Christmas comes early for GM and Chrysler with $17.4 billion in aid, but many questions remain.

The White House has given Detroit an early Christmas present. Friday, President Bush announced the Federal government will provide immediate financial assistance to General Motors and Chrysler, which warned that, without aid, they might go out of business by the end of the month.

"In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action," Bush said.

Under the terms of the deal, the companies will receive $13.4 billion in emergency bridge loans. The money will be doled out from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program which the Treasury has at its disposal to alleviate the credit crunch. The companies will be eligible to receive an additional $4 billion in February. The bridge loans are expected to keep the companies afloat until at least March 31. If they have not been able to work out a viable plan for restructuring by that date, the administration will be able to recall the loans.

Without providing many specifics, Bush stressed that all parties involved--management, labor unions, creditors, bondholders, dealers and suppliers--will have to accept "meaningful concessions." Any money distributed from the TARP kitty includes restrictions on executive compensation and the ability for the government to take equity stakes in a company receiving assistance. Bush said bondholders will be forced to swap debt for equity and that workers will need to accept compensation "competitive" with foreign automakers operating in the United States.

In a statement, GM said the loans "will allow us to accelerate the completion of our aggressive restructuring plan for long-term, sustainable success." Chrysler Chief Executive Robert Nardelli said that his company will receive $4 billion in immediate assistance, which will allow the company to "move forward with the restructuring and streamlining of our organization that we began in 2007."

Not everyone in Detroit is so happy. Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a staunch Capitol Hill ally of the automakers, applauded the government's bailout, but said "it is irresponsible during a time of economic crisis for the White House to insist that workers take further wage cuts on top of the historic concessions they have already made."

The administration's announcement comes barely a week after congressional talks to provide government assistance to the companies fell apart in the Senate. General Motors (nyse: GM - news - people ) and Chrysler were relying on the Bush administration as their last and best hope for a bailout. Ford Motor (nyse: F - news - people ), which had previous asked for a government-issued line of credit, was not seeking an immediate bridge loan.

Even before Thanksgiving, people were decking their halls with Christmas joy. Now lights sparkle at home, trees stand tall in offices and Santa's at the mall.

Let the Christmas countdown begin, and there's no better place to start than with holiday paraphernalia. Specialty stores across the country dedicate themselves year-round to fulfilling your Christmas needs. These stores are more than just shopping destinations -- they're an experience.

We asked a few of the best-known Christmas stores to name their top competitors, enabling us to come up with this list. Here are five to check out:

Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland, Frankenmuth, Michigan

As the world's largest Christmas store, Bronner's is 45 acres of fun. Each year, more than 2 million people visit the store in the idyllic town of Frankenmuth, Michigan.

Approximately 100,000 lights illuminate the salesroom. The store stocks "Merry Christmas" ornaments in more than 70 languages. Oh, and its electric bill averages $900 a day.

Bronner's began in 1945 as a window display-painting business run by Wallace Bronner. Over the years, business boomed and Bronner had to purchase three buildings just to keep up. By 2001, construction began on a building that would bring the total size of Bronner's to 5.5 football fields.

The store's location now includes a Silent Night Memorial Chapel and a half-mile Christmas Lane, decorated with lights. In April of this year, Wally Bronner passed on, but his family still manages Bronner's CHRISTmas Wonderland.

The Incredible Christmas Place, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee

The Christmas Place began as a gift shop 22 years ago in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. Since then, Hurshel and Marian Biggs' once-small business has grown into a 43,000-square-foot multi-store complex -- complete with hotel.

"Guests tell us that we are the most beautiful store they have ever experienced," marketing manager Janet Donaldson said.

Visitors can see more than 50 themed Christmas trees decorated by a team of designers at the store. The Inn at Christmas Place opened in 2007. The 145-room hotel is decorated year-round for the holidays and is located right across the street from the Christmas Place village.

Christmas Place is also home to Singing Santa. Santa Dean Townsend greets guests and offers the traditional photos with Santa. He also performs concerts at the store five days a week.

http://www.christmasplace.com
Store Hours (through December): Seven days a week 9 a.m. to 10 p.m.

