December can be a make or break month in the retail calendar. But the
stress of shopping can leave some of us questioning the point of all
that standing in line and spending. We examine the economics and
culture of consumers in the holiday season with Geri Anne Higgans,
marketing director at the University Mall in South Burlington, and
Hardwick writer Judith Levine, author of "Not Buying It: My Year
Without Shopping." Also in the program, Skip Vallee tells us what it
was like to serve as the US ambassador to Slovakia. And we pay homage
to a food that (for some) is synonymous with the Christmas season:
fruitcake.