Christmasis a Christian holiday that observes the birth of Jesus. But did you know that the earliest followers of Jesus did not annually commemorate his birth? Or that Santa Claus is inspired by the acts of kindness of a fourth-century Christian saint? And have you heard about the modern-day Japanese tradition of eating Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas?
Since the early 20th century, Christmas has evolved from a religious holiday to a hugely popular cultural holiday observed by Christian and secular people across the globe who gather with families, exchange gifts and cards and decorateChristmas trees.
Here’s a look at the history, beliefs and the evolution of Christmas:
Origins and early history of Christmas
A Nativity scene is illuminated by a Christmas tree on Payrow Plaza in Bethlehem, Pa., known as "Christmas City, USA," in Dec. 2024.
Early followers of Jesus did not annually commemorate his birth but instead focused on commemorating their belief in his resurrection at Easter.
The story of the birth of Jesus appears only in two of the four Gospels of the New Testament: Matthew and Luke. They provide different details, though both say Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
The exact day, month and even year of Jesus’s birth are unknown, said Christine Shepardson, a professor at the University of Tennessee who studies early Christianity.
The tradition of celebrating Jesus’ birth on Dec. 25, she said, only emerged in the fourth century.
“It’s hard to overemphasize how important the fourth century is for constructing Christianity as we experience it in our world today,” Shepardson said. It was then, underEmperor Constantine, that Christians began the practice of gathering at churches instead of meeting at homes.
Some theories say the date coincides with existing pagan winter solstice festivals, including the Roman celebration of Sol Invictus, or the “Unconquered Sun,” on Dec 25.
While most Christians celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25, some Eastern Orthodox traditionscelebrate the holy day on Jan. 7. That’s because they follow the ancient Julian calendar, which runs 13 days behind the Gregorian calendar, used by Catholic and Protestant churches as well as by much of the secular world.
Rowdy medieval celebrations
Decked in a Santa outfit and holiday lights, a child bolts from the starting line of the annual Christmas run in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Dec. 6.
For centuries, especially during the Middle Ages, Christmas was associated with rowdy street celebrations of feasting and drinking, and for many Christians, it “was not in good standing as a holiday,” saidThomas Ruys Smith, a professor of American literature and culture at the University of East Anglia in England.
“Puritans,” he said, “were not fond of Christmas.”
But in the 19th century, he said, Christmas became “respectable” with “the domestic celebration that we understand today — one centered around the home, the family, children, gift-giving.”
The roots of modern-day Christmas can be traced back to Germany. In the late 19th century, there are accounts of Christmas trees and gift-giving that, according to Smith, later spread to Britain and America, helping to revitalize Christmas on both sides of the Atlantic.
Christmas became further popularized with the publication of“A Christmas Carol”by Charles Dickens in 1843, and the writings ofWashington Irving,who was a fan of St. Nicholas and helped popularize the celebration of Christmas in America.
The firstRockefeller Center Christmas treewas put up by workers in 1931 to raise spirits during the Great Depression. The tradition stuck as the first tree-lighting ceremony was held in 1933 and remains one of New York City’s most popular holiday attractions.
America’s secular Santa is inspired by a Christian saint
St. Nicholaswas a fourth-century Christian bishop from the Mediterranean port city of Myra (in modern-day Turkey). His acts of generosity inspired the secular Santa Claus legend.
The legends surrounding jolly old St. Nicholas — celebrated annually on Dec. 6 — go way beyond delivering candy and toys to children. He is believed to have interceded on behalf of wrongly condemned prisoners and miraculously saved sailors from storms.
Devotion to St. Nicholas spread during the Middle Ages across Europe and he became a favorite subject for medieval artists and liturgical plays. He is the patron saint of sailors and children, as well as of Greece, Russia and New York.
Devotion to St. Nicholas seems to have faded after the 16th century Protestant Reformation, except in the Netherlands, where his legend remained as Sinterklaas. In the 17th century, Dutch Protestants who settled in New York brought the Sinterklaas tradition with them.
Eventually, St. Nicholas morphed into the secular Santa Claus.
It’s not just Santa who delivers the gifts
The 90th annual Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lighting ceremony in New York in Nov. 2022.
In the U.K., it’s Father Christmas; in Greece and Cyprus, St. Basil (who arrives on New Year’s Eve). In some parts of Italy, it’s St. Lucy (earlier in December) and in other Italian regions, Befana, a witch-like figure, who brings presents on theEpiphanyon Jan. 6.
