Gloria gaynor is singing this song. She was here this morning already singing. We were joining her, because we were out on the plaza. We want to see how it looks. I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face i should have changed that stupid lock i should have made you leave your key if i had known for just one second you would be back to bother me i thought jill was in her pajamas at first. Just turn around now everybody got into the swing of things. Gloria has a terrific book. Called we will survive. She tells about her own life. And then there are stories from people from all over the world. Its a very moving book. She will be with us. Shes also here for hodas favorite day in the world. Todays is National Cookie day. Did you know . If you want an excuse to have a cookie, by the way, these ones in the middle are warm and gooey and delicious. And chocolatey. Yeah. Guess what is happening tonight . Two big nights on nbc. Tonight is the lighting of the tree, which is huge. It is the Rockefeller CenterChristmas Tree lighting. Matt, al, savannah and natalie are all hosting it. This is the 81st annual lighting of the tree. And there are great musical guests, mary j. Blige, mariah carey. Eric grande and jewel. Its going to be great. Its on at 8 00, 7 00 central. Some people do an extra hour of festivities before. The tree will stay lit until january 7th. And so will we. But you know what the thing is . What . This is a warning to all of you. We say this with goodwill toward all men and women. If you arent coming to the lighting of the tree here in Rockefeller Center, stay home, because youre not going to be able to get anywhere. Its the craziest day of the year. Crazy. And tomorrow i cannot wait to see. Im dying. The sound of music. Live. With carrie underwood. What time does that start . 8 00. You were a busy, busy little beaver last night. There was a nice event last night, loreal paris eighth annual women of worth. There were some great ladies who were there, diane keaton was there and lea michelle were there. That little minute next to lea thats her mom . Where is your mother . Down there. You with heels on are like 62. A great woman who i met does great work with Mental Health disorders. She was outstanding. Her name was tricia. And another tricia was there, right . Yeah. They do a great, great event. I was happy to be hanging with the ladies. Always doing your good stuff. Now we have breaking news, people. Get ready. Breaking news. Apparently i dont know if they dont like to be called this. I dont use it with disrespect. They are now known as kimye. Of course, were talking about kim and kanye. Reportedly, according to us weekly they want to get married in france at the palace of versailles, built in the 1600s, home to louis xvi and Marie Antoinette during the big french revolution. Its got a lot of gardens and stuff. A lot of it, obviously, will be off limits. Theres a house of mirrors and all those famous things in there. They may do something on the grounds outside. Well, i know that its going to set them back a bundle. Years ago she did a little photo shoot there. Just to pay for the license to be able to do that really . Yes, yes. I cant imagine a wedding there . Its going to gather worldwide attention. We did try to confirm it, because we are nbc news. Yeah. We remind ourselves. So far no response. Theres a brand new singer out named brit smith. Most people dont know who she is. Anyway, she released a video, a single. The song is called provocative. That would be fine. The best part about this little girl and her video is she has a rock star, basically, doing a little rap number in her music video. Really . You might know her. Shes dancing in the video. Her name is see if you can tell, figure it out. Turn that music off check this out. Little volume . Oh, wow how awesome . Bettys got move. Bettys got everything. Oh, my god, her hips were going. I think shes officially my favorite person in the world, you know . Look at the hips. Please. All these years in show business, she learned how to use those hips. Trust me. The voice was on last night, guys. She would be the first one to laugh at that and say, honey, i sure did. The top six performed and this was a week that one person went home. The way they do it, theres the bottom two and then somebody can get saved by the people. So, here we dont know the outcome. We didnt see it last night. Here are the bottom two. Jane matthew first and then james. When a man loves a woman spend his very last dime just tryin to hold on to what he needs i would do anything for love you know its true and thats a fact i would do anything for love and there will never be no turning back im not going with im going not with him, but the first kid. I think that james was sent home and matthew was saved. Thats what i think. But we dont know. So lets watch. We dont know. I will now announce the final artist going to the semi finals next week. America instantly saved james. Oh, my gosh congratulations. Obviously, team