Category Archives: Christmas

UK shoppers spent £13.7bn on groceries in run-up to Christmas

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Consumers buy more items – including plenty of parsnips and sprouts – to beat last year’s spend by 7%

UK shoppers spent £13.7bn on groceries in the run-up to Christmas – 7% more than a year before – as they sought out bargains and switched to discounters to try to offset price inflation.

The number of items bought rose by 2% in December as prices climbed by 6.7%, according to analysts at Kantar, although that was down from 9.6% in November – making it the biggest monthly drop in inflation the data firm has ever recorded.

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Florida teen allegedly shoots and kills sister over Christmas gift spat

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The 14-year-old was then allegedly shot and wounded by his 15-year-old brother in retaliation; both are now in custody

A Florida woman holding her 11-month-old son in a baby carrier was fatally shot by her 14-year-old brother while trying to defuse an argument over Christmas gifts he was having with a 15-year-old brother who also was armed, authorities said.

The 15-year-old brother then shot his 14-year-old brother, though not fatally, for killing their sister on Sunday in Largo, Florida, which is located in the Tampa metro area, the Pinellas county sheriff’s office said in a news release.

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Boxing Day footfall rises but number of shoppers is well down on pre-Covid levels

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Weaker Christmas spending amid cost of living crisis and fewer shops opening cut visitor numbers by 30% on 2019

Retailers have recorded a small pickup in Boxing Day footfall, but visits to stores remained well below pre-pandemic levels as several high street chains stayed shut.

Retailers have been braced for weak spending over the Christmas period as the UK economy stagnates amid the cost of living crisis.

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King Charles praises ‘selfless’ people who form ‘backbone of society’ in Christmas speech

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Monarch says in his second Christmas Day message that his coronation was ‘a call to us all to serve and care’

King Charles has praised the work of volunteers, calling them a “selfless army of people” who form an “essential backbone of our society”.

In his second Christmas speech, the king said he was delighted that hundreds of volunteers and their representatives attended his coronation in May, saying their presence “emphasised the meaning of coronation itself, above all, a call to us all to serve one another, to love and care for all”.

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Carols by Candlelight: Melbourne woman arrested after pro-Palestine supporters storm stage

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Two other protesters were denied entry at the gates to the concert at Sidney Myer Musical Bowl

Thousands of people joined in to sing along at Carols by Candlelight in Melbourne on Sunday, with the festivities momentarily interrupted by two Pro-Palestine protesters who stormed the stage as children were performing.

The protesters were tackled and quickly removed, with host David Campbell appealing for calm and assuring people the children were safe.

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Five killed in Russian attacks on Kherson as Ukraine marks Christmas on 25 December for first time

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Birth of Christ was formerly celebrated on 7 January, but has moved in symbolic shift away from Russia

Russian shelling in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region has killed five people, including an 87-year-old man and his 81-year-old wife who died after a strike on their apartment building.

The barrage on Sunday injured nine other people, including a 15-year-old, sparked fires in homes and at a private medical facility, and set a local gas pipeline alight, the head of the regional military administration, Oleksandr Prokudin, said.

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UK sees warmest Christmas Eve in more than 20 years after temperatures hit 15C

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Warmest 24 December recorded in Britain since 1997, with forecast for 13C in south of England on Christmas Day

The UK has experienced its warmest Christmas Eve in more than 20 years.

Temperatures in Heathrow, south-west London, hit 15.3C on Sunday, well above average for the time of year, making it the warmest 24 December since 1997.

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The real Santa’s face: ID software sorts Father Christmas from his stand-ins

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The man in red’s distinct visage emerges by algorithm, proving not any old bearded man looks like him

Santa impersonators watch out. Scientists have created a Santa-detection machine and used it to prove what children have been telling adults for generations – that Santa has a unique face which clearly distinguishes him from other elderly bearded men.

Previous research has suggested that children as young as three can identify Santa Claus based on his distinctive appearance.

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Keep UK trains running at Christmas and save engineering works for January, say campaigners

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‘It doesn’t have to be this way’: Britain’s transport networks again grind to a halt during festive period

There was a familiar sense of misery for many travellers in the week before Christmas as hundreds of trains were cancelled, motorways were closed and ferry passengers queued for miles waiting to board their ships.

But it doesn’t have to be this way, transport campaigners say, as politicians and transport bosses have the power to ease some of the problems facing travellers.

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Wham!’s Last Christmas finally reaches Christmas No 1, 39 years after release

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‘Mission accomplished!’ says Andrew Ridgeley, while Cher becomes oldest woman to score a UK Top 40 hit

Wham! have finally earned a Christmas No 1 for Last Christmas, 39 years after the song was denied the festive top spot by Band Aid’s Do They Know It’s Christmas?.

With the song’s pain and poignancy still undimmed thanks to the tangibly heartbroken performance of the late George Michael, it was streamed 13.3m times this week, and was helped along by special vinyl and CD editions.

