The crush of the Holiday Shopping season. Seems to start earlier and earlier every year. Lines and mobs. Taking over thanksgiving day. Before the turkeys even gobbled up. But this year,more than 50 National Retailers are pushing back. Shutting their doors on thanksgiving day. Costco, rei, home depot, ikea. Even the mall of america. Putting up the closed sign. Yet other big brands are doubling down. Macys, best buy, walmart, target and kohls their doors earlier than ever on turkey day. It all comes down to the bottom line thanksgiving day sales dropped 12. 5 last year. Giving some retailers a good reason to give their employees the day off. Natl Retail Federation tbe listening to stomers. How they shop and making Business Decisions on that. Mall manager Maria Butkovic will get to stay home on thanksgiving for the first in four years. Well im pretty excited i can relax a little, spend time with my the stores that are staying open. See a huge opportunity to steal yr foot traffic from their competitors, as the face the end of a weak year in retail. Nearly 6 in 10 americans plan to shop over thanksgiving weekend. graphic text panel overall sales are expected to rise by 3. 6 . And stores that open on thanksgiving are pulling out all the stops to lure you in. Jcpenney opens at 3pm and will give away 500 dollar coupons at the door. Toys r us opens starts at 5. And will stay open for 30 hours straight. Sears is angling for your wallet with 50 off washers and dryers. Battling for your every dollar this Holiday Season. Those stores may be ttling foyour buck. But sources say only 23 percent of americans plan to shop in stores this black friday the rest shopping on line from the comfort of the couches. Many people have already started lining up waiting for black friday deals. A group of shoppers in delafield are camped out in front of the best buy. They actually got loing to score a 50 inch tv, tablets and laptops. In las vegas folks there also lining up in front of best buy. Retailers in nevada are optimistic theyll have a good sales weekend. Theyre expecting almost a million nevadans to go shopping on black friday. One of those shoppers wants to get his hands on a 200dollar television and doesnt seem to mind the wait. I did it the old your chair and. Sit in basically. Best buy opens at five tonight Dicks Sporting Goods opens at six and old navy is open now and until midnight. For a full list of Stores Opening on thanksgiving head to our website tmj4 dot com. The weather not expecting to be a problem for shoppers tonight. Meteorologist Brian Niznansky is here with a check on the holiday forecast. Weve had lots of clouds today and skies will remain cloudy heading into tonight. Temperatures will fall from the 40s into the 30s this evening. There is a weak disturbance approaching us from the west, which may may bring a few flurries to the area well after midnight and into tomorrow morning. You can skip the Department Stores and head to lake front brewery. Its hosting its its black friday brew. Th beer was brewed back in february and then aged in bourbon barrels. Its only available tomorrow starting at eight am, but fans are known to line up the night before. The Pfister Hotel kicking off the Holiday Season with its annual Tree Lighting ceremony. The Tree Lighting happening tomorrow at 5 30, with special guests santa claus and mrs. Claus arriving on a fire truck. Guests will be treated with holiday treats, music, hot cocoa, eggnog and bubbly. The pfister will also open its holiday marketplace later that evening. The holiday the holiday train will be heading to the badger state in a couple of weeks. The festive Canadian Pacific train will make several stops in our area on december 5th and 6th youll have an opportunity to take your family to check out the lights and decorations in sturtevant, milwaukee, wauwatosa, hartland and stops and times on our website tmj4 dot com. The Polar Express making a stop in wisconsin. Grab the kids and head over to the National Railroad museum in green bay. Youll be le to board the train bound for the north pole. The train will be at the museum every weekend until december 4th. Tickets range from 17 to 30 dollars. More local news now a chance to check out he price experience. Milwaukees own Gabriel Sanchez has devoted his life to prince and led one of the most respected prince tr gabriel will perform the purple rain album tomorrow at the riverside theater. A walkrun happening tomorrow to benefit the les turner a ls foundation. Ten runners will gather at the amtrak station and make the 100mile trek to chicago in memory of a friend who died of als one year ago. Their friend, alfredo pedro, was a wellknown Long Distance runner in the chicago community. The Madison City Council has approved investing 4point4 City Investments will enable developers to meet application deadlines early next year for federal tax credits. The Affordable Housing plan aims to build 250 Housing Units with support services for the homeless and another 750 affordable units. You can meet an astronaut next weekend in sheboygan. Wisconsin native, colonel Jeffrey Williams holds the all time cumulative record for any american astronaut of 534 days in space aboard shuttle mission. Williams will answer space questions december third at spaceport sheboygan. Coming up taking drastic steps for his Favorite Team i get a lot of comments. Are you nuts . Do you know how cold it is outside . How long one packers fan plans to wear shorts in the cold weather and my hero zero by lemonheads zero really can be a hero. And zero first months payment on select volkswagen models. This black friday at the volkswagen one packers fan is sick of his team losing which can be said for all fans. The green and gold have lost four games in a role. So hes braving the cold and promising not to wear pants until his team wins a game. Emily thornton reports. I dont care how cold it weatherand this lifelong packers fan is making a sacrifice until his team finds success. I wear shorts a lot anyway but once the packers started losing