adam. So, were not right. Thats the way america goes, baby. Thats democracy in action, hoda. What happened . He was good, too, but im just saying, i thought it was what . James was sick. We dont give excuses here, okay . Thats the problem. I havent watched every episode at all in their entirety and so yeah, maybe they remembered great, great performances before that. Yeah. The voice returns monday at 8 00, 7 00 central. So when you go to a restaurant, what is your biggest complaint about restaurants . Is it zagat or zagit . Ive never known how to pronounce that. These are the top five. Number five is disappointing food. Number four is overcrowding. Number three is high prices, two, bad service. And the number one complaint in restaurants is the noise level. Thats surprising. I would have thought bad service or high prices would be before that. Yeah. The thing i dont like or the thing that bothers me i hate being irritated in a restaurant. You just want to enjoy the meal and stuff. Its when you feel like youre waiting forever for someone to come to your table or youve ordered 20 minutes ago and no one has checked in and your waters empty. You just want someone to check in every now and then and say, hey, its coming. We know. Like that. One of our producers was telling us this morning that her parents merediths parents were having dinner one night and they were in a corner and it was around dessert time and so her father picked up the phone and called the restaurant that theyre sitting in and said, excuse me, can you turn around . Were here. Can you get a waiter or waitress to come over so we can order our dessert . I guess they had a good humor about it. But the noise level, i go out to dinner with people because i want to talk to them. Go do they want you out quicker . I dont know. I also dont like when youre waiting to be seated and they say it will be just a minute and you see eight empty tables and they ask you, is your entire party here . No, two people are parking the car. Well, they all have to be here. I dont understand what that is. I dont either. They could order a drink. Hello. Somebody is tipping for jesus around the country, extravagant tipper is leaving tips all over the country. We dont know who the person is, or persons. During the holidays, we get lost in the buying and the crowds and the pushing. We thought it would be kind of cool to recognize people who are doing really, really cool things. This guy leaves look at that thumb. Wow what is that . Incredibly generous tips. Theyre covering up his name so we dont know. He said hes doing the lords work one tip at a time and is leaving tips from 500 to 10,000. Can you imagine . For a total of 54,000 thats been given. And its across the country. It may be a football fan. Most of the big tips he leaves is after a college game. So maybe hes a sports enthusiast who goes to these different games and dines afterwards. Its legitimate. God bless him. Theyre doing some good in the world. Thats really cool. Another shout out to a good kid. A second grader is trying to cure playground loneliness. He saw a lot of kids at his school sitting by themselves and it made him feel not so great. He decided to do something about it. His name is christian bucks. He went to the school and he asked if they would build a buddy bench. So they did. They built a colorful bench on the playground. If the kid feels lonely, he sits on the buddy bench and another kid will join him. Just a cool idea. I guess these things are happening in the uk and in germany. We have a buddy bench right here. Great congratulations to our little sister, sara haines. She went over for a new opportunity it to another network but got the man of her dreams now, shes engaged to matt now. Congratulations, sara. A darling couple. We really miss her. We do miss her. Theyre so happy together. It was 35 years ago. And still sings to millions today. Gloria gaynor on the power of i will survive. Go walk out the door so you can see like right here i can just. You know, check my policy here, add a car, ah speak to customer service, check on a claim. You know, all with the ah, tap of my geico app. Oh, thats so cool. Well, i would disagree with you but, ah, that would make me a liar. No dude, youre on the jumbotron whoa. Ah. Yeah, pretty much walked into that one. Geico anywhere anytime. Just a tap away on the geico app. Diarrhea, gas, bloating . Yes one Phillips Colon Health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues. With three strains of good bacteria. [ Phillips Lady ] live the regular life. Phillips. Prove it. Enough is enough. Dcon baits are specially formulated to kill in one feeding. Guaranteed. Dcon. Get out. Wishin and hopin and thinkin and prayin you give him ky yours mine. Its naughty and nice. All you got to do is hold him and kiss him a tiny breakfast helps us weigh less . Eat all this with new special k multigrain cereal. Data shows women who eat breakfast tend to weigh less than those who dont. A new perspective. What will you gain when you lose . Theres probably not a woman on earth who hasnt belted out that song in the shower. You got that right. Gloria gaynors hit i will survive was recorded 35 years ago. Just last year it was inducted into the grammy hall of fame. Finally. People shared their own survival stories with gloria. 