Be nice, not naughty. Verbal abuse by shoppers has led to an increase in the need for acute-stress counseling, according to ComPsych, a provider of employee assistance programs. “Around the holidays especially, retail work environments can become hostile,” says Dr. Richard A. Chaifetz, chairman and CEO of ComPsych. “Shoppers, faced with constraints on time along with family obligations, are more stressed than ever. This stress is often transferred upon retail employees, who themselves are working longer hours and dealing with the pressures of the holidays.” The need for stress counseling related to customer abuse in general has more than doubled since 2005, according to the Chicago-based company.

Maybe this year only four golden rings? If you want to get your true love everything from a partridge in a pear tree to 12 drummers drumming, it’s going to cost you. According to PNC Wealth Management’s annual economic analysis of “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” the whole shebang rings up to $18,920 in 2006, a 3.1% increase over last year. The largest dollar increase this year resulted from rising labor costs – exceeding the rate of inflation for the first time in years. According to Philadanco, the Philadelphia Dance Company, nine Ladies Dancing earned $4,759, 4% more than in 2006, compared to a raise of 3% for Lords-a-Leaping. The musicians, Drummers Drumming and Pipers Piping, earned 3.4% more compared with 2005. But pity the Maids-a-Milking, the only service providers who didn’t see an increase this year – these poor ladies only get the federal minimum wage, $5.15 an hour since 1997.

Fifteen minutes of holiday fame. Those who go all out decking the halls and want to share the results with folks outside their neighborhood can add their homes to http://www.MyChristmasWonderland.com. The site, sponsored by Frankenmuth, MI-based Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland, gives holiday light lovers a place online to show their displays to the world. Users can post pictures of their houses, which visitors can view by clicking on a map of the country. The site also sells lights and decorations for those looking for a bit more seasonal glam. Bronner’s supplied decorations for the new movie “Deck the Halls,” starring Danny DeVito and Matthew Broderick.

Me, I want a hula hoop! After years of being unlisted, Santa Claus has now made his number public. With the help of the elves at TollFreeForwarding.com, children can now leave a voice mail of their Christmas wish list for the man in red. The free service, at http://www.telesanta.com, captures messages and delivers them by e-mail to anyone who signs up for the service. Children call a toll-free number and listen to a message from Santa, who asks them what they want. Moments later, the message is sent to Mom or Dad via e-mail in a .wav file of the child’s own voice. And no worries about shifty reindeer listening in–TeleSanta does not save the messages.

An important gift. If you’re looking to give something vital this season, thing about sharing a bit of yourself. Specifically, your blood. The New York Blood Center is predicting a severe blood shortage in December that could require rationing to area hospitals and patients if blood supply levels do not improve. Past and potential donors, and those who want to host a blood drive at their job or in their community are urged to call 1-800-933-BLOOD or go to http://www.nybloodcenter.org to find a convenient blood drive or donation location in New York City, Long Island, the Hudson Valley and New Jersey. New York Blood Center needs close to 2,000 donors a day in order to adequately serve the patient transfusion needs of nearly 200 New York and New Jersey community hospitals. For more information about giving blood nationally, visit http://www.givelife.org.

Kraft Foods, Northfield, IL, will blow out the holidays with a train-themed sweepstakes, premium offers, and heavy in-store displays covering 48 brands. The promo is Kraft’s biggest-ever holiday blitz, now that it has Nabisco brands on-board.

The mail-in sweeps, We’ll Deliver Your Holiday Wishes, lets entrants choose from four grand prizes (travel, entertainment, decorating, and shopping) each worth $10,000. There will be 10 top winners in each category. Tearpads in stores (on Baker’s Baking Chocolate Baking Centers, Planters Nuts, and Kraft Cheese displays) carry entry forms, as does kraftfoods.com. The Promotion Network, Dallas, handles, with an assist from Promotions.com, New York City.

“Consumers told us through our research that they loved the unique ‘personalized’ sweepstakes,” says Kelly Cunningham, director of sales and planning.

The train displays give Kraft a presence in the center aisle with dump bins dressed as “cars” in secondary spots throughout the store. Highlighted products include Holiday Ritz Crackers and Grinch Oreo Cookies. A cheese and cracker overlay themed We’ll Deliver Your Holiday Snacking Favorites includes 3,000 cooler displays and 15,000 bunker displays, cross-ruffs, and a Nov. 11 FSI with coupons and usage ideas. Recipes also appear on 20 million packages of Philadelphia cream cheese, Ritz cracker assortments, Sociables, and Wheat Thins.

This is Kraft’s second multi-brand promo blitz since it bought Nabisco Holdings Corp. for $18.9 billion last December. A back-to-school campaign, Turn School Time into Slime Time, pitched Kraft and Nabisco items together for the first time (August PROMO). It also debuted Kraft’s in-store strategy of leveraging as many brands as possible with a central display as the hub that drives traffic to different aisles. The train display continues that strategy, using Nabisco’s in-store strengths to complement Kraft’s media muscle. Kraft’s brands have a 99.2 percent household penetration.

Atlanta-based NASCAR later this month finishes its largest consumer promotion ever — a six-week multi-partner, multi-channel Race for the Championship balloting program through which consumers vote for their favorite drivers. The stock car racing association is distributing 20 million ballots at Circle K, General Nutrition Centers, Electronic Boutique, and Home Depot stores; Budweiser retail accounts; NASCAR races; and through Visa direct-mail statements. Consumers vote for their favorites on one side of the ballot and enter a sweeps on the other. Top prize is a Daytona 500 house party for 50 people in the winner’s home, a Sony television, and visits with drivers. TV and radio spots, print ads, and online banners support. Irvine, CA-based online balloting and sweepstakes firm BigBallot handles. NASCAR is running a separate flight inside Troy, MI-based Kmart’s 2,100 stores.

