All stories about "Christmas"

Since tomorrow is Jesus' Birthday and I've got a bottle of shochu with my name on it a lot of important meetings and stuff to take care of this afternoon, Gridskipper will be falling silent until Wednesday morning. I know it'll be difficult, but please try your best to have a merry Christmas without us.

A group of over 30 drunken hooligans in Santa outfits bumrushed a theater in Christchurch, New Zealand on Saturday. The shitfaced Santas made a 40 second dash through the building while "causing chaos, kicking over signs, and a Christmas tree." Over 200 people were evacuated from the theater as the merry mayhem spiraled out of control. Cinema spokespeople have appealed to "anyone who knows anything about who the Santas are" to contact them with information. The hilarious security camera footage is online, but sadly along with not knowing how to take a joke, New Zealanders are apparently unable to include embeddable code with their video clips, so you'll have click the link to check it out. [TVNZ]

Last week we satisfied the heathens in Los Angeles . This week New Yorkers get their fair share. Our list from last year catered to the outer boroughs, this time we're sticking with Manhattan, more specifically the streets in and around Chinatown. Why be ripped off in Midtown when you can be only moderately ripped off below Canal?

So, all your friends have deserted you to return home to family and fridges that actually have food in them, while your relatives are just too far away or just too plain horrible to spend the day with. It's Christmas Day in Sydney and you're all alone, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing. This could be where your fun begins. Rather than spending the day with people you're obliged to be nice to, meet yourself some new friends or do some exploring that you couldn't do with others in tow. Here is your guide to Christmas Day in Sydney for today's urban orphan.

Christmas in India! What could be wackier? It's true that Christians make up only a sliver of India's total population. But in some areas, such as parts of Kerala and Goa, on the southwest coast, their numbers may be as high as 20%. Additionally, cities that were once centers of power under the British Raj, including Kolkata (Calcutta), Bangalore, and Chennai, also have fair numbers of Jesus-loving types, and that means garlands, nativity scenes, and Christmas stars are easy to spot in December.

Our SF sister site Valleywag put together a piece about last minute gift wrapping around the Bay area. As a supplement, we've made a map to make those last few hours of shopping and wrapping just a little less stressful so you can get to all the feasting and boozing you so righteously deserve.

To help you gear up for the next week's festivities Slate compiled a slideshow featuring photos of Christmas day celebrations in far flung locations around the world. The indisputable highlight of Slate's gallery of global festivities is this bizarre shot of a Colonel Sanders statue dressed in full Santa regalia outside of a Tokyo Kentucky Fried Chicken. [Slate]

Listen up, heathens! If you're not spending the entirety of December 25th in church, you better at least be creating your own wintry traditions. Enter Chinese restaurants, which are infamously open all day Christmas, to the delight of non-Christians and non-traditionalist Christians alike. The LA area obviously has a ton of Chinese restaurants, so here we present a smattering of options, encompassing a range of regional cuisines and restaurant styles, all open on the 25th, and beyond, for your dining pleasure. If your favorite isn't listed, feel free to add it below or via tipline.

We understand. You've been so caught up in drinking cheap wine from plastic cups at office Christmas parties, watching cheesy Christmas TV re-runs as you nurse your cheap wine hangover and trying to plan for the year's most over-rated night out (New Years Eve) that you have completely forgotten to purchase presents for those you love (or at least are obliged to buy gifts for). That's ok. We knew you would do this, and so here is a save-your-arse list of Sydney shopping venues open late (well, late for Sydney anyway) where you can partake in the spirit of yuletide consumerism.

In a city where the cupcake-to-human ratio is currently 5 to 1, there still exists a craving for more traditional holiday treats. In response to this temporary demand for gingerbread, LA's trendiest bakeries are offering a selection of time-honored Christmas desserts magically enhanced by on-site pastry chefs, who have the ability to turn the barely edible into mouthwatering ambrosia. Even the despised fruitcake can be a welcome addition to the menu, consistent with the baker's mantra that there are no bad desserts, only bad recipes. While the distribution of upscale bakeries does tend to skew west, the quality of these products is worth the drive and most of the treats can be scrutinized ahead of time on the bakery's website.

Cheapskates and dollar converters take heart: there is plenty of low-cost shopping in the chi-chi French capital. Assembled here are some favorite addresses where you can find gifts that range from €5-15. What's more, your local Monoprix (or any grocery) is a treasure trove of goods that are inexpensive here and prized abroad. Fill your basket with tiny mustards, bars of dark chocolate and fleur de sel -- small favors that are very French and cost less than a café crème. And in the liquor aisle, bottles of pastis, Calvados, and crème de cassis make for lovely and low-priced gifts.