40 of those stories are in this great new book. It is called we will survive with a companion cd with allnew music by the grammy winner. So nice to see you. Merry christmas to you on the day that we light that tree. Thank you so much. This book was just a genius idea. We all remember a breakup, devastating news happened and this song was our anthem. Did you realize right away how this song was going to resonate with people . I did, because it resonated with me. You were in a down time. I was. Tell us about that. Well, i had had surgery on my spine. The Record Company said they would not are renew my contract and a new president came in from england and decided he wanted me to record a song called substitute when i went out to talk to the producers to record that song we were talking about the b side. After the conversation they determined i was the one they had been waiting for to do this song they had written a couple of years prior. So im knowing that god said write this song and put it over there for a minute. Im going to send you someone. You were singing it, the time you were going through it. And, obviously, you read the lyrics resonated so much. Absolutely. Absolutely. Then you started performing it all over the world, of course. Yes. Still do it, love it. You close your show with it. People start coming up to you and telling you their stories, right . Absolutely. The stories had inspired me and encouraged me so much, i decided its time for me to share that inspiration and encouragement from those stories. What could be more inspiring and encouraging than to read about somebody going through something that youre now going through . And come out on the other side victorious. Theres a beautiful story about a holocaust survivor written about in your book. And then she lost her husband. Thats when she came across the song. In 78, the song ce out. The story you tell early on, even in the prolog where you talk about the abuse you had to deal with as a child from 5 years old on, coming from a fatherless home with a single mom who was doing the very, very best she could. You never told her, because you thought your mother, tell us about that. Well, the abuses that i had, i wouldnt tell my mother, because my mother was take no guff from anybody kind of person and i knew that she would seek retribution, you know, if she knew that these things had happened to me. I didnt want to be without my mother as well as my father. Talk about cognitive thinking when youre 5 years old. If i tell, moms going to do something and shes going to go to jail. I would rather have my mom. Thats extremely mature. It really, really is. All of this happening was the impetus of the single that came out. Youre right on time. Those things eat away at your selfesteem. Lets listen to that song. You still sound great. And it was the lord that got you through all of this stuff, gloria. Absolutely. Absolutely. There i was. I believe that the surgery, the spine problem and all of that happened so that god could get my attention. I was off in the wild blue yonder. He got it and you gave us a great gift. Thank you. Thank you for that and thank you for your right on time. I want to hear that. We were having trouble hearing that. Yeah. Thank you so much. The great gloria gaynor. Time to go shopping, whether you cook or love to eat. Perfect gifts for those finicky foodies after this. I am stuck on bandaid brand cause bandaids stuck on me [ female announcer ] bandaid brand waterproof toughstrips. Designed with a foursided seal. Theyre waterproof, shielding out water, dirt, and germs. cause bandaid helps heal me [ female announcer ] and they make Great Holiday gifts lauras being healthy and chewing her multivitamin. With oneaday vitacraves for women its a greattasting gummy multivitamin designed for women with more calcium and vitamin d. Its gummies for grownups. Get 2 off at oneaday. Com. You know, what are you thinking . Oh, i had a knot in my chest. I didnt really want her to go but. I knew she could do it. I felt like there were bigger and Better Things for me to do. [ mom ] she took what she was doing seriously. [ hosmer ] my selfconfidence just went through the roof. [ dad ] it was awesome to see her transform from a girl, in a small town, to a soldier. [ male announcer ] you made them strong. Well make them army strong. Talk to your son or daughter about joining the army. Find out how at goarmy. Com parents. And were about to help you with your Christmas Gift list. If theres a foodie in your life, this is for you. For gifts under 50, foodie expert cissy. Why not give your foodie friend the excessive chef cutting board . It has these imprints in the birch wood. You can make a perfect julienne, whatever it might