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Psychologists pinpoint average age children become Santa sceptics

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Research found little ones typically begin to distinguish fantasy from reality during preschool years

• ‘I cried for hours’: the moments people realised truth about Father Christmas

From empty glasses of sherry on the mantelpiece to sooty footprints leading to the bedroom door, evidence of Santa’s existence is clearly irrefutable. Yet most children will begin to question it at some point – and many parents anticipate this moment with dread. Now psychologists have identified the average age when Santa scepticism creeps in, and which children are at greatest risk of harbouring negative feelings when it does.

While most adults have fallen for the myth that Santa doesn’t exist, many children still believe – even if the idea of a single individual visiting the homes of billions of children in a single night is at odds with their wider reasoning skills.

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Chances of white Christmas in UK grow smaller as climate crisis takes toll

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Parts of UK have more recently gone decades without Christmas snow, and in the past it was more hardship than dream

Bing Crosby may have been dreaming of a white Christmas, but it seems such nostalgia might end up becoming a thing of the past in the UK. Not only do records reveal that some parts of the UK have at times gone decades without a yuletide flurry, but experts say the chances of a white Christmas are becoming ever smaller as a result of the climate crisis.

According to the Met Office, a Christmas in the UK is white if even one snowflake is observed falling somewhere in the 24 hours of 25 December. Last year was, technically, a white Christmas in the UK, though none of the Met Office observation stations reported snow lying on the ground.

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Baker’s cake of cottage in Christmas film The Holiday is TikTok sensation

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Essex-based Bridie West’s edible creation based on setting in Cameron Diaz romcom got more than 1.2m views

An Essex cake baker has gone viral after making a cake version of a cottage that had a starring role in the Christmas movie The Holiday.

The clip of Bridie West meticulously piping butter cream over a cottage-shaped cake has garnered more than 1.2m views on TikTok and almost 50,000 on Instagram.

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Wishes come true for trans youth thanks to Transanta donors’ goodwill

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A project from an anti-discrimination creative arts organization pairs LGBTQ+ youth in need of help with donors willing to give it

At first glance, they could be letters to Santa Claus from any excited young child, hoping they have been good enough to earn a special gift. Meek is looking forward to hearing sleigh bells: “I think I have tried my best this year. I try to be positive,” they wrote. Alex, meanwhile, would love a bicycle and gift cards to bring some cheer to the end of an “extremely hard year”.

Look a little deeper, and all is not as it seems. The letters are genuine, but their authors are young people who are transgender or non-binary, writing not to the North Pole but to an alternative seasonal benefactor named Transanta, whose workshop exists in cyberspace.

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Darlene Love says U2’s cover of her Christmas classic is best around

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US singer of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), recorded in 1963, says she rates U2’s 1987 version as finest of many covers

Darlene Love’s classic tune Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) has spurred numerous covers over the years, but to the singer herself, only one stands above the rest, she recently revealed.

Speaking on the podcast Behind the Table, Love, 82, said U2’s rendition of her hit Christmas song is the best cover.

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Fortnum & Mason online customers hampered by service ‘glitches’

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Online shoppers at the upmarket London grocer complain about being billed twice and being on hold for nearly 90 minutes

Customers of the luxury grocer Fortnum & Mason have been complaining about difficulties placing orders and getting a response from customer services during a busy Christmas period for the retailer.

Some shoppers at the store, which holds a royal warrant and is famed for its Christmas hampers, have taken to social media and review websites to complain about being charged multiple times after repeating transactions thinking they had not gone through.

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UK Christmas shoppers will pay more for less this year, say economists

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Cost of festive season is up almost a quarter in three years, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research

Consumers will pay more for less this Christmas, economists have warned, getting less of a bang for their buck than the faint phutting of a puny, overpriced cracker being pulled.

Although Britons will spend more than in the belt-tightening 2022 festive season, the resultant fare won’t yet match the pre-pandemic Christmases past.

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Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree hits US No 1 – 65 years after release

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At 78, Lee becomes oldest person to top US singles chart, beating record held by Louis Armstrong since 1964

Brenda Lee has smashed a series of US chart records as her perennial festive favourite Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, first released in 1958, has finally reached No 1 on the Hot 100.

Written by Johnny Marks, the man behind Christmas favourites such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Have a Holly Jolly Christmas, the song was recorded when Lee was 13. Initially a flop, it rose to the US Top 20 in 1960 after Lee’s pop career had taken off and earned her back-to-back No 1 singles earlier that year.

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University Challenge special axed over lack of support for disabled contestants

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Christmas alumni episode had one blind entrant and another who was neurodivergent, both of whom say they did not get help

The BBC has apologised and pulled a Christmas episode of University Challenge after two contestants complained about a lack of provision for their disabilities.

The festive spin-off from the BBC Two quiz show, hosted by Amol Rajan, features teams of distinguished alumni who compete on behalf of their former universities.

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One in four adults in UK to buy now, pay later for Christmas, study shows

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Citizens Advice warns such credit schemes risk delivering ‘knockout blow’ to household finances

More than a quarter of adults in the UK will use buy now, pay later to help with festive spending, research suggests, with the proportion rising to more than half of parents with young children.

The survey for Citizens Advice also found 11% of respondents used such credit schemes to pay for groceries, a proportion that rose to 35% for regular BNPL users.

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