Instead of a friendly Santa Claus, children in Iceland enjoy favors from13 mischievous troll brothers, called the Yule Lads. They come down from their mountain cave 13 days before Christmas, according to folklore.
Christian traditions of Christmas
A woman walks across a bridge decorated prior to Christmas and New Year festivities in St. Petersburg, Russia on Dec. 11.
One of the oldest traditions around Christmas is bringing greenery — holly, ivy or evergreen trees — into homes. But determining whether it’s a Christian tradition is harder. “For many people, the evergreen can symbolize Christ’s promise of eternal life and his return from death,” Smith said. “So, you can interpret that evergreen tradition within the Christian concept.”
The decorating of evergreen trees is a German custom that began in the 16th century, said Maria Kennedy, a professor at Rutgers University—New Brunswick’sDepartment of American Studies. It was later popularized in England and America.
“Mistletoe, an evergreen shrub, was used in celebrations dating back to the ancient Druids — Celtic religious leaders — some 2,000 years ago,” Kennedy writes inThe Surprising History of Christmas Traditions.
“Mistletoe represented immortality because it continued to grow in the darkest time of the year and bore white berries when everything else had died.”
Other traditions include Christmas services andNativity scenes at homes and churches. More recently, Nativity scenes — when erected on public property in the U.S. — havetriggered legal battlesover the question of the separation of church and state.
Christmas caroling, Kennedy writes, can also be traced back to European traditions, where people would go from home to home during the darkest time of the year to renew relationships within their communities and give wishes for good luck, health and wealth for the forthcoming year.
“They would recite poetry, sing and sometimes perform a skit. The idea was that these acts would bring about good fortune to influence a future harvest,” Kennedy writes.
Kentucky Fried Chicken for Christmas in Japan
People visit the Christmas Market at Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse on Dec. 12 in Yokohama near Tokyo.
Among the many Christmas traditions that have been adopted and localized globally, there’s one that involves KFC.
In 1974, KFC launched a Christmas campaign where they began to sell fried chicken with a bottle of wine so it could be used for a Christmas party.
KFC saysthe idea for the campaign came from an employee who overheard a foreign customer at one of its Tokyo restaurants saying that since he couldn’t get turkey in Japan, he’d have to celebrate Christmas with Kentucky Fried Chicken.
“That really stuck,” Smith said. “And still today, you have to order your KFC months in advance to make sure that you’re going to get it at Christmas Day.”
Cambridge Police report officers responding to calls about a fight on Howard Street near River Street found two people shot around 3:20 a.m.
Preliminary investigation shows that the altercation took place at a gathering inside of a residence, this is an isolated incident and there is no broader threat to public safety.
One of the victims was shot in the leg. Both victims were taken to local hospitals and are expected to survive, police say.
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When it came to the most viewed AMD Linux/open-source news of 2025 there were a lot of accomplishments for the company this year both on the CPU and graphics side of the house and from consumer to server hardware. Today is a look back at the most popular Intel open-source/Linux news of the year, which unfortunately, their layoffs and other cuts to their software engineering were attracting a lot of interest...
Google's Propeller is a profile-guided, reflinking optimizer for large codebases. Propeller is built atop LLVM and can allow for whole-program optimizations. Google compiler engineers are now hoping to bring the Propeller tool into the upstream LLVM codebase...
The mainline Linux kernel already supports several different Mobileye SoCs for that company focused on self-driving tech and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS). Consulting firm Bootlin has been working on bringing their latest SoC, the Mobileye Eyeq6Lplus, to the mainline Linux kernel...
The past several years we have seen new releases of the Ruby programming language implementation for Christmas (25 December). This year is no different with Ruby 4.0 having been released this morning...
The thing about the Winter Solstice is that if you're in the northern hemisphere, it doesn't much matter what you believe because a solstice just is, no matter how you were raised, and that means that in December the days are short, the nights are long, and the weather is chilly no matter how you were raised. Why wouldn't you want to see pretty lights and spend time with friends, possibly drinking eggnog or mulled wine? It's kind of nice that from a week or so before Thanksgiving until right up to Twelfthnight, you have an excuse to wish people happy holidays and even smile at strangers. (I've always thought the southern hemisphere should make their own holidays to go with their winter solistice, too.) It's fun. It's friendly. And Bill O'Reilly was always a meanie for trying to spoil it. I've always maintained that he, and people like him, were the ones who were making war on Christmas, so f'm. I wish you warmth and light and fellowship.