be. I am a little like that. 26. Then this is for the other extreme. For those of us who like to cook with just that smidgeon, pinch, a dash. Youve got grandmas recipe, when she says a smidgeon, thats what a smidgeon is. Put a ribbon on it, put it in a stocking. Thats a nice stocking stuffer. For my daughter, sarah, and fiance. They live in a little apartment. Its a fruit basket thats vertical. Its barware. Store all your fruits. Take it from the bottom. Oranges and bananas off the back. Its a clever way to use the space for your foodie. Small company, mom and pop, u. S. A. Sharp. They send you this box for under 30. You load knives in the sleeves they provide. Careful. You mail it and it comes back to you in three days perfectly sharpened knives for the foodie who has no time. Thats great. For guests to bring along. When the holidays are finished, theyll send those off. Real gold mine is the Kitchen Equipment store. I have globe equipment where i live. This is a musthave for any foodie. Mandolin making the julienne. It does everything you need. For the restaurant foodie, this is how we serve french fries now in the fry basket. Have at it. So that gives that restaurant experience at home. Unless theyre hot. Thank goodness, theyre not hot. Next up, perfect egg poacher. Stop it. 5. Pop it in here. Break an egg in there. It goes in the papers and into your gently boiling water. Pull it out. In no time at all you have the perfectly shaped egg. Drop it in. I dont know if i have the total if this was in here long enough. Bianca is so good at those things. Its the perfect poacher. Bianca i love that. What foodie isnt nuts about nuts . Careful. Careful. From a great guy out in seattle. Hot and sweet cashews. Its so fabulous. Really i think its one of the best of the season. Great. Next up we love our nuts. We love our virginia nuts, peanuts company. They do a great job. Wonderful zingy almonds. All on klgandhoda. Com. Youre the best. Well be back and we are back with more of today on this wines day wednesday. Were ready to play who knew and in honor Pay Attention of actor jeff bridges birthday, which is today, were testing your knowledge on famous bridges and famous hollywood families. Kathie lee is across the street at the nbc experience store and is ready to hand out 100 bucks to anyone who get it is right. And those who dont get a kathie lee cd. Lucky, lucky. She wants it. You can tell. Terrence jay, e news anchor and the author of the wealth of my mothers wisdom. Thank you. Fancy. Thank you. My mother cant wait to meet you. Are we going to tell everybody were getting married . No. Keep it on the low. Lets go across to kath. Stepbrothers, fabulous baker boys, the Blues Brothers or bad boys . The first one. The correct answer, terrence, is the fabulous baker boys. Why yes, it is, it came out in 1990. This catapulted Michelle Pfeiffers career, starring the brothers. They play brothers in the film. They got a lot of critical acclaim. Back across to kath. The sister of our dear cameraman right here, jimmy corrigan. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you. A pivotal scene in saturday night fever takes place on what bridge. Verrazanonarrows bridge, Manhattan Bridge or George Washington bridge . Brooklyn bridge . Good day for kl. The verrazano bridge, right . Yes. This film came out in 1977. That young lady out there is too young to remember that. Way too young. Of course. John travolta and the rest of the guys. I forgot that scene. Oh, my gosh. Back across to kath. This beautiful blond is from chicago. Right . Okay. Dakota johnson, who will play Anastasia Steele in the 2015 release of fifty shades of grey movie dont act like you didnt read it is the daughter of which actress . B. No. I thought everybody knew that. Thats a lullaby album. I dont know. A lot of people dont know that. Melanie griffith. And don johnson is her father. The film started shooting, it will come out in 2015. They just shot the first scene at the coffee shop. As soon as they start doing those other scenes ill let you know. Please do. Let you know. Lets go over to kath. In the film bridges of madison county, Robert Kincaid comes to town to, what, fix the bridges, tear down the bridges, paint the bridges or photograph the bridges . I think i should know. Photograph the bridge. Yes. I love that. Anything with an accent is great. He was there to photograph the bridges. Yes, he was. Youve got to love clint eastwood. He starred, directed and produced this film. Just a brilliant job. Great, great movie. Back across to kath. Bunch of ladies are celebrating their 60th birthday. Imagine that. Which actor is a cousin of film directors roman and Sofia Coppola . Bruce willis, john cusack, nicholas cage or al pacino . Nicholas cage. Wow, she knew. Is that Common Knowledge it is not. Nicholas cages real name is nicholas kim coppola. He changed his name to cage but is part of the family that had godfather and other great films. Back across to kath. Which Television Series opening features its main