The day after Christmas marks the time for one of my favorite traditions: Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) announcing that it's been the best Christmas ever.

In a press release, the company announced that "the 2008 holiday season finished as its best ever, with over 6.3 million items ordered worldwide on the peak day, Dec. 15, which is a record-breaking 72.9 items per second." The press release was full of useful nuggets like this one: "Amazon sold enough Coldplay CDs that laid side by side they'd stretch from Seattle to Violet Hill (a street in London and the album's first single) and more than halfway back."

Of course, we can all expect public companies to put their best foot forward, but here's the truth: Amazon is a growth company that's invested aggressively in its infrastructure and it should be reporting record holiday sales each year -- which it does -- and then puts out a self-congratulatory press release each year that various news outlets pick up on and report like it's actually news. In case you're playing along at home, here are the company's "best holiday sales ever!!!" press releases going back to 2000:

I could swear securities lawyers have invented a sophisticated computer program capable of seeking out public companies to target with class-action lawsuits. A company reports a bad quarter, the stock tanks, and then for the next few weeks, press releases seem to come out daily announcing a class-action lawsuit "commenced ... on behalf of purchasers of ... stock issued pursuant or traceable to the false and misleading Registration Statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the Company's ... initial public stock offering."

The press release will then mention some important dates and vague accusations of securities fraud.

Heelys Inc. (NASDAQ: HLYS) the maker of the annoying skate shoes that so many young kids are wearing is the latest target of these lawsuits. Take a look:

• Brower Piven announces...
• Lerach Coughlin announces...
• Schatz Nobel Izard announces...
• Howard G. Smith announces... This prestigious firm even gives you an e-mail address if you have any questions: howardsmithlaw@hotmail.com (emphasis added).

These firms put out the press releases in an effort to find plaintiffs, and then hope to get the cases to discovery so they can fish for signs of wrongdoing.