In case the holidays leave you short of things to read, a few reminders:
When I want the details, The American Prospect is good at clarifying things. If it's important, it will surely be there somewhere.
Or Radley Balko at The Watch, especially on the subject of off-the-leash policing. (Link fixed.)
The folks at Drop Site News have been doing some amazing coverage of big stories, especially that huge one it's so dangerous to talk about.
When I just want the headlines and a basic story without too much deep-diving, I find Common Dreams a comfortable read, reasonably sane, sort of like I used to think The Washington Post was before I realized it wasn't at all like that. (And that was well before Bezos bought it.)
I was watching an old Tom Baker episode of Doctor Who and noticed the planet they landed on was called "Atrios". Fancy that.
There’s never been a president—or a presidential family—so hyped to slap their name on products. It’s just our luck that besides being the most monstrous president of our lifetime, President Donald Trump is also the tackiest, so all of this stuff is hot, wet garbage.
There is also so, so much of it at so, so many different places, that we’re going to have to break this down by store.
Prepare to feel very un-merry.
Official Trump Store
The official Trump store is supposed to be for the nonpresidential things in Trump’s “brand,” but you will be unsurprised to learn that there is still a ton of Dear Leader merch. Also, in case you were wondering, the tagline for the site is: “Infuse the elegance of Trump in your next event,” which actually makes it sound like Trump, the person, could somehow be distilled and pumped into your holiday party—a genuinely horrifying thought.
Or perhaps imagine walking into your family holiday and seeing your little cousin snuggled under this? Such a bargain at $200!
Imagine snuggling up under this blanket.
Or maybe a little something for the ladies? A lovely little handbag, clocking in at $550 a pop: It’s theBling Clutch, studded with Swarovski crystals.
This clutch probably isn’t big enough to stuff cash bribes in.
Have you been thinking, “Hey, I wonder what it would look like if my sleep paralysis demon assumed physical form?” If so, we bring you the $65DJT Driver Cover, which goes on your golf clubs, apparently? Keep your bag out in the garage so this thing can’t attack you in your sleep.
You can’t make this stuff up.
The Trumps have no qualms about cross-promotion, which is why you can get anUnder Siege Hat, so you can sport the title of Eric Trump’s latest book on your cranium for a mere $50. One small problem: People will definitely start edging away from anyone wearing a hat like this at the holiday party.
The poor, aggrieved Trump family is always under siege, apparently.
Trump Winery
Eric Trump must be in charge of the family’s terrible wines these days, because there really isn’t any other reason that his “Under Siege” book is available over in the merchandise section there. Nothing says “fine wines” like a book from one of Trump’s large adult sons whining about how hard he has it.
But perhaps if you want something actually wine-related, you’d pick up thisPresidential Reserve + 2 Complimentary Flutes for $245.47. A small price to pay for whatever fake-ass seal got slapped on these glasses, right?
The price for this is $245.47. Get it? 45 and 47? Sigh.
If that’s too rich for your blood, you can drop $30 on aT-shirt emblazoned with a U.S. flag made out of wine bottles. Honestly, this is pretty low-key for the Trump family.
A restrained offering from the Trump family.
God Bless The USA Bible
Get excited about the “buy more, save more” deal on Trump Bibles that is happening right now! There are … nine different versions? You probably want to spring for the$99.99 version that commemorates both of Trump’s presidential terms, because that is definitely a thing that is appropriate for the family Bible.
Much biblical. Very gold.
Trump Guitars
Is Donald Trump known for his love of guitars somehow? Who, exactly, is the market for these? Sure, you might want to keep it relatively normal and get aplain old black guitarwhile still lining the pockets of the president, but why would you do that when you could get theAmerican Eagle Electric Guitar? The version autographed by Trump will set you back a mere $11,500 and immediately become the ugliest thing in your house.
Do you hear that screeching sound of freedom?
Trump Sneakers
The Trump Sneakerssite sells sneakers and slides, but it is also, inexplicably, where you can buy Trump fragrances. The showstopper here, sure to please the sneakerhead in your life, is theTrump 2028 Gold High Tops, which will run you $799, unless you want a pair for yourself as well, in which case you can get two pairs for $999. Bargain!
A grim confirmation that the Trumps plan to keep the grift going into 2028.
