& captioning made possible by johnson & johnson, where quality products for the american family have been a tradition for generations >> good morning and merry christmas to you. i'm charles osgood and this is sunday morning. for most of us, christmas morning is all about home and heart, family, especially the kids. opening the presents under the tree. for retailers and economists, this day is all about taking stock as rebecca jarvis will report in our cover story. >> reporter: did you get everything you wanted for

christmas? >> the christmas season has become the retail super bowl. >> reporter: the big story this year was not so much what we bought but how we bought it. >> you're going to be walking into a store with your phone. you see a good. you scan it with your phone, check the price. if you like it, boom, you'll pay for it with your phone. >> reporter: santa, in the digital age ahead from sunday morning. >> reporter: this is seth doane. in the season for shopping, the shopping bag plays a supporting role. where do you find all of these bags? >> we found a lot of them on e- bay. these we bought through our dealers. >> reporter: art dealers sell shopping bags? >> well, they sell it as art. >> reporter: unwrapping the story of this practical and pretty invention. later on sunday morning. >> osgood: albert brooks is known far and wide as a very funny actor and director. so what's behind his latest

movie role as a very menacing bad guy? this morning mo rocca grills him on that subject and more. >> kid, i want you to meet mr. bernie rose. >> reporter: albert brooks is drawing raves as cold-blooded killer in "drive." >> my hands are a little dirty. >> so are mine. >> reporter: not what you expect from the man who usually makes comedies about the human condition. you said, "i like movies about failing." >> well, i like characters that fail because people fail. >> reporter: albert brooks on his characters and his success later on sunday morning. >> osgood: the return of christmas is the talk of the town. in the community our bill geist has just been to visit. >> reporter: on christmas morning what better place to be than seneca falls, new york. the town proudly and loudly proclaims that it was the inspiration for the christmas film classic "it's a wonderful life." >> merry christmas.

>> reporter: so this is the real bedford falls. >> this is the real bedford falls. >> reporter: that's their story and they're sticking to it later on sunday morning. >> osgood: on this last sunday morning of the year we say hail and farewell to the people who left us in the 12 months past and remember the gifts they've left behind. anthony mason shares a christmas gift of music from singer darlene love. david edal teen offers us holiday movie picks but first the headlines from this sunday morning the 25th of december, christmas day, 2011. pope benedict xvi marked christmas at the vatican by decrying the commercialization of the holiday. the pope urged the faithful to look behind christmas' superficial glitter to find its true meaning. in nigeria the peace and promise of this day were shattered by a series of christmas day church bombings. at least 25 people were killed. president obama is spending christmas weekend starting off a 10-day stay at a hawaiian

vacation home near honolulu. tonight the president will be joined by close family and friends. newt gingrich may not be able to compete in the virginia republican primary in march. the state of officials there say his campaign failed to submit the 10,000 approved signatures needed for his name to appear on the ballot. gingrich lives in virginia. here's a holiday treat for you. at cincinatti's jerome simpson jumping clear over a would-be tackler during a bengals' win over the arizona cardinals yesterday. he even landed on two feet. here's today's weather. snow around the great lakes and the pacific northwest. no white christmas for the rest of us. just a seasonably cool december day. the last days of 2011 will be chilly. rain or snow is more likely as the week goes on. happy hanukkah from sunday morning.,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, &

>> osgood: you may have heard that shoppers in at least a dozen cities scuffled with each other and with police on friday in a frenzy over the latest model of $180 a pair air jordan basketball shoes. the shopping season is ending not a moment too soon. time for retailers and marketers to begin taking stock. our cover story is reported now by rebecca jarvis.

♪ >> reporter: it was so simple and peaceful back then. three wise men bringing gifts to the manger. how could they have known it would lead to this? the frenzy of the holiday shopping season. the epic battles in the marketplace this year. between customer and retailer, between the on-line and the in- line world. we asked two experts to play santa's helpers and sort out the naughty and the nice this christmas day. adam camp is in branding and advertising. >> the christmas season has become the retail super bowl. >> reporter: and collin gillis is an analyst. how have sales been this holiday season? >> rebecca, the good news is americans love to spend. the bad news is they all want discounts. >> reporter: to entice shopper,

retailers unwrapped their versions of the 12 days of christmas. there was black friday. >> this is really a reflection of the fact that the economy is still struggling. >> reporter: small business saturday. >> and that marketers need to find ways to let consumers know that there's some real exciting pricing going on. >> reporter: cyber monday. >> because otherwise, they won't get the numbers they need. >> reporter: who can forget green monday? >> it's a level of marketing mania. >> reporter: and oh, yes, free shipping friday. >> i feel like everything else though, it reaches the point of saturation because consumers say, "i've had enough." >> reporter: just what were we buying? smart phones became one of the hottest gives of the year but they also became a major shopping tool. >> the smart phone which about a third americans have now is changing the way people buy and look for goods. >> it used to be the price was the price. maybe if you called a manager