Always Christmas in Canterbury Village, Lake Orion, Michigan

Another one of the world's largest Christmas stores also resides in Michigan. Always Christmas in Canterbury Village is located just north of Detroit in Lake Orion, Michigan.

Olde World Canterbury Village is a designated historical site and extends over 21 acres. Aldridge's Always Christmas shop, with more than 90,000 square feet of Christmas accessories, is just one of 18 specialty shops on the premises.

Always Christmas' Web site also boasts of their large collection of Department 56 items and one of the world's largest nativity displays.

"Stan Aldridge and his family have collected a wealth of treasures from around the world," said Teresa Miller, manager of Always Christmas. "The Always Christmas store features antique windows, doors, paneling and a host of other artifacts to add distinction to our beautiful store."

Other stores in the village include Whittington's Clocks and Home Accents, the Royal Confectionary and Canterbury Toy World.

http://www.canterburyvillage.com
Store Hours: Monday -- Saturday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Christmas Loft, multiple locations in New England

The Christmas Loft is actually six year-round Christmas stores. Located in New England, the Christmas Loft has branches in Meredith, North Conway and North Woodstock, New Hampshire; in Shelburne and Stowe, Vermont; and in Hadley, Massachusetts. The largest branch is 12,000 square feet.

Two of the stores feature almost life-size, animated New England Christmas villages. According to co-owners Richard and Ronnie Vander Veer, each village includes a church, a country store, a covered bridge, and villagers scurrying to get their last-minute chores done as Santa and his reindeer hover above them in the sky.

"The stores are alive with the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas and are surely the best way to get into the spirit of the season," Ronnie said. "[The stores] sell more than Christmas merchandise; they sell memories."

http://www.christmasloft.com
Store Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m.

St. Nick's, Littleton, Colorado

When you walk into St. Nick's, you instantly feel the magic of Christmas, according to visual designer Chris Davis.

The Littleton, Colorado, store has 22 decorated rooms and more than 100 themed trees (designed on movie themes this year). St. Nick's is also home to a glittering assortment of ornaments, decorations and collectibles from all over the world.

"Many customers come here to feel the true joy of the Christmas spirit and to be filled with inspirations for their own homes," co-owner Susan Sealy said. "It is nice to be a part of that."

St. Nick's has been in business since 1976, according to co-owner Shawn Sealy, and "a family Christmas tradition for generations."

Market Info

Christmas shopping typically begins on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, and nearly every year certain "must-have" toys emerge that spur parents to camp outside stores and then, at the crack of dawn, to stampede inside for a chance to snag the coveted plaything for the Christmas tree. Think Cabbage Patch Kids, Tickle Me Elmo, and Nintendo's Wii. This year, as many consumers watch their homes and 401(k) accounts shrink dramatically in value, the must-have toy may go the way of the dodo, say analysts such as Howard Davidowitz, chairman of retail consultancy Davidowitz & Associates. "The customer is so pressed for money, so scared, and so in debt," he says. "They are so focused on price that the huge must-have toys are gone."

Parents will still buy toys for their children, of course, but they may not muster the energy and funds spent in years past. "The toy industry is not recession-proof (BusinessWeek.com, 11/19/08), but historically it is more recession-resistant," says Julie Livingston, a spokeswoman for the Toy Industry Assn. "This year parents might buy fewer of the special high-end toys, but they won't give up toys for their children." Market research firm TNS Retail Forward surveyed 4,000 shoppers in October around the U.S. and found that a third planned to buy toys this year, down from 38% in 2007. Those that plan to buy toys will spend 12% less than they did last year.

When retailers can't count on pent-up excitement and demand for the "hot" item, they turn to one-upping each other with promotions, says Mandy Putnam, a vice-president with TNS Retail Forward. "Retailers have anticipated that toys might not be as popular this year so they're going to have to promote the heck (BusinessWeek.com, 11/11/08) out of what they have to get shoppers through the door."

Classic Toys Still Conquer

Trudy Lonegan, a mother of two boys in Chapel Hill, N.C., is one of the many parents scaling back on costlier items. In previous years, Santa brought her sons popular gifts like a Nintendo Wii or a Razor USA scooter. This year she's steering clear of high-end gifts. "We're planning a frugal Christmas," says Lonegan, 39, who works in sales for a human resources consulting company where her pay is variable because it is commission-based. To economize on her holiday gifts, she will go to Costco (COST) to get iPod Nanos for her sons or shop online where she can compare prices. Her husband, a woodworker, will also make gifts for their sons like hat racks and shelves for their sports trophies.

