Gucci Mane's 'Spring Breakers' Purpose Can make Waka Flocka Laugh

'He did that over the very low. I cannot wait to check out it,' Waka tells MTV News of his buddy's function from the approaching James Franco flick.

Gucci Mane is extra trap God than skilled thespian, but that did not halt the Atlanta rap star from landing a part alongside James Franco and Selena Gomez while in the approaching "Spring Breakers."

If Gucci's function as Archie took you by surprise, never stress, even his closest partners had been kept while in the dark about his big-screen acting debut.

"Honestly, he did that around the reduced. He knew I was gonna laugh at him," Waka Flocka Flame informed MTV News on Thursday precisely the same day we premiered the flick's wild trailer. "He did that about the very low. I can not wait to determine it."

The film which also stars Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Benson and Rachel Korine centers all around 4 university women who head to some fairly heinous lengths to fund their spring break holiday. Immediately after they get busted, Alien, a drug dealer played by Franco, bails them out only to get them place in function for him.

In October, Gucc sat down with Energy 105's Breakfast Club in New York City and attempted his greatest to break down the premise in the film. "It's a white film," he explained. "I'm the only black man inside the complete film. It is a white film. It truly is like a white Pulp Fiction... I am the poor man. That is what they desired me to perform. I could are the very good man if they needed me to."

The "Wasted" rapper is not the just one who's manufactured a departure from normalcy for your film, his co-star Selena Gomez located herself inside a considerably darker function than she is utilized to taking part in. "Disney was my existence, and within a way, it is all I knew, so when that ended, I absolutely believe it had been excellent for me to visit an severe like this," she explained. "That's what was so liberating about this. I felt so protected with Harmony , and I felt so secure with all the women. I was definitely capable to push myself to areas even I did not know I could go. It had been good."

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HPV vaccine for boys to become produced accessible quickly

Efforts are staying undertaken through the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp.'s Public Wellbeing Division to stop cervical cancer within the CNMI, using the human papilloma virus vaccination for boys from the Commonwealth to get produced readily available quickly.

"So this isn't only a woman's issue-it's everyone's problem," mentioned Public Well being director Roxanne Diaz on Friday just after Lt. Gov. Eloy S. Inos signed the proclamation designating January as Cervical Cancer Awareness Month.

Cervical cancer commonly develops gradually but might be prevented and cured by way of early screening and therapy of pre-cancerous disorders.

HPV leads to as much as 70 % of cervical cancer, which includes anal and oral cancers, consequently the will need for the vaccine as a part of the Commonwealth's prevention efforts, in line with Diaz.

She stated that about 91 % of youthful female college students inside the Public College Program happen to be provided the HPV vaccine, and their workplace is operating difficult to get the youthful female population vaccinated.

Along with the male HPV vaccine anticipated quickly, Diaz explained they are going to be targeting younger boys at PSS.

"We desire to ensure that our youthful women and boys are vaccinated ahead of they are exposed, so I inspire our mother and father to sign the consent kinds if they see it so we are able to secure our boys and women," she mentioned.

Diaz mentioned how the neighborhood can't drop sight of your statistics revealing the amount of individuals impacted by cervical cancer, urging the public not only to possess a single day but an daily awareness of this fatal ailment.

"These information aren't just numbers. They are real persons, and a lot of them are members of the family," she explained.

Inos acknowledged Public Well being for its efforts in disseminating information and facts on preventive screening and remedy of cervical cancer.

"Let's carry on to perform what we will to avoid individuals from finding infected with this particular significant sickness," he extra.

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Java Exploit Extra to Crimeware Kits Quickly Following Discovery

A protection researcher finds that 7 exploit kits have extra an assault for the previously unreported flaw inside the most up-to-date version on the Java Runtime Natural environment.

Safety professionals are once more calling for consumers to disable the Java browser plug-in and uninstall the software program on their methods, following the discovery of the zero-day vulnerability from the most recent version with the Java Runtime Natural environment.