If you want something a little softer for the lady in your life and the lady in your life happens to love sneakers that look vaguely orthopedic, first lady Melania’s got herown sneaksas well, for a mere $299.
Proof that Melania Trump really is the most fashionable first lady in history.
Melania Trump
Melania’ssite is doing heavy promotion for her movie and book, as if she’s some sort of auteur, but it isn’t like she was going to skip out on selling some tacky shit just like the rest of the fam. $600 gets you thisVote Freedom pendant that looks like something you’d get out of a gum machine at a fourth-rate patriotic theme park. It’ll look great with the sneakers.
For anyone who’s always wanted the look of currency around their neck.
Don Jr.
Oh no. Someone forgot to tell Don Jr. that his daddy loves Big Tech now, so he’s still awkwardly hawking this$29.99 tee-shirtover on his honestly kinda sadwebsite where he’s still also trying to hawk his book about “turning the tables” on Joe Biden. Buddy, your dad is president. You’re incredibly rich. You and your ilk run everything and own everything. Let it go. Oh, but also you might want to get rid of this shirt before dad sees it.
Share your worst gift ideas in the comments below, and Merry Christmas to all—except the Trumps.
On Tuesday, McIver joined Democratic Reps. Rob Menendez and Yvette Clarke for another tour of Delaney Hall, the privately run Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in Newark that has become a flashpoint in the national debate over immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump.
The visit came days after ICEconfirmed that Jean Wilson Brutus, a 41-year-old man from Haiti, died one day after being detained there, believed to be the first death linked to the center,according to The New York Times.
Supporters of Rep. LaMonica Mclver hold signs outside a federal court on June 25 in Newark, New Jersey.
For McIver, the return carried real personal risk. The last time she tried to conduct oversight at Delaney Hall, it spiraled into a spectacle. During a May visit, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested before prosecutorsultimately dropped the charges. McIver was accused of “forcibly impeding and interfering” with law enforcement officers, chargesshe has denied while calling the case an act of “political intimidation” by the Trump administration.The matter is still unresolved.
This week’s return unfolded very differently. According to the Times, lawmakers spent more than three hours inside Delaney Hall and emerged describing what they said were grim conditions.
“There is not adequate food,” McIver said at a news conference afterward. “There is not adequate medical care. Women are not having access to OB-GYN or female products.”
According to Politico, McIveralso told reporters she believes she was the one assaulted during the earlier incident and reiterated her call for Delaney Hall to be shut down. She described returning to the facility as “traumatic,” but said she intends to keep showing up.
“We’re going to continue to say that this facility should not be open,” she said. “When we left out of there, a detainee told us, ‘This is not the America that we dreamed of.’”
Delaney Halloccupies a prominent place in President Donald Trump’s second-term immigration strategy. It was the first detention center opened under his new administration and is run by GEO Group, which holds a $1 billion federal contract to detain up to 1,000 people at the site.
More than 950 detaineesare currently being held there, according to Menendez, who said the facility is nearing capacity without sufficient staffing. He described what detainees told lawmakers during the visit in stark terms, including one person who referred to the center as a “slaughterhouse.”
Menendez said detainees told him they weren’t getting proper medical care and that food remained a persistent problem—complaints he noted have been coming up for months. Earlier this year, those concerns escalated afterunrest at the facility led tofour detainees escaping, raising fresh doubts about how safely the center is being run and who’s actually in charge.
The visit also comes as immigration enforcement has ramped up nationwide. NPRreported that more than 1.6 million immigrants have lost legal status in the first 11 months of Trump’s second term, including people previously authorized to remain in the country under asylum, parole, visa, and temporary protected status programs.
Datatracked by NBC News using ICE and Customs and Border Protection figures shows that nearly 60,000 migrants were in ICE detention as of Sept. 25. While Trump administration officialssay they are prioritizing arrests of people with serious criminal histories, NBC found that only 28.7% of detainees identified in custody had criminal convictions.
Lawmakers said many of the people held at Delaney Hall do not have criminal records and were arrested while attending court hearings or legal appointments related to their immigration cases. Others are in the country legally on student visas. One detainee, they said, is married to a U.S. military service member.
Federal officials dispute claims of neglect. In a statement to Politico, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said allegations that the facility is understaffed are “false,” adding that detainees receive health screenings within 12 hours of arrival, follow-up care, and access to emergency services.