Certain classic toys such as Hot Wheels, Barbie, and Play-Doh will still be popular this year, but customers are likely to trade down within brands, predicts Eric Johnson, a management professor at Dartmouth and a toy industry analyst. Parents will go for the $10 Barbie instead of the Barbie Dream House or Jeep, he says. "We don't have anything like the Furbies that generated fistfights when the Wal-Mart opened on Black Friday a few years ago. There is nothing in that category."

LOS ANGELES

Movie studio executives on Friday presented the best-case scenario for a winter holiday surge in the purchase of high-definition Blu-ray players as their best hope to keep the U.S. home video market's decline from accelerating past 3 percent or 4 percent this year.

The executives hosted by The Digital Entertainment Group, a consortium of movie studios and electronics manufacturers, forecast that 10.5 million households would be able to play Blu-ray videos by the end of the year -- with about 2.5 million standalone players and 8 million PlayStation 3 game consoles.

That estimate is much lower than the 14.4 million households that Adams Media Research said in June would be playing Blu-rays by the end of the year. But if it is to come true, about 1 million more standalone players and 2.3 million more PS3s must be sold through the holidays.

Prices have dropped in recent months, and Blu-ray players can be found online for less than $200, encouraging hope for adoption of the format.

"The only dark cloud is the economy," David Bishop, president of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, told a panel. He said the consumer products side of Sony Corp. is "showing no slowdown in the adoption of the PlayStation 3."

There are 5.7 million PS3s installed in the United States now, and Sony and expects to sell 4 million to 5 million more by March.

"We remain pretty confident that we'll meet our targets for the fiscal year," said Julie Han, spokeswoman for Sony Computer Entertainment America.

These so-called "early adopters" of video technology are especially important because they tend to buy more movies than consumers who join a trend later.

"These are the heavy buyers, the heavy collectors," said Craig Kornblau, president of Universal Studios Home Entertainment.

Executives agreed it is still the early days of Blu-ray because it was only February when the high-definition format beat out Toshiba Corp.-backed HD DVD. Last week, the consortium kicked off a $25 million TV ad campaign to push Blu-ray, acknowledging in part that half the people it polled in a recent survey didn't know the format war was over.

Gains in Blu-ray revenues, including rentals and sales, are expected to counter some of the expected 6 percent decline in regular DVD revenue in the U.S. in calendar 2008.

Through the first three-quarters of the year, video rental revenue in the U.S. was down 1.2 percent at $5.6 billion and sales were down 3.5 percent at $8.6 billion, according to the industry tracker, Video Business.

Economic headwinds remain a concern.

In a survey the consortium conducted in late August and early September of 2,200 owners of high-definition TV sets in the U.S., U.K. and Japan, just 12 percent said they were likely to buy Blu-ray players in the next six months.

Another 30 percent were open to purchasing them, it said. How potential Blu-ray consumers will respond to lower prices isn't clear.

"This was done before prices started to come down and before the economy started to hit," Chris Lang, senior vice president of research firm SmithGeiger LLC, told the panel.

Those who don't yet have high-definition sets are not expected to be large contributors this season, said Bob Chapek, president of Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment Worldwide. Purchasing a $1,000 high-definition TV and even a moderately priced Blu-ray player may not appeal to some buyers in the slowing economy, he said.

"It's only logical to expect there'd be some economic impact," he said. But he added, "We've been pleasantly surprised so far."

The consortium said a growing proportion -- now about 10 percent -- of home video sales comes from Blu-ray. In October, as the U.S. financial crisis came into focus, sales of Blu-ray discs more than quadrupled to 2.2 million units, it said.

A number of upcoming titles are riding on the format, including Warner Bros.' "The Dark Knight" due out in December.

Previous top-selling titles, such as "Iron Man," "The Incredible Hulk" and "Hellboy II: The Golden Army" have had a strong appeal among PS3 owners, and that raises hopes for a December turnaround.

"Every week as the next title comes out, we're all holding our breath," Kornblau said.