I earn a lot of points by shopping via internet and clicking through Marriott's portal to various internet retailers. Whenever it's feasible (e.g., if I can find a reasonably priced internet retailer that gives points and that has either free shipping or reasonably priced shipping), I shop online. (And then I spend my weekends "unshopping" - packing stuff up to mail back or returning it to stores in my area.) In addition to clothes, books, etc, I also do most of my drugstore shopping at drugstore.com, which offers 6 points per $ spent, and most of my wine shopping at wine.com (3 points per $ spent).

This is a particularly good option at Christmas, since it means you don't have to go into crowded stores to get your shopping done, and sometimes you'll be ordering something for shipping to a recipient's address.

I probably earn about 2500 points per month most months and about double that in November and December.