Holiday Shopping Season Calendar: Your List of the Hottest Days to Buy

The day after Thanksgiving has been dubbed "Black Friday" for decades, but it's only in the last several years that the holiday season gained additional "special" shopping days. The most prominent of these new retail holidays is Cyber Monday, invented -- or at least, first recognized -- in 2005 by the National Retail Federation. The online shopping celebration has been a huge hit, with sales growing by leaps and bounds every year: 2012 sales jumped by between 22% and 30% compared to 2011.

Perhaps inspired by Cyber Monday, a number of organizations and companies have introduced shopping holidays of their own, with mixed success. Here's a full calendar for the 2012 holiday season.

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