Facts regarding the vulnerability emerged on Dec. ten, just after a protection specialist found an exploit applying the safety hole to compromise methods. The vulnerability, which seems to only have an effect on JRE (Java Runtime Atmosphere) one.seven and never prior versions, had not previously been recognized but seems to become much like other Java protection concerns present in August 2012, stated Jaime Blasco, labs manager at security-monitoring provider AlienVault.

The vulnerability permits a piece of Java code to break out, or escape, from your protected program container, or sandbox, that's a significant a part of Java's safety model, explained Blasco, who had verified the exploit worked.

"The most critical factor about that is that this is a sandbox escape, not a memory exploitation or one thing related, so the majority of the mitigations usually are not productive," he explained.

The safety qualified who published particulars concerning the exploit, France-based protection manager Charlie Hurel, worried that remaining quiet with regards to the concern could bring about a substantial variety of compromises.

"Hundreds of 1000's of hits every day exactly where I uncovered it," he wrote inside the alert. "This could possibly be ... mayhem."

Final year, an academic paper by protection researchers at Symantec identified that stealthy attacks employing unreported vulnerabilities can continue to be undiscovered for ten months. Quickly right after this kind of exploits are found, utilization of the attacks skyrocket as cybercriminals include the exploits to their instrument boxes.

Which is precisely what occurred using the newest Java vulnerability. From the finish of day, safety researchers confirmed that no less than 7 exploit kits--the underground software program that permits cybercriminals to speedily develop illicit campaigns to steal money?ahad incorporated attacks that prey to the vulnerability.

The key exploit kits that had a variant of your assault integrated the Blackhole, Neat TK, Nuclear Pack, and Sakura exploit kits. Moreover, the Metasploit venture, which develops a free of charge penetration instrument with regular updates for your hottest exploits, published its personal module final evening to exploit the flaw also.

"This is just as lousy because the final 5 (vulnerabilities in Java)," mentioned HD Moore, chief protection officer at vulnerability-management company Rapid7 as well as the founder with the Metasploit undertaking. "Within an hour, we had doing work code."

About 13 % of consumers are at the moment making use of Java one.seven and so are vulnerable on the most current assault. Customers of older versions--including Mac OS X users?aare not automatically protected, nevertheless, as being a bevy of older attacks will very likely perform against their techniques.

As opposed to final year's Flashback Trojan assault that utilized a flaw in Java to infect victims' techniques, the most recent assault is getting applied to spread a diverse type of malware: Ransom ware. The scheme commonly employs malware to lock a user's machine until eventually they spend a charge and rapidly spread across Europe to North America final year.

"We are speaking about large quantities of funds right here," stated Bogdan Botezatu, senior threat analyst for safety company BitDefender. "And so long as they could make quick revenue, they're going to retain this up."

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U.S. Reports Ideal Spending budget Outcome for December Considering that 2007

The U.S. government spending budget deficit narrowed to its greatest December month to month outcome in 5 many years, reflecting increased income, reduced investing and calendar-driven shifts in a few payments.

The shortfall final month shrank practically totally to $260 million from $86 billion in December 2011, in accordance with Treasury Division information issued nowadays in Washington. The gap was more compact than the $1 billion median estimate inside a Bloomberg survey of economists. With the to start with 3 months of this fiscal year, the deficit was 9.one % smaller sized than precisely the same period final year.

"We had a fairly strong month in December typically as a result of fairly a little bit of tax-related action that was shifted into December as a result of issues more than the fiscal cliff and anticipated increased tax prices in 2013," explained Thomas Simons, a government financial debt economist at Jefferies Group Inc. in New York. "Going forward we're nevertheless likely to run relatively considerable deficits this year and in coming many years without the need of any important transform for the investing policy."

The U.S. had a month to month spending budget surplus of $48.three billion in December 2007. The U.S. reached its $16.four trillion financial debt restrict on Dec. 31. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner mentioned on Dec. 26 he could make about $200 billion of "headroom" to prevent feasible default using the utilization of extraordinary measures.