over or you were willing to wait a hoff hour, you could get $10 off. now the power is in the hands of the person who holds the smart phone, a huge economic shift. >> reporter: that's because now you can compare any store's prices with other retailers on your smart phone. let's say you're after a video game. >> the sony play station is $249 from 12 sellers. nobody wants to be beaten by anybody else. here's wal-mart, best buy, they all have it at the same price. and then you can see office max has it $50 more. that's a big difference. >> reporter: amazon even offered special discounts if customers went into a store, compared prices, and then bought from amazon. >> ultimately you're going to be walking into a store with your phone. you'll see a good. you'll scan it with your phone, check the price. if you like it, many boo, you'll pay for it with your phone. >> reporter: in the store. >> in the store. >> reporter: or maybe you'll

find it for a better price somewhere else. >> down the block or from an e- commerce provider. that's a tough environment for a merchant to compete against. >> reporter: that's a lot more comparison shopping in the forecast. >> this tells you what the price might be in the future. >> reporter: yes. some sites analyze prices and predict whether they'll go up or down. >> let's say you want to buy now. it will tell you, buy now because it's not likey that the price will go down in the future. this one is safe to buy. this one, it says, wait, it looks at the price history, what price it was before and makes projections on what the price is going to be. that is another level of data sophistication. it's not just what is the cheapest price now? it's what you can expect. >> reporter: if consumers are collecting more data, so are retailers. they're figuring out what you want before you even tell santa. when we think about the 2011 holiday season, what are we going to go back in time and say this is what changed that year? >> there is no more mass market.

we're all being targeted on an individual basis. there's enough data that's available that retailers have a good understanding of who you are. >> reporter: in other words, every time you browse or buy on-line, or use a price comparison app, you're telling the retailer as much about you as you're learning about them. >> they could market to you based on that data. it all goes into the huge amount of on-line information, digital break room, that thing gets aggregated and is used to market you more effectively. these apps are free but they have a privacy cost. >> reporter: finally, if you think christmas shopping is over for this year, think again. in fact, today christmas day, is expected to be the biggest day of the year for selling apps, as everyone unwraps their tablets and smart phones and loads 'em up. and the best holiday deals may be still to come. >> the christmas season has extended into an extra january

inning. >> reporter: prepare yourself, shoppers, retailers may still have a few presents for you to unwrap. >> the sense now is that 20 to 30%. that's not going to get it done. >> reporter: that's not a deal. >> that's not a deal. exactly. give me at least 50% off. maybe even 70%. get ready to see some mega sales. >> osgood: still to come, it's in the bag. >> this bag had a cheese burger in it. it was autographed by elvis presley.

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>> osgood: now a look at the 12 days of christmas by the numbers. according to pnc wealth management, the true cost of the gifts mention in the song including all those repeats is up by 4.4% over last year. the patridge in a pair tree went from $12 to $15 times 12, remember. the two turtle doves went from $100 to $125 times 11, of course, and on and on. only the four calling birds and five gold rings got cheaper. all told, the 364 gifts mentioned in the song will set you back a record 101,119.84. the true cost of true love.

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with drug-free breathe right advanced. these nasal strips instantly opened my nose, like a breath of fresh air. i was breathing and sleeping better! [ female announcer ] exercise your right to breathe right... get two free strips at breatheright.com. hey, it's your right to breathe right! >> osgood: it turns out that the modern shopping bag is more than a mere practical convenience. our seth doane has the proof. >> reporter: they fill the streets this time of year, offering glimpses of gifts to come and maybe some bragging rights too.

so much thought is focused on what is inside them that we might neglect the humble shopping bag itself. that's hardly the case on new york city's lexington avenue, home to bloomingdale's. >> if you looked at these old bags, you created kind of a new story. >> reporter: where larger-than- life bags are celebrated in holiday windows. >> as you rank all the different things you think about in this store, where do bags rank? >> they're high. >> reporter: bloomingdale's executive says shopping bags are part of the company's dna. >> it's a history. it's a history we've had for 50 years of creating shopping bags for all kinds of different occasions. at one time it was just a convenience for a customer and then in the '80s we started to make it much more of a collectible art theme. >> reporter: you don't have to tell that to howard foreman.

