right now, most items are 50 percent to 60 percent off. But as the days go by, the discounts will get deeper -- as high as 90 percent, in some cases.

I know some shoppers who haunt the aisles of Target and the drug stores just waiting for those 90 percent off signs to go up.

Here are a couple of hints to get the most bang for your clearance buck:

The North American Aerospace Defense Command takes Santa seriously offering special technology to the world to monitor Santa's deliveries around the globe.

Here are two ways you kids of all ages can interact with Santa Claus.

Be sure to make your holiday grocery list early and check it twice because come Christmas Eve, the supermarkets will be closing and they won't reopen until Dec. 26.

Only the drugstores, along with some gas stations, will be open Christmas Day for those forgotten ingredients or gifts.

Food Lion, Kroger and Lowes Foods all close at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Harris Teeter stores will be open one hour later until 7 p.m.

After that, you'll have to head to the drugstores.

Here are their Christmas hours:

CVS: Hours vary. Check your local store.

Rite Aid: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Select pharmacies: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Walgreens: Regular stores open 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Twenty-four hour stores open as usual. Pharmacies open in select stores and all 24-hour stores.

I always like to say I'm frugal, not cheap.

I absolutely don't mind spending on things that are worthwhile. Items that are long-lasting, high-quality, much-needed or long-desired.

But things that are tossed in the trash almost immediately after buying or using -- not so much.

Things like wrapping paper.

I used to wrap on the cheap by purchasing my giftwrap at 90 percent off clearance after the holidays. That saved me plenty of money, for sure.

But what I really wanted was giftwrap that was easy on the wallet AND easy on the environment.

I thought I'd share a few ideas I've come up with -- in hopes of saving you a few dollars and the planet a few trees.

With Christmas just a week away and Hanukkah even closer, the sales circulars are loaded with ads for toys, fragrances, candy and those as-seen-on-TV gadgets and gizmos.

Look a little closer, however, and you'll find plenty of real deals -- freebies and cheapies to fill stockings and help make your holidays more festive. I've highlighted many of them for you in this week's list of all the best deals at CVS, Rite Aid, Walgreens, Target, Kroger and Kerr Drug.

Thanks so much to all of you who entered my giveaway for a little holiday splurge in the form of a $10 Starbucks gift card.

I asked you to leave me comments on your favorite holiday splurges and your responses were so fun to read. Even we frugal folks have our guilty pleasures!

And, of course, I especially liked how some of you described obtaining your holiday splurges on the cheap.

The holiday season, from Thanksgiving through New Year's Day, is also the most wasteful season, as American household waste increases by more than 25 percent. All that added food waste, shopping bags, packaging, wrapping paper, bows, ribbons and more adds up to an additional one million tons a week to the landfills in the United States.