U.S. Workers

The Residence of Representatives passed legislation averting cash flow tax increases for many U.S. employees Jan. one soon after Republicans abandoned their energy to attach investing cuts that will are already rejected from the Senate. The 257-167 bipartisan vote broke a yearlong impasse more than the way to head off $600 billion in tax increases and investing cuts that had been scheduled to start taking impact on Jan. one.

When the measure averts a lot of the quick suffering, it can be only a modest stage toward controlling the federal deficit -- a problem that could return having a looming battle above raising the financial debt restrict.

Today's report showed income rose twelve.three % in December from your exact same month a year earlier, to $269.five billion from $240 billion. Investing fell 17.two % to $269.eight billion from $325.9 billion.

December Estimates

Estimates for December ranged from a gap of $35 billion to an even stability for your month, in accordance with the Bloomberg survey of 22 economists.

Personal revenue tax receipts within the very first 3 months of this fiscal year rose to $312.four billion from $270.four billion while in the exact same period final year. Corporate earnings tax receipts rose to $62.five billion from $55.six billion.

The Congressional Price range Workplace explained Jan. eight December would display a spending budget deficit of $1 billion.

The CBO explained that receipts in December 2012 have been about $30 billion in excess of the receipts within the exact same month the year just before.

"In each many years, investing was impacted by a shift of specific payments from January to December -- mainly because January one is often a vacation -- but investing this December also was impacted by a shift of specified payments into November," the CBO mentioned.

The CBO explained there was a $24 billion maximize in withheld taxes final month.

" The sturdy development in withheld taxes may perhaps be attributable in aspect to an acceleration from the payment of some compensation from calendar year 2013 to 2012 simply because folks have been anticipating increased tax prices," the CBO explained.

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Air flow Force memo outlines capturing spending budget slashes

Air Force leaders will reduce flying hrs by virtually twenty % and put together for any doable finish to all noncombat or noncritical flights from late July by September if Congress cannot agree on the spending budget and billions of bucks in automated cuts are triggered.

In an Air Force inner memo obtained through the Connected Press, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley laid out broad but grim actions the services are going to be taking in coming days and weeks to enforce a civilian employing freeze, cancel air display appearances and flyovers, and slash base enhancements and repairs by about 50 %.

Past these quick actions, Donley and Gen. Mark Welsh, the Air Force chief of workers, mentioned during the memo the services will make ideas to chop aircraft and depot servicing by about 17 % and initiate widespread civilian furloughs if there may be no resolution on the spending budget matter by March. The reduce in flights would minimize flying hrs by in excess of 200,000, the memo explained.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and also other military leaders are already predicting dire consequences if Congress fails to pass a brand new price range and automated cuts consider location. The Pentagon is facing a investing reduction of just about $500 billion in excess of a decade. An more $110 billion in automated investing cuts to military and domestic applications will consider impact in early March if no agreement is reached.

Inside a briefing with Pentagon reporters, Donley explained the Air Force just isn't targeting a certain sum in cost savings to attain, but is taking techniques to curtail investing wherever achievable at this time without the need of getting an irreversible impact to the services rather than impacting the nation's capability to wage war.

The Air Force accounts, Donley mentioned, will bear about as much as twenty % from the Defense Division reductions

Asked about Panetta's directive to probably cancel ship, aircraft and depot upkeep during the third and fourth quarters of this fiscal year if there may be no spending budget remedy, Donley stated the Air Force will critique each and every kind of aircraft and its specifications.

"We're attempting to consider prudent actions now which are as reversible, recoverable as you can," Donley stated. "We're attempting to guard servicing for aircraft and weapons methods sustainability provided that we are able to to the fiscal year."

Welsh stated commanders will make choices on how very best to curtail flying and the Air Force will seek to guard education flights as prolonged to the year since it can.

But, he mentioned, "if sequestration hits along with the multibillion-dollars reductions fall about the final two quarters with the fiscal year, there is certainly no way to not influence teaching, flying hrs and upkeep, that are factors, ideal now, we're attempting to guard so long as we will."