“This is the best healthcare that many aliens have received in their entire lives,” McLaughlin said.
ICE has said Brutus, the immigrant from Haiti, died from “suspected natural causes” and that an investigation is ongoing. Menendez said lawmakers pressed officials for answers during Tuesday’s visit.
“It should enrage every American that we’ve allowed this administration to take advantage of a broken immigration system—and that’s what they are doing, for profit,” he said.
Incoming New Jersey Gov.Mikie Sherrill echoed Democratic criticism of the facility, saying she has “long opposed—and continue[s] to oppose—the use of Delaney Hall and similar for-profit detention centers because they do not make us safer.”
Despite the legal case still hanging over her, McIver said she plans to continue oversight visits until Delaney Hall is shuttered. In a political climate where immigration enforcement has become both a policy weapon and a profit center, she appears intent on making the facility—and the system behind it—impossible to ignore.
WBZ reports some people in Haverhill are being overwhelmed by the overpowering smell of donuts from a Dunkin' bakery. "My house smells like donuts all the time, all the time for the last two months," one resident, sick of it all, told the City Council recently.
The Trump administration will officially begin garnishing wages from people who default on their student loans, the Department of Education announced on Tuesday—a move that could impact millions of Americans.
According to a report from CNN, the Department of Education will direct employers in January to begin withholding employees' income if they have not made payments on their federal student loans for 270 days. The garnishment will begin with 1,000 borrowers in default, and will gradually increase, the Department of Education told CNN in a statement.
The DOE first announced in April that it planned to resume student loan collection, ending the pause that was started in March 2020 during the pandemic and extended by former President Joe Biden.
That means the Trump administration, ahead of the holidays, just told as many as 9 million people—who are already struggling with the high cost of living that Trump has failed to address—that their lives are about to get even harder.
This is just the latest way the Trump administration is screwing over student loan borrowers.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it is ending the Saving on a Valuable Education program, which lowered student loan payments and ultimately forgave loans of less than $12,000 after a decade. In November, Trump also modified the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program to arbitrarily decide who is no longer eligible for loan forgiveness.
Of course, Biden had worked to bring relief to the millions of student loan borrowers, but was blocked by the conservative justices on the Supreme Court from doing so.
During the 2024 election, then Vice President Kamala Harris had warned voters that student loan debt relief initiatives would be in danger if Trump was elected. But millions of young voters ignored the warning and voted for Trump anyway.
Now that he’s in office, Harris’ warnings are coming true.
It's no wonder that Trump's approval with younger voters is plummeting. An Economist/YouGov poll released Tuesday found just 26% of Americans aged 18 to 29 approve of the way Trump is handling his job. Among Americans aged 30 to 44, his approval is not much better at a dismal 36%.
Donald Trump rang in the Christmas season on Monday night by calling for his critics to be silenced.
In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump complained about comedian Stephen Colbert, longtime critic and host of CBS’ “The Late Show.”
“Stephen Colbert is a pathetic trainwreck, with no talent or anything else necessary for show business success,”Trump wrote. “Now, after being terminated by CBS, but left out to dry, he has actually gotten worse, along with his nonexistent ratings. Stephen is running on hatred and fumes ~ A dead man walking! CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW, it is the humanitarian thing to do!”
For what it’s worth, Colbert was actually the highest-rated of the big three late night talk shows, according to the most recent ratings. He had slightly more viewers than ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel (another target of Trump’s ire) and was well ahead of NBC’s Jimmy Fallon.
The Colbert episode that got under Trump’s skin wasn’t even new. It was a rebroadcast of his December 8show, in which he mocked Trump for receiving a phony peace prize from FIFA, the governing body of international soccer. Colbert made fun of Trump for “years of campaigning unsuccessfully for the Nobel Peace Prize” and noted, “Call me a boomer, but these participation trophies have gone too far.”
It’s highly likely that Trump saw the Colbert monologue because it aired on CBS after the Kennedy Center honors—which Trump hosted and proudly promoted earlier in the day. The administration recentlyslapped Trump’s name on the Kennedy Center, a movebeing challenged in court by Ohio Rep. Joyce Beatty.
Trump followed up the post with another arguing that networks with newscasts and late night shows purportedly “100% negative” in their coverage of Trump, MAGA, and the Republican Party should have their broadcast licenses terminated.
The rambling rantwas capped by a “Merry Christmas” post from Trump.