character driving over, i think its called, the goethals bridge to his home in new jersey . Boar sopranos, house or Everybody Loves raymond . I think theres a cd in your future. B. Yes that was a wild guess. This is the scene from the open . Yes, it is. I think you would have to know that scene, the infamous character, james gandolfini, rest in peace, but thats him traveling across the bridge to new jersey to get ready to do some bad. You know it. We have time for one more. Colorado. Which a list actors aunt rosemary had a hit with the following song . Was it george clooney, brad pitt, matt damon or ben affleck . George clooney. Yeah, yeah. And she needed a little help, but rosemary is his aunt. That is his aunt. She needed a little help on that. The good thing is i didnt know either. We just love george clooney. Thanks for coming to see us. Delicious wines for a good cause at a good price. And spruce up your christmas without the spruce. Chris and peyton with some nontraditional trees. Across the country has brought me to the lovely city of boston. Cheers. And seeing as its such a historic city, im sure theyll appreciate that geicos been saving people money for over 75 years. Oh. Dear, ive dropped my tea into the boston harbor. Huhh. I guess this partys over. Geico. Fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. A tiny breakfast helps us weigh less . Eat all this with new special k multigrain cereal. Data shows women who eat breakfast tend to weigh less than those who dont. A new perspective. What will you gain when you lose . [ male announcer ] lauras heart attack didnt come with a warning. Today her doctor has her on a bayer aspirin regimen to help reduce the risk of another one. If youve had a heart attack, be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. We announced at the top of the show that kim and kanye were going to perhaps be getting married at versailles in paris. Us weekly reported that. Yes. And breaking new. Breaking news. We just heard from their camp that that is absolutely not true. So stop spreading stuff like that, hoda woman. Absolutely. World famous lighting of the rockefeller Christmas Tree is tonight. If you want to be a little different this christmas we do have a few twists from the traditional tree. They make me sick. Yeah, kind of. Chris and peyton. Even their names are like perfect. You guys. Hi, kids. Look at these. Artificial tree. Look at this candy cane one. It might be my favorite. Leave it up year round, put some blue lights on it, its ready for fourth of july. Wow we like to leave our decorations up year round. Its prelit. You light a tree, after you put the lights on, take them off. This comes in platinum as well. But then my favorite mine, too, i think. The palm tree. Look at this palm tree. Right . You can get that from target or something you said . Buy it online. The great thing about this it doesnt come with a sixpack of corona, but you can easily buy it. Its like a feliz navidad. What do they cost . Put them up, theyre super easy. Between 100 and 200. The price of the tree is about 100 and you pay that every year. Sometimes when you get artificial trees, you open the box and all the things fall out and you have to spend forever hodie doesnt like it. These were pretty easy to assemble. Three stocks, right into the end of the basket. Fluff it. Exactly. These are like smurfs. You like these . This comes as a set. Want them in all the colors. Fun for a holiday party. Put it on your dining room table. This one is very dr. Suess. Good for a kids room. Let them decorate it and have fun with these trees. And lastly . Competition time, ladies. We dont have a lot of time. We have plenty of time. Start decorating it. More of a traditional tree, snow on there, prelit. I dont like all the other theres ribbons in here. Theres ribbons. Got the snow. All gold . I dont know. What do you think . Put it on top. Why not . Are you in charge of decorating the tree tonight . She will be lit tonight, i promise you. Hey, hey. All right. Look at hoda, youre winning. Look at that. Thats beautiful. Hey, hey, youre on my team. I think hoda is going to win. If you win, im going to give you the palm tree trees. Oh eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two thats it. You have to stop tying. Now lets look. Im going to do an entire gold theme. Im sorry but thats classy and gorgeous. What do you mean . Look at mine. Theres yours. Which tree would you rather have . Okay . The winner gets to take home the palm tree. Kath, youre the winner. Thank you, hodie. Merry christmas and happy holidays. Your tree may not be the only thing getting lit this christmas. I love these people theyre here, leslie and ray are here. We love them. Yes. With wines that do good actually. Have a great time and do some good in the world. Here is another gold ball. Thank you. Thank you, hodie. Youre welcome. [ male announcer ] this is mike. Mikes being healthy and chewing like a man. With oneaday vitacraves for men its a gummy multivitamin. With more b