Officials mentioned that civilian spend is about 40 % from the Air Force's operations and servicing spending budget. Panetta has produced it clear that if there may be no spending budget agreement, the civilian workforce will encounter sweeping cuts and unpaid furloughs.

You can find about 800,000 civilians across the Defense Division, and practically one.four million inside the active-duty military. The Air Force numbers about 330,000 active-duty services members and about 143,000 fulltime civilians.

technology

Soon after Two Many years of Gloom, Nokia Has Some Very good News

Nearly two many years ago, Stephen A. Elop, Nokia's new chief executive, spoke of flaming ocean platforms and shark-infested waters to describe the complications he inherited because the firm teetered about the brink of irrelevance.

Mr. Elop painted the bleak outlook as he prescribed a radical remedy for that Finnish cell phone pioneer: The rejection from the company's very own Symbian smartphone operating process to get a shotgun wedding to Microsoft, itself stumbling badly with smartphone program. Soon after that, product sales slumped sharply, losses mounted and big layoffs followed.

On Thursday, he delivered sudden fantastic news: a profit. Revenue of its new smartphone line, the Lumia, powered by Microsoft's Windows Cellphone operating process, soared greater than 50 % during the fourth quarter of final year, as outlined by preliminary economic data.

In what was observed being a make-or-break quarter, Mr. Elop explained Nokia would break even or turn a two % profit as an alternative to report a reduction as massive as ten %, as analysts anticipated.

Nokia will report its earnings on Jan. 24.

Wall Street reacted towards the announcement by sending Nokia's American depositary receipts up 18.67 %, or 70 cents, to $4.45.

"While we undoubtedly skilled some challenging issues during the to start with half of 2012, we're managing by way of these troubles," Mr. Elop stated within a conference contact with journalists.

What Nokia has achieved below Mr. Elop is usually to deliver a line of more and more competitive smartphones which have been commencing to draw favorable comparisons with people from Samsung and Apple, the 2 corporations most accountable for knocking Nokia from its lofty perch.

"The Lumia smartphones are night-and-day diverse from Nokia's old Symbian handsets," explained Francisco Jeronimo, an analyst using the Worldwide Information Corporation in London. "I believe what we're commencing to view now is what might be a steady turnaround in Nokia's fortunes."

The firm, which dominated the cellphone enterprise till Apple introduced its iPhone in 2007, nonetheless includes a prolonged method to visit accomplish its former stature. While in the third quarter, Nokia held on to a four % share from the worldwide smartphone market place, and was ranked a distant No. ten inside the sector, as outlined by System Analytics, a analysis company.

Samsung and Apple, the No. one and No. two smartphone makers, collectively had 50 % with the international smartphone industry, and their product sales have been expanding. When its rivals rose, Nokia has produced just about five billion euros ($6.five billion) in losses below Mr. Elop, and eradicated a third of its do the job force.

The important thing to its turnaround was the introduction in October from the top-of-the-line Lumia 920 and 820, which utilized the new Windows Mobile phone eight operating process. Because then, Nokia has spent heavily on promoting in Britain and Europe to advertise the designs. The corporation is not going to disclose simply how much it had spent on its campaign, but its tv adverts had been ubiquitous above the holidays, stated Neil Mawston, an analyst at Technique Analytics in London.

The heavy promotion, which was aided by Microsoft's personal marketing, has assisted the organization recapture a few of its lost glory, Mr. Mawston explained.

But he warned that "Nokia nevertheless lacks the genuine killer mobile phone that can allow it to compete with all the iPhone five or Samsung Galaxy S III." He anticipated Nokia's share in the international smartphone industry to rise to six % from the finish on the year.

The company's money place is most likely to revive a lot more promptly due to the rigid cost-cutting imposed by Mr. Elop, who ran Microsoft's business enterprise program division well before joining Nokia in late 2010.

Because then, Nokia has shut factories across Europe. Final month, the corporation sold its 540,000-square-foot glass-and-wood headquarters inside the Helsinki suburb of Espoo to Finnish investors, and leased it back. The maneuver netted Nokia 170 million euros.

