We've had some pretty good Christmas giveaways around the net, this year. Renderosity's list is full of items which aren't just for Christmas. Other sites veer towards the heavy snow genre, which will be current events for a couple of months. But how many people are going to be able to use the Christmas-specific items before next Christmas? I know I was posting some Christmas cards in November, and all the rest have posted. All those new-item-every-day Christmas-specific promotions -- they're too late to use now. I suppose it's even worse for somebody who might see a commercial opportunity. Think of the lead-time on all the Christmas adverts, design and printing and distribution; and then you want those happy Santas on show in time to persuade people to buy Christmas presents. Of course, the primary purpose of these freebies is to persuade us to keep looking at the sites, and buy things which are not at all Christmassy. So I suppose they're working. But if I can't use them until next year, why bother looking now?