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An employee from Oprah Winfrey's production company says the queen of daytime television is skipping her famous annual "Oprah's Favorite Things" episode this year. The episode, usually a consumer freebie free-for-all featuring Oprah gracing her audience with a smorgasboard of her favorite products, is a holiday tradition focused equally on conspicuous consumption and charity (she has filled her "Favorite Things" audiences with teachers and Hurricane Katrina volunteers, for instance). But in 2008, Oprah did a thrift-themed "Favorite Things" to acknowledge the economic collapse, and there may be no 2009 episode at all.