Apart from a additional competitive array of phones, Nokia has discarded its market-leader mentality. Staff members are now routinely traveling in economic climate class and sharing rides to airports. Employees no longer use high priced phone conference calling but talk in group teleconferences applying much less highly-priced World-wide-web calling providers.

"The firm is often a good deal smaller sized now but individuals are operating greater collectively," mentioned Susan Sheehan, a Nokia spokeswoman. "Everyone has become pitching in."

Even at Nokia Siemens, the company's long-suffering network gear venture, the long term is searching brighter than it had been two many years ago. On Thursday, Nokia explained the unit, which contributes about 40 % of complete product sales, would report an operating profit for that quarter, its third consecutive quarterly profit.

Nokia, in its announcement to investors, even revised the operating profit margin forecast on the venture to 13 to 15 % of product sales, up from a array of four to twelve %.

Wanting ahead, Nokia mentioned it anticipated to return to an operating reduction of two % of revenue due to the first-quarter postholiday getting lull and fierce competitors. However the benefits for that coming 3 months could differ broadly.

Pete Cunningham, an analyst at Canalys, a analysis company in Reading through, England, mentioned that Nokia nonetheless faced difficulties. "2013 could nevertheless turn out to get a further pretty challenging year for Nokia. It really is way also premature to state that the firm has manufactured a turnaround."

Mr. Cunningham mentioned he applied the Lumia 920, Nokia's newest smartphone, for the duration of the Christmas holidays and liked it.

"But the extra I utilised the mobile phone, the additional obvious it became to me that there are actually large gaps among Lumia and its rivals regarding the performance and usability of its apps," Mr. Cunningham explained.

"I nevertheless imagine there may be a great deal of get the job done to get completed on Lumia."

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Twilight' finale prospects Razzies worst-of checklist

The "Twilight" finale had improved critiques than the franchise's earlier 4 films, but you'd hardly ever know it in the Razzie nominations singling out Hollywood's worst in the year. "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn ?a Aspect 2" led the Razzies lineup late Tuesday with 11 nominations, such as worst image, lead-acting slots for Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, and supporting-acting nominations for Taylor Lautner and Ashley Greene.

Other worst-picture nominees would be the naval action tale "Battleship," the household flick "The Oogieloves within the Significant Balloon Adventure," Adam Sandler's raunchy dud "That's My Boy" and Eddie Murphy's comedy flop "A Thousand Words."

A spoof on the Academy Awards, the Razzies announcement came just a little in excess of every day well before Thursday's Oscar nominations. Winners for your 33rd yearly Razzies is going to be announced Feb. 23, the evening prior to the Oscar demonstrate.

The last installment while in the supernatural romance involving vampires, werewolves in addition to a moody schoolgirl, "Breaking Dawn ?a Aspect 2" also had nominations for worst director for Bill Condon, plus worst sequel, screenplay and display ensemble. It picked up two nominations for worst display couple ?a for Stewart and Pattinson and for Lautner and youngster co-star Mackenzie Foy.

Stewart's worst-actress nomination came for two performances in 2012, her Bella Swan of "Twilight" along with the title part in "Snow White as well as Huntsman."

Earlier "Twilight" motion pictures are actually frequent nominees to the Razzies but haven't come away with any vital worst-of awards. However the finale appears to be the 1 Razzies voters are already waiting for, the way in which Oscar voters had been waiting for that final "Lord on the Rings" film, the 1 that ultimately won the huge prize.

"That's the analogy we're producing, that this is actually the Razzies' flipside," explained Razzies founder John Wilson. "This is our equivalent to 'The Lord on the Rings.' It truly is our members' final opportunity to razz 'Twilight.'"

Here's how Razzies organizers describe the "Twilight" finale while in the nominations announcement: "The ultimate installment of your inexplicably thriving series focuses on Shirtless Werewolf Jacob and his creepy romance with all the daughter of Sparkly Vampire Edward and Gloomy Goth Gal Bella. With each other, the 4 encounter a last showdown that can establish the fate of Romantic-But-Boring Monsters all over the place."

