In the spirit of giving that this season brings to life, Zappos sold raffle tickets to employees, which dropped their name into the running for winning prizes donated by vendors and our Merchandising Department all through this December. All proceeds were donated to the Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation. But, some prizes were so special, that they needed to be given away in a silent auction.

There were many fine items up for auction, and here are some highlights of the items sold:

• Performance Gamer Chair-donated by the electronics department
• Two Umbrellas, Autographed and Donated by Rhianna herself
• 1 Night Stay At The Wyndham
• 1 Autographed Wilson Football Signed By Eric Wright Of The San Francisco 49ers

Thank you to anyone who participated in the auction, donated items and bought raffle tickets for this wonderful cause!

The casual lifestyle merch and content team had a gingerbread house showdown in the spirit of Zappos core value #3 (create fun and a little weirdness) and #7 (build a positive team and family spirit) last Friday. Four teams participated: size and width, comfort/euro, casual content, and apparel/housewares. Each team had a gingerbread house and could add any item to the creation as long as it was edible. We had until 3 pm to complete our gingerbread houses. I work on the casual content team and our house (a.k.a. the masterpiece) was a three hour labor of love that involved a lot of eating and messy fingers. I have concluded that gingerbread houses are not ideal for consumption as there is a fair amount of spit and elbow grease from the assemblers included in the house. Pics above of the four completed houses (casual content masterpiece included):

Size and width presented their interpretation of a gingerbread house post- earthquake, comfort and euro created A Wizard of Oz house, casual content delivered an original work of art entitled, "The Night the Worms Ate Christmas", and apparel/housewares produced an homage to the trailer park complete with a SunChips "tin roof" and tire pile.
Our comfort business unit judged the houses and delivered their verdict at our category holiday party that evening. And the winners are:

4th place - size and width
3rd place - comfort/euro
2nd place - casual content (ROBBED!)
1st place - apparel/housewares

Obviously I feel my team had the best gingerbread house and I'm sure you do too; however, the shock value of the gingerbread double wide was impossible to defeat. Can't wait until next year!

Happy Holidays,
Danielle T.

Zappos wouldn't be Zappos without our exceptional Customer Loyalty Department. What can we say, they make us look good! So in the spirit of the Holidays, our Casual Lifestyle department made 400 gift bags full of toys for our hard working members in CLT.

Happy Holidays CLT!

As I'm sure most of you have noticed by now, we love parades here at Zappos. In fact, we make up reasons just to parade around the office during our normal working hours. And even though we may not be as fancy as Macy's is with their Holiday parades, we still give them our best shot, and like always - do more with less.

In Honor of the Christmas Holiday that is so nearly approaching, the Performance team decided to create their own festive parade complete with passing out candy canes to co=workers and Santa.

In the age of email, getting a handwritten note is so exciting. Nothing beats knowing that someone took the time to hand write (and possibly color) a note to show that they care. Right now, for the price of two Zollars (so, pretty much free) you can send Candy Cane Grams to someone you appreciate inside the Zappos Headquarters.

Oh yes, 'tis the season to show a Zappos co-worker how much you care by making them a candy cane gram. The beauty behind these little notes of joy is that they don't get passed out by you, so they can remain completely anonymous if you so desire.

So spread the love this Holiday season and send your friends and office crushes a candy cane gram.

The Nevada Childhood Cancer Foundation Toy Drive is in high gear here at Zappos. The Holidays, more so than any other time of year, is a time of giving, and I really can't think of a better way to show Holiday spirit than by giving a gift to a child in need.

Last year, the toys Zappos employees brought in went far beyond the holiday season. While many of the toys were used to supplement Christmas for these children, many more toys were used in the treasure chests at local hospitals throughout the year. These treasure chests give children the opportunity to pick out a toy prior to an often scary procedure. The toys give the children comfort and help to take their minds off of the life threatening battle they are facing.

Make a child smile this season, buy a toy, big or small, and place it in the bin by the Help Desk in both our 2280 and 2290 building.

It's beginning to look a tiny bit like Christmas (man, that's catchy, sounds like a song title) and Help Desk is prepared, like usual!

On Thanksgiving Eve, the help deskers began what is to be a mission of great importance; the front lobby of Zappos will be transformed into something new and wonderful. Just walking into Zappos you will feel like you're walking in a Winter Wonderplace (hmm...sounds like another good song title)

I don't want to let the cat out of the Help Desk bag just yet, but they have some very creative plans for the Dance Dance Revolution machine that resides in the front lobby. It too will be engulfed in the holiday spirit. Ros, Renna, Andrea and Jo are hard at work today.....their work will be the envy of every front lobby in the city, I promise you this. Oh yes, i promise you this.

Stay tuned, this is only the beginning! I'll be dreaming of a white winter season – another song title. Wow, I'm good.