i told my family and i said im gonna wear shorts until they winit started on sunday last sunday i guess i wore pants at church when i went to church. And could continue for weeks to come. Im going to wear shorts where ever i go anything for the green and gold. My whole life ive watched the packers, theyre actually the only team i watch for those who cant understand why youd choose to freeze for football father in law is nuts, hes off his rocker, but hes a die hard fan thats the kind of support they have up here in wisconsin so im totally proud to say thats my father in law showing his support for the packer nation. I get a lot of comments. Are you nuts . Do you know how cold it is outside . A lot of people drive by theyll hit the breaks and slow down and im in shorts and theyll roll down the window. What are you doing . If or when the team finally comes out on top im going to wear shorts until they win and ill probably wear shorts after that but then ill wear pants then too i want to see him endure this whole winter with him in those shorts just glenn says wearing shorts started as his choice but now his soninlaw put 100dollars on the line. Its a bet he doesnt plan on losing. The packers take on the Philadelphia Eagles monda last matchup against the eagles in 2014. Fans hoping theyll beat them again this year. Kickoff is set for 7 30. Still ahead decorating for the holidays the three things you should do to make sure your decorations are safe. But first, heres a live lo from. Meteorologist Brian Niznansky is back with the latest on our when shopping online beware of socalled deals on free or discounted gift cards. The Wisconsin Department of agriculture, trade and Consumer Protection reports fake gift cards are a favorite tool of scammers during the media sites and send Text Messages to y and draw people in. So our planning to buy a gift card. Get it directly fm an authorized merchant. Many people will spend this liday weekd ckthe chris for bu before you pull out those decorations from the attic there e a few safety reminders to keep in mind. Use lights that have been safety tested, unplug all decorations before going to bed and blow out candles before leaving a room. Be sure your artificial if you have a live tree water it often. Its beginning to look a lot like christmas at the vatican. This years vatican Christmas Tree was put up today in saint Peters Square. The tree will be officially unveiled on december 9th, along with the nativity. The 82foot tall tree will be decorated with 18 thousand led lights and will stand in saint Peters Square until january 8th. Coming up battling wildfires the number of homes crews are trying to save and amazing shot the group of people who are making history with their basketball shot. But first heres a look at whats on tv tonight. The now milwaukee at 6 30. Followed by football night in america. The steelers take on the colts. After the game more local a wildfire burning in the western part of North Carolina has charred some 900 acres. 125 emergency crews are working today to protect more than 50 homes in the area. Crews have the fire 65 percent contained. They still do not know how it started, but arson is not being ruled out as a possibility. Emergency crews say if the weather is favorable. They hope to have before the end of the day. An ecigarette exploded in a mans pants pockets while he was at work in new york. Surveillance video shows what looks like fireworks after the ecig explodes. The explosion sends the men running out of the store. The man is being treated for burns. No other workers were injured. Three ukrainian it students paid tribute to the late apple cofounder steve jobs. They made a portrait of him using Computer Keyboard keys. The dismantling around 100 keyboards to make a replica of jobs face. The artwork currently hangs on a classroom wall at the academy. Check out this hipster nativity set. The set is a modern take on the traditional nativity scene. It has the wise men on segways, bearing gifts from amazon prime as well as a lattedrinking mary and a joseph, with a manbun taking a selfie with baby jesus. Orders are through the of launching the productthey are selling 500 sets a day. Heres a basketball shot for the ages a trio of australian youtube personalities set the Guinness World record for greatest height where a basketball was shot. One of the members nailed the shot weekend in the swiss alps. The io record on three separate thanks for joining us at 430. The news continues with live at the annual retail splurge known as black friday is upon us. Some will shop til they drop others of us will sit on the marble bench outside of sears, sipping a starbucks with a moderately annoyed our the big story at five, the crush of Holiday Shopping starts early. Lines and mobs. Taking over thanksgiving day. Before the turkey is even gobbled up. Whether you prefer the brick and mortar stores, or the internet. Shopping deals are aplenty. Starting right now. Some major retailers opening tonight. While others are waiting until tomorrow. Rebecca klopf is live at one of the stores that chose to open a little early carole and georgethe hustle shopping season is officially underway. The door just opened here at toy r us for black friday shopping. Although technically its black thursday shopping. You can see people were. Reporting live at toy r us on the south si. Rebecca klopf todays . Some . Of the other major retailers opening early for black friday. Dicks, kohls, sears, target and walmart all opening at 6 tonight. Mayfair and Southridge Mall are open shopping hours visit our unway website tmj4 dot com a racine thangiving is year. New at 5 bed crowd event brings people from all backgrounds together. Inside racine Festival Hall thanksgiving plates are plentiful for three thousand in good company. 53 38 good food, good people and i like that. Willy hughes is a regular at this annual celebration sitting with friends while making new ones at the same table. 53 25 i greet them happy thanksgiving. Abe ouzounian came dressed to impress in his