New York City-based Scholastic Entertainment and Milford, CT-based Subway this month team on a kids’ meal promotion starring Scholastic’s classic Schoolhouse Rock property. One of four retro “Schoolhouse” characters, including Bill Stamper from “I’m Just a Bill,” the conductor from “Conjunction Junction,” and “Figure 8 Skater” will be included in Subway Kids’ Pak meals Oct. 8 through Nov. 18. P-O-P collateral and print ads will support. Johnson-Grossfield, Minneapolis, handles for Subway.

Mott’s, Inc., Stamford, CT, and Dr Pepper/Seven UP, Plano, TX, have uncorked a national promotion awarding a free one-liter bottle of 7UP, Canada Dry, Squirt or Schweppes to consumers who purchase Mott’s Mr. & Mrs. T or Holland House cocktail mixers. The effort is touted via on-pack neckhangers and P-O-P displays (customized to reflect regional product preferences) including pole signs, static clings, and header cards. The offer runs through January. ProPac, Addison, TX, handles.

Toyota Motor Sales, Torrance, CA, is blowing out a $160 million ad and promo campaign to launch the 2002 Camry, with an unusual CD offer supporting its heavy TV, print, and online ad schedule. A multimedia enhanced CD featuring music and interviews with Lyle Lovett, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Go-Go’s, and Kina boasts a virtual Camry test drive. Toyota will distribute an estimated 500,000 CDs via Wherehouse Music and Macy’s stores; consumers are asked to “donate” $1, which goes to the new Camry Music Education Fund to help fund school music programs. Seven Condé Nast magazines will carry the CD in October issues. Disc Marketing, Pasadena, CA, handles the CD. Saatchi & Saatchi, Torrance, handles ads. As part of the Making Tracks campaign, Camry also will sponsor the VH1 My Music Awards and TNT concert special Come Together: A Night for John Lennon.

Harrah’s Entertainment and Atlanta-based Coca-Cola Co. are in the midst of a contest that will send map-wielding contestants into the Nevada desert on a treasure hunt for $1 million. Customers at Las Vegas, NV-based Harrah’s 17 U.S. casinos receive peel-and-win game cups when ordering Coke. Winning cups hand trips to Vegas to compete in the hunt. Half a million game cups offer other prizes.

Harrah’s has extended the effort into its Total Rewards loyalty program, handing members a shot at another $1.5 million in prizes. Members enter to win 30 trips to the hunt and other freebies by playing slots and video games (a database enters them in the sweeps when they slide a club card into a reader on the machines). The treasure hunt will take place next month in the Nevada desert. Consumers receive maps and SUVs to track down a $1 million grand prize.

Virgin Atlantic Airways, Norwalk, CT, kicked off a 28-city mobile tour dubbed Virgin Across North America. A 68-foot truck decked out as a Virgin Upper Class cabin lets consumers test the amenities added in a $100 million cabin upgrade that includes in-flight beauty and massage service and restaurant-style food. The tour runs through Nov. 7, and is backed by an online sweeps giving away free tickets to London (a Virgin standard) and other prizes. Out of Bounds Productions, Los Angeles, handles, with p.r. assistance from BSMG Worldwide, New York City.

San Francisco-based Del Monte’s Fruit To-Go brand later this month ends a Go for the Gear Giveaway delivering $25,000 worth of sporting-goods gift certificates. Through Oct. 31, consumers enter via in-store or at fruit-to-go.com. Winners score “Sporting Goods Cash,” which can be redeemed at participating sporting goods stores across the country. The effort is supported by print ads in such kids publications as Disney Adventures, Nickelodeon, and Sports Illustrated for Kids, a national FSI, P-O-P displays, and online banner ads. Frankel, Chicago, handles.

Prestone Products, Danbury, CT, broke a sweepstakes to support its sponsorship of the National Football League, New York City. The effort features P-O-P materials, regional packaging that boasts logos from all 31 NFL teams, and TV spots carrying a new tagline: “It’s Prestone Season.” The sweeps will award 25 big-screen TVs, 500 gift certificates for $100 in NFL merchandise, and a trip for two to next year’s Super Bowl. Entries are available on neck hangers on a variety of Prestone bottles, including the brand’s new EZ Pour “no-glug” package. Millsport Marketing, Stamford, CT, handles.

New York City-based AOL Time Warner’s Entertainment Weekly and Loews Cineplex Entertainment, also New York City, are wrapping a contest offering amateurs a seat in a director’s chair and a sweeps dangling a year of free movie tickets. Through Oct. 15, contestants submit 30-second “policy trailers” urging proper theater etiquette (no smoking, no talking). The winning entry will be screened at the 5th Annual Shorts International Film Festival in New York City next month and on 1,400 Loews’ screens nationwide. The winner gets the publicity boost plus a year-long pass to any Loews theater in the U.S. Contestants enter at enjoytheshow.com, but are routed to ew.com for the rules. National print ads, concession counter-cards, and radio spots support.

McDonald’s and Walt Disney World Resort have spent the last month spicing things up for their co-sponsorship of a Best of Latin Music concert taking place Oct. 13. The pair executed a sweeps, a collector’s cup giveaways, and a cause-related component to back the event, which is headlined by Grammy Award-winner Elvis Crespo, Luis Fonsi, and others. Oak Brook, IL-based McD is also giving away 32-ounce cups featuring Crespo, Fonsi, and others with any super-size order. Contestants enter at any McDonald’s location or at Waltham, MA-based search engine Lycos’s terra.com, the official Internet partner for the concert. McDonald’s handles in house.