A Brazilian man dressed as Santa Claus came under fire Sunday as he attempted to deliver a load of presents via helicopter to one of Rio de Janeiro's notorious favela slums. Local drug dealers mistook Santa and his entourage for undercover police officers, and their gunshots forced the pilot to make an emergency landing. Instead of turning back, the Santa impersonator continued the trip by car and simply commented that he was sad the children couldn't see him arrive from the chopper. [Guardian]

As hard as it is to believe this time of year, Christians are actually a minority of the world's population. Despite the cloying carols, coniferous carnage, and energy-wasting twinkling, the silent majority expects the 25th of December to be just another Tuesday. But for those of us stranded in the lands of the observant, it can be difficult to enjoy our legally enforced leisure time due to the odd holiday hours of traditional entertainment establishments. Thus that time honored way of spending X-mas for those Zarathustrians, Wiccans, Jews, Muslims, Scientologists, Satanists, and Secularists among us -- Chinese and a movie!

Dyker Heights, a little pocket of Brooklyn out by Bay Ridge, is known for one thing and one thing only: batshit crazy Christmas light displays. For years Brooklynites have made the pilgrimage here to see what happens when not just one house, but an entire neighborhood, takes Christmas lighting to the unnerving extreme. The clips is from this year's display, but check out the NYPost's video about actual tours that go to the place.

For a shop-a-phobic like myself, the runup to Christmas consists of weeks of denial followed by a day or two of nerve-shattering anxiety decked out in festive seasonal dress. Preferring a mad dash through the gift list at the last possible moment, I arrive back at the compound exhausted and bankrupt, laden with the usual baubles, bangles, books, and brickbats. Fortunately for Berlin's neglectful shoppers, Mitte is wall to wall with oh-so-precious boutiques and cleverer-than-thou trendshops, so a last minute gift for that elfish cutie needn't just be a six-pack and Twinkie. If you're still on the hunt for something special for that special someone, hop in the sleigh and fly on by.

What happens when the warm, wholesome American holiday pie is left in the hands of a city like San Francisco? I'm hardly calling San Francisco Jason Biggs, but things get sticky. A few events, like the Chanukah versus Christmas Battle Royale of Beer, have already passed, but there are some other very worthy and weird holiday options remaining -- boom-box herding, drag queen fests, and a Jewish Christmas celebration in a Chinese restaurant, to name a few.

Christmastime is approaching, and if you're a New Yorker, there's no way you've made it up to Macy's and maxed out your credit card just yet. Most likely, you'll go about your business from Thanksgiving though December 23, seeing movies, going out to dinner, and having drinks, without so much as a reindeer sweater or nativity chart in your mind's eye. But by December 23, many a New Yorker can be seen sweating the lines at Crate and Barrel, apprehensive as to whether or not they can stuff a suitcase with gifts in enough time to make their flight at LaGuardia (or their local dinner reservations, at least). To shop like a true New Yorker during this holiday season, here are ten Soho spots (all in a few blocks radius) where you can grab a gift at $50 for almost everyone who requires the goods.

In contrast to lame holiday gift guides, SF Weekly offers the more exciting and salacious 12 Dildos of Christmas, complete with slideshow and a map. Perfect for that sexually ambitious female (or shemale) on your gift list. [SFW]

From December 24-January 5 -- i.e. Christmas Eve to Twelfth Night -- married couples named Joseph and Mary may stay for a free night at any Travelodge hotel in the UK, Ireland, and Spain. "The 'gift' of a free night's stay is to make up for the hotel industry not having any rooms left on Christmas Eve over 2000 years ago." Transportive divine ecstasy for Mary and a holy cuckolding for Joseph are not part of the deal. [via]

What, you want more? You're still hungry for lebkuchen and hot, spiced wine? If you've mastered the Weihnachtsmarkt basics of gingerbread, "ethnic" jewelry stalls, felt hats, and carousels, you may want to sample some holiday fairs that are either off the beaten track or taking another track altogether. How about a Hanukkahmarkt (radical!), or one-offs with DJs and designer goods or world music by live performers? Or a bunch of actors promising to give you the entire Berlin winter experience in under 20 minutes? All things Weihnachten, wicked, cool, and -- well, challenging ahead.

It's the holiday season! Say hello (with enthusiasm now!) to family movies, presents with Nana, shitty sweaters, and the ache of disappointment. This year, ditch the mental Pilates needed to answer Uncle Bud's question about what you've been up to. Sure, in reality, you've been out trying to stuff every set of stockings at your holiday office parties. But you need a ready-made set of plausible excuses, so here's a list of postcard-perfect San Francisco activities, all as sweet as sugar plums.

Lumps of congealed, brandy-soaked dried fruit do not a dessert make. Enter the Bûche de Noël, gastronomic savior à la française. Traditionally a log-shaped dessert made from chocolate-frosted Génoise cake filled with chocolate buttercream, the modern bûche now encompasses everything from expensive designer offerings with rich mousse fillings and coated in a luxurious ganache, to ice-cream cake variations, or elegant, single-serving mini-bûches. Though available to order from just about every neighborhood pâtisserie, it's worth looking to the following addresses for a truly impressive finish to your Christmas meal.