>> they had these iconic bags that everybody was collecting. >> reporter: including foreman who has over 100 of them from bloomingdale's alone. this looks like a holiday one. bags decorate his entire sub urban washington home. >> holiday bags are over.... >> reporter: and just look at the garage. fine arts. plain bags. unique bags. vintage bags. converted into a sort of storeroom, it houses most of the 7,000 bags he's collected. >> this bag had a cheese burger in it, was autographed by elvis presley. this bag contained a 45 rpm record. it was autographed by all four beatles. >> reporter: there are even books about cooking with bags. and do the initials a.w.mean anything? how about now? andy warhol.

you wouldn't bring that bag to the grocery store? >> no. >> reporter: there's a roy lichtenstein too. >> this one was $3,000-$4,000. >> reporter: how much money do you think you've spent in bags? >> a few hundred thousand dollars total. >> reporter: wow. yeah, wow. when foreman sold his wholesale liquor business for more than $100 million.... >> girl scouts, aquarium bags. >> reporter:... he had both resources and time. collecting bags had always been his wife's passion. but when she passed away from cancer, he continued collecting in her memory. they even started a museum of bags. after all, there's a rich history. >> this bag was patented by walter dupner in 1919 at first grocery bag with handles. he had a grocery store in the midwest. he found that his customers were struggling so he developed one with the handles. >> reporter: for decades, many

shoppers were still burdened by boxes, like this woman on christmas eve back in 1946. but by the mid 1950s, bags with handles had hit the main streets. as large department stores started handing them out. >> is this fireproof? >> a fireproof door. >> reporter: to someone who say this teams crazy, what would you say? >> it's not really that crazy. there is history to be preserved. there is a story that can be told. >> reporter: and let's face it. today the bag has become more of a moving billboard. take bloomingdale's. for years its name never appeared on the bag. but jack said they'd never dream of that today. still he insists it is more than just marketing. >> they're portable art. they're a moment of art but they are definitely art. for free, you get a piece of art.

>> reporter: a piece of art with a purpose. christmas with darlene love.

♪ in the winter ♪ when the snow covers the ground ♪ >> osgood: that marshmallow world from darlene love. her christmas gift to us is a simple lesson. if you love doing something, never give it up. she talks with anthony mason "for the record." >> reporter: in her bright red coat, she's hard to miss. but for much of her music career, darlene love has struggled to get noticed. she sang lead on a string of hits for producer phil specter, and even had a number-one record. but her name wasn't on it. >> for years people didn't know that darlene love existed. >> reporter: well, they do now. >> and about time, too.

one of the greatest voices in the history of rock'n'roll, miss darlene love. >> reporter: you were inducted this year into the rock'n'roll hall of fame. >> i'm still giddy about it. >> reporter: this year also marked the 25th anniversary of love's first appearance on david letterman's show, to sing "christmas baby, please come home" the song off specter's landmark 1963 album has become a christmas classic. her appearance on letterman, an annual holiday event. the eldest of five kids, darlene love grew up darlene wright in los angeles. you started singing in the church. >> my father was a pentecostal pastor. >> reporter: in 1957 she joined a girl group called the blossoms. our first big gig was with

james darren. >> james darren "baby, when we're scared." >> reporter: but the blossoms had an ability to blend in. >> we didn't sound white. we didn't sound black. >> reporter: and quickly became the hottest back-up singers in l.a. ♪ working on the chain > working behind sam cook. ♪ the beach boys ♪ move over darling ♪ > even doris day. then in 1962, darlene was hired by a young producer named phil specter. what was he like to work with in the studio? >> great. the first couple of years before he became, you know, this monster that made all these hit records. >> reporter: specter wanted darlene to sing lead on a song he was sure was going to be a hit. a rival version was about to be released and specter's regular group the krystals was stuck on the east coast. still he put the krystals' name on the label.

you knew your name wouldn't be on that record. >> right, i did. >> reporter: but that didn't bother you. >> no because, see, people don't know that we did that all the time. who knows whether it's going to be a hit. let me take that money and run. >> reporter: when it went to number one, how did you feel? >> that bothered me. >> reporter: specter promised darlene she would get her turn. he changed her name from wright to love. and they went back into the studio. >> going to the sessions and doing "he's sure the boy i love." i'm writing that is going to come out under my name. i'm riding down the street in my car and the latest record by the krystals. i said when did the krystals come in town. >> reporter: darlene stormed into specter's office and confronted him. >> why do you keep doing this to me? you say you like me. you like my voice. what are you doing? "well, i just figured the song would have a better chance if i used the name the krystals."

i said, "when do i get my chance to make my name?" >> reporter: finally he gave it to her. but darlene's solo releases didn't have the same success. in part because audiences didn't realize the earlier hits were hers. but the blossoms were still in demand, becoming regulars on a new rock show called shin dig. and backing elvis on his 1968 tv special. darlene's solo career just couldn't get off the ground though. by the early 1980s with two children and her marriage collapsing, she needed to take another job as a maid. >> and i said, well, there's only one other thing that i can do and i can do well: i can clean. one year cleaning this lady's bathroom "christmas baby please come home" came on the radio. i said, "okay. i hear you,