The president’s whining about CBS comes as the network is weathering days of criticism after pro-Trump editor-in-chief Bari Weissmade the decision to pull a news report on “60 Minutes” exposing abusive conditions at El Salvador’s CECOT prison. Trump has used the prison as a dumping ground for migrants his administration has deported.
CBS staffers have criticized Weiss’ actions as being a “kill switch” to hide content that the Trump administration does not like.
Earlier in the year, CBS announced it would be ending Colbert’s show—and that occurred after CBS parent Paramountpaid Trump millions to settle what legal experts said was a frivolous lawsuit. The administration then approved Paramount’s merger with Skydance—a dealunder probe by Democratic lawmakers as a possible bribe.
CBS has catered to Trump, manipulating both its entertainment and news content to please him. But his Christmastime rants show that no level of submission is ever enough, and Trump’s drive is always towards complete subservience without any dissent at all.
Enjoy these cartoons highlighting the many ways that President Donald Trump tanked the economy. And feel free to share more of your favorites in the comments.
Reading:Adventures Across Space and Time: A Doctor Who Reader - I love the idea of this book - a collection of academic writing about Doctor Who that can stand as a starting point for scholars, but I knew when I bought it that I would find it quite hard going because I'm not a humanities scholar and I find their idiom somewhat hard-going.
Listening:The Radio Free Skaro and, this year, the Starship Alexandria Advent calendars. I am, as I always am, somewhat behind. But at least this year I'm up to day 18...
Watching: We watched The War Between the Land and the Sea and it was... fine? I don't quite feel it justified its existence. The ending was unsatisfactory - our heroes got to be in love, but everything else looks like a complete garbarge fire. It was very good in places, fine in others, kind of dull sometimes and events often felt like they were happening in order to get to the next plot beat rather than because they made internal sense. If it hadn't been Doctor Who adjacent, we wouldn't have watched.
On December 11 at 2:39 p.m., the visitor arrived at Boston Logan Airport on American Airlines flight 2384 from Dallas-Fort Worth, TX. The visitor stayed at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Boston-Westborough in Westborough and departed the state on December 12 via Logan Airport at 9:19 p.m. on JetBlue flight 117 to Las Vegas, NV.
State Public Health Commissioner Robbie Goldstein said the threat to Massachusetts residents from this person is probably very low, since, we still have a high rate of vaccination. But, he added state and even federal officials are currently trying to track down people the person might have come into contact with.
He added that anybody who has not been vaccinated or had measles and who might have spent time in Logan Terminal B between 2:30 p.m. and 4:45 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 11, the DoubleTree by Hilton in Westborough between 3:30 p.m. on Dec. 11 and 9 p.m. on Dec. 12 and Logan Terminal C between 6 p.m. and 11:30 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 12 and who have begun to exhibit measles symptoms, such as what appears to be a cold, followed by a rash that starts on the head, should contact their health-care provider.
But don't just head to the doctor's office or ER: "Visiting a healthcare facility may put others at risk and should be avoided if possible."
Tis the season when professional Santas are in peak demand, but many who choose this line of work often view it as a higher calling and maintain some aspects of the identity all year round—even those who don't fit the stereotypical popular image of Santa, according to a paper published in the Academy of Management Journal.
Co-author Christina Hymer of the University of Tennessee got the idea for the study during the COVID pandemic, when she spent a lot of time watching Christmas movies with her toddler. One favorite was 2003's Elf, starring Will Farrell as a full-sized human raised among elves who goes to New York City to find his biological father. The film prompted her to wonder about why someone would want to be Santa Claus and what their experiences in that role would be.
Hymer and her co-authors partnered with the leader of a "Santa school" to analyze archival surveys of 849 professional Santas, and conducted a new survey of another 382 Santas. They also did over 50 personal interviews with professional Santas. (One subject showed up in full costume for his zoom interview, with a North Pole background, and signed off with a merry "ho! ho! ho!")
The issue with Dylan Byers isn't that he is conservative - though he is that too - it is that he has a very British (he isn't British) spidey-sense of who matters and who doesn't and always sucks up to power.