Sandler ?a whose "Jack and Jill" produced Razzies background final season by winning a record ten awards, sweeping just about every category ?a stays a Razzies preferred this time. "That's My Boy" ran 2nd with eight Razzie nominations, amongst them worst actor for Sandler and supporting actor for the two Nick Swardson and Vanilla Ice.

Tyler Perry was nominated for each worst actor ("Alex Cross" and "Good Deeds") and actress ("Madea's Witness Safety," by which he reprised his cross-dressing title character). Together with Sandler, Pattinson and Perry, worst-actor contenders are Nicolas Cage for "Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance" and "Seeking Justice"; and Murphy for "A Thousand Words."

Joining Stewart and Perry during the worst-actress lineup are Katherine Heigl for "One to the Money"; Milla Jovovich for "Resident Evil: Retribution"; and Barbra Streisand for "The Guilt Excursion."

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UK service sector activity falls in December

The PMI services index from Markit/CIPSfell to 48.9 in December, down from 50.2 in November. Any score below 50 indicates the sector is shrinking.

Markit blamed the surprise contraction on a fall in new business.

It said the numbers suggested the UK economy shrank by 0.2% in the final three months of 2012.

The UK emerged from a double dip recession last summer with growth of 1% in the three months to September.

"The first fall in service sector activity for two years raises the likelihood that the UK economy is sliding back into recession," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit.

The last time the index was below 50 was in December 2010, when it stood at 49.7.

A slight reduction in incoming new business was cited as the main factor behind the fall, with a reluctance among business to commit to new spending, and budgets reportedly being tightened.

Confidence among purchasing managers remained at an 11-month low.

Mr Williamson said the data suggested that "underlying demand remains very weak and that activity may continue to fall in the new year".

'Continuing uncertainty'

The services sector is seen as a good indicator of the health of the wider economy as it accounts for about three-quarters of the UK's GDP.

Chief strategist at Mint Partners, Bill Blain, says the decline was a surprise to economists

The estimate of a 0.2% fall in GDP for the final quarter is worse than predicted by other forecasters.

Separate purchasing managers' indexes (PMIs) released earlier in the week indicated that the manufacturing sector had expanded last month, but that the construction sector had continued to contract.

"The underlying trend is one of continuing uncertainty," said David Noble, chief executive at the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

"Businesses are holding back on investment, leading to falls in employment and increased levels of spare capacity. At the same time, costs are increasing and businesses are unable to pass these on because of competitive pressures."

In December, the government's Office for Budget Responsibility said it expected the economy to have shrunk by 0.1% in 2012 as a whole.

Bill Blain, chief strategist at brokerage firm Mint Partners, told the BBC the services sector data had come as a surprise, but warned against being too pessimistic.

"It has caught people out," he told the BBC. " [But] it's just as likely that we will see [the sector] recover quite quickly… especially in areas like financial services."

Hotels that feel like home for the holidays

There's no denying it, the holiday crush is upon us.

There's the shopping to do, the cards to mail, the decorations to put up, the cooking, the crowds, the in-laws. It can be a lot. For some people, that's reason enough to pack their bags and hit the road come December. Others simply enjoy experiencing the festivities in a far-flung locale.

For those of you who would rather stuff a suitcase than another turkey this year, here are a handful of festive hotels that go all out for the season, ensuring that you not only don't miss being at home for the holidays but that you relish having someone else do all the work.

Grove Park Inn
Asheville, North Carolina

The mountain setting and lodge-like design of this historic inn, which will celebrate its 100th birthday next year, will have you in a holiday mood even before you learn about all of its myriad celebrations, from the caroling choirs to the time-honored yule log ceremony in the Great Hall. The event for which the hotel is best known is the National Gingerbread House Competition, which it has hosted for the past two decades. Competitors come from near and far to whip up confections you just have to see to believe.