vitamins, which help convert food to energy, and help mike do manly things, like wrestle bears and take out the garbage. Get 2 off at oneaday. Com. Prove it. Enough is enough. Dcon baits are specially formulated to kill in one feeding. Guaranteed. Dcon. Get out. It is the season of giving. One way to do that is buy a nice bottle of wine for yourself or as a gift for a good cause. Here with some options, food and wine magazine and leslies bracco, author of wine for women. Besides sonny and cher, you might be my favorite duo. So cute. Did you bring your girls today . I did bring the girls. The only thing people noticed about your wine segment last time were those girls. We did nickname them thanks and giving. Ive got nothing here. Yours would be noel. Speaking of breasts wines that actually do give back to charity when you buy the bottle. The first two we sort of broke it up by ideas. Gift to women causes, hand craft inspiration white, nice light blend of riesling and pinot grigio. I like the color. 200,000 to Breast Cancer research over the last two years. Almost like a light dessert wine. I dont like riesling usually. Thats nice. Its crisp and lovely. Moving on. And, again, speaking of breasts, wine sisterhood courageous cabernet, also give to Breast Cancer research. Over the course of a given year they give at least 50,000 to tough enough to wear pink. 10. 10 . And its great. Keep art in school, all the thing that is help a sister out. Where do you find these wines, you guys . Target. Really . Widely distributed throughout the country. One more screw top and theyre discovering that is better for your wine. Thats right. It keeps it fresher. Corks occasionally mess with the wine a little bit. Screw tops are perfect. Dont be a snob about that. Go like this and pretend its a cork. Move to social causes, this is rodney strongs cabernet. I actually met rodney strong. Of course you have. In nantucket. He was a dancer. Thats right. This is a classic california cabernet, 15, 16. Great to give as a gift. I like that. Isnt that lovely . Theyve given 200,000 to the united way to go to food banks. And theyre doing a program here in new york city with the food bank. I love that. And murphy good, Operation Home front red, this is a big rich blend of zinfandel, which gives 50 cents of every bottle to Operation Home front which helps military families and veterans in need. Very much in need right now. This is widely distributed, 15 bucks a bottle. Josh sellers is another brand thats also giving money to Operation Home front. Its a steel. It was jim steel i met, not rodney strong. Thank you for reminding me. Are we supposed to be eating these in between . I think so. You may have one of those tasty crackers in between. And come over here so the camera can get it. Keeping things really healthy now with environmental causes. Steelhead pinot noir. Theyre part of 1 to the planet. 1 of all their sales goes to environment causes. Thats a lot of money. Sparkling wines, iron horse, ocean reserve. They partnered with National Geographic and so 4 from every bottle goes to keeping our oceans healthy. And, ladies, these are for you. Save a wino. Right here. Theyre available at whole foods, right . 1 goes to protect animals. This has been my favorite segment in a long time. For two good reasons. You add in ray, three. Wine, four and my good friend, hodie. Thanks, everybody. Well be back with a special guest and more of today on nbc. Our toy drive has sent millions of children all over the United States gifts for a lot of great reasons. It may be the only gift they receive this holiday season. Kimberly canary is with kay jewelers, who has been donating to tour toy drive for 14 years. And keshawn is a patient at Childrens Hospital here with his mom. Hi, everybody. Thank you for your 14 years from kay jewelers. Absolutely. Its our honor. Like you, we are passionate about helping children. We are donating 2,000 of these teddy bears. Theyre available at kay jewellers nationwide. Why did you choose st. Jude . Its such an amazing organization. Weve partnered with them for 15 years going on our 15th year. In the first 14 years weve raised over 35 million. We just love that they help patients like keshawn and all the incredible things they do for their family. How are you doing . Good. How are you feeling . Good. Mom, how is he doing . Really well. Hes back to his normal self. And st. Jude just must have meant the world to you guys. Tell us about that. Yes, maam. St. Jude we are just so honored to be part of the st. Jude family and everything they stand for is a blessing. It really is. They took good care of you, didnt they, keshawn . Yes. God bless you. Have a happy holiday. Our toy drive goes through december 20th. You can donate at the plaza, the nbc experience store or go to klgandhoda. Com. Click the connect button. Tomorrow, everybody has a story. Do you know what tomorrow is . Its thirst day thursday. Tonight the rockefeller Tree Lighting im here to help. You and i will get through this together