The Plaza
New York City

Who wouldn't love to spend Christmas in New York City at a quintessential Big Apple hotel? Little Kevin McCallister did just that in the popular holiday flick "Home Alone 2," when he checked into this grande dame of New York stays, which is even more spectacular when it's decked out in all its seasonal finery.

Of course, not all of us can simply put the bill on our father's credit card as Kevin did, but The Plaza is worth a visit even if you can't afford to stay, be it to check out the decorating of its historic halls or to enjoy a decadent holiday dessert in the Palm Court restaurant. Plus from here, it's mere steps to the elaborate window displays of the shops along Fifth Avenue or a horse-drawn carriage ride through Central Park.

Madrona Manor
Healdsburg, California

The festivities at this 18-room Victorian manse in scenic Sonoma Valley wine country center around the holiday table. Every December for more than 20 years, its fine-dining restaurant has presented a series of Dickens Dinners (named for the author of the classic "A Christmas Carol"), in which singers in period costume serenade diners as they enjoy a five-course meal consisting of nostalgic dishes such as roast goose, beef Wellington and Christmas pudding, all lovingly prepared by Michelin-starred chef Jesse Mallgren.

Fairmont Scottsdale Princess
Scottsdale, Arizona

Christmas at the Princess, as this five-diamond desert property's annual festival is called, features everything from an ice skating rink (complete with exhibitions from national ice skating champs) to children's ornament- and dreidel-making classes to train rides to view the more than half a million holiday lights illuminating the vast grounds. There are also fireside chats with Santa, a nightly menorah lighting, marshmallow roasts and more.

Big Cedar Lodge
Ridgedale, Missouri

This rustic retreat, 10 miles south of Branson in the wilds of the Ozark Mountains, is the perfect site for a homey holiday with all the trimmings, such as a wagon ride through the countryside ending with s'mores and hot chocolate served around a roaring bonfire.

Better yet, you can arrange for Santa's elves to visit your room, deliver the kids a stocking full of goodies and read them a bedtime story. Santa himself can make a visit on Christmas morning. They even throw Ol' St. Nick a farewell party before he heads back to the North Pole, and you don't even have to get out of your pajamas to attend. Rooms from $149.

Gaylord National Resort
National Harbor, Maryland

Fancy a trip to the nation's capital this yuletide? Then consider a stay at this D.C.-area megaresort.

It's a favorite for meetings and conventions, so it's plenty big enough for you and all of your friends and family. Big, too, is its annual Christmas on the Potomac event, complete with multihued ice sculptures you can actually slide down, nightly indoor snowfalls, a 60-foot-high glass tree, brunches and photos with Santa, and some 2 million twinkling lights.

The theme of this year's extravaganza is Shrek the Halls, with the popular DreamWorks characters being featured in everything from Shrek-shaped waffles to meet and greets with Puss in Boots.

Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island
Amelia Island, Florida

The setting along the sandy shores of the Atlantic at this elegant lodging may not evoke a winter wonderland, but that doesn't mean you can't get into the Christmas spirit. Especially when the S.S. Amelia -- a pirate ship constructed out of gingerbread, 1,200 pounds of sugar and 3,000 eggs -- docks in the hotel lobby. Or at other observances, such as Santa's Storybook Tea, where Mr. and Mrs. Claus join you for a photo op, the reading of a classic holiday story, and afternoon tea with tasty finger sandwiches, pastries, candy and cakes.

Auberge Residences at Pronghorn
Bend, Oregon

If you really want to get away from home for the holidays yet still have all the comforts of home, rent yourself one of Pronghorn's deluxe one- to three-bedroom units that start at 2,000 square feet and include use of the clubhouse, spa and concierge.

They will set up your unit with a decked-out tree or supply one for you to decorate, and they will provide, upon request, the ingredients to make your own wreath, cranberries and popcorn to create strings of garland, a copy of " 'Twas the Night Before Christmas," a variety of holiday DVDs to watch and milk and cookies to leave out for Santa. They'll also store and wraps your gifts.