The alarm ringers offer a clear illustration of the media groupthink and, frankly, laziness, that Bari has so often railed against. In the last 72 hours, otherwise smart writers and reputable media companies have made broad, sweeping, and baseless statements about Bari and The Free Press that evince a sort of paranoid psychosis, or what The Atlantic’s Caitlin Flanagan has described as “Bari Weiss–derangement syndrome.” In one commonly held but unsubstantiated view, the Ellisons brought Bari to CBS as an olive branch to Trump. “The Ellisons understand that in an authoritarian context they must transform their media company so that it is acceptable to the [Trump] regime,” Jonathan V. Last wrote in an especially evocative piece for The Bulwark. “That’s why they are buying Bari Weiss’s Free Press and making her editor-in-chief of CBS News.”
Never mind that The Free Press, like the Murdochs’ Wall Street Journal editorial board, often criticizes Trump, his policies, and his administration. Never mind that, as I’ve noted, Bari’s free speech absolutism is likely to catalyze more dust-ups between the network and the administration. Never mind that Bari’s politics might simply be the Ellisons’ politics, too, and that a privilege of owning a news network is that you can shape its editorial posture to your liking—especially if that news network has been hemorrhaging viewers and profits and is therefore ripe for disruption. As Jon Allsop observed in The New Yorker, had Kamala Harris been elected, David might have “acquired CBS and hired Weiss anyway, to similar howls from thes.
...
In the days since her start, I’ve surveyed at least 15 CBS News sources across the organizations and, in addition to the very real uncertainty around how this is going to work and what it will mean for specific people’s jobs, the overwhelming response has been excitement, cautious optimism, and relief. “The leadership and vision is welcomed,” said one CBS News source. “We’ve had none—zero. Our past presidents were paper pushers who managed up well but knew nothing about journalism.”
15 employees willing to talk to Dylan, understanding he is the type of guy willing to rat you out to the bosses, love Bari!
As part of my various end-of-year benchmarking comparison articles for looking at the performance evolution of Linux is a fresh look at the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite laptop experience when using Ubuntu 25.10 with the latest X1E Concept packages, which includes taking the X1 Elite optimized kernel to the latest Linux 6.18 stable series. Unfortunately, there are significant performance regressions observed compared to a few months ago that just make AMD Ryzen AI and Intel Core Ultra laptops a better choice for Linux laptop users.
Boston Police report officers arrested a 15-year-old from Needham after they spotted him running towards Nubian station with the sort of gait they associate with people holding onto guns around 5:25 p.m. on Tuesday.
Police say the officers were in their cruiser on Dudley Street near Warren Street when:
They observed an individual running at a full sprint across Dudley Street and onto Warren Street in the direction of Nubian Station. While running, the individual appeared hypervigilant and was observed swinging his left arm freely while keeping his right arm pinned tightly against his jacket, with his hand holding an object inside the front pocket.
Officers changed direction to further investigate and soon observed the individual walking near the intersection of Warren Street and Ziegler Street. Officers exited their vehicle and approached him on foot. Following further investigation, officers conducted a frisk, which resulted in the recovery of a loaded firearm from his pocket.
The suspect was taken into custody without incident. District B-2 detectives safely seized and processed the firearm, which was identified as a Sig P290RS. The firearm was loaded with six rounds of 9mm ammunition, including one round in the chamber and five rounds in the magazine.
The teen, too young to have his name released, was charged with being delinquent for unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of a loaded firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition and possession of a firearm with a defaced serial number, police say.
Condo owners in the Stadia 50 building at 50 Hichborn St. in Brighton yesterday sued the building's developer, general contractor, architect and elevator company for a series of problems they say have plagued them since they moved in, including leaks, cracks from the foundation to interior walls, missing fireproofing, windows that don't work right and an elevator that often can't get to the building's top floor.
In their suit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court, the building's condo trust is seeking enough money to fix the mess they say they moved into starting in 2021,plus damages and attorneys' fees.
The complaint starts with problems with the building elevator, which often stalls out before reaching the top, fifth floor:
These problems are attributable to the unit functioning while it is low on hydraulic oil. Operating hydraulic elevators with low oil levels will cause units to vibrate and make noise as they strain to level at the top floor. It has been noted that an oil recovery pump has been installed in the elevator pit. The elevator is experiencing severe operational problems due to the loss of oil. It appears that the elevator has been deficiently installed and the cost of rectifying this issue will be significant. The elevator breaks down frequently - causing some unit owners to have to use the stairs from the lower parking garage to the fifth floor (i.e., up six levels).
Fixing the problem will mean considerable expense, the suit charges, adding there are numerous additional problems with the building: Framed walls on all but the first floor are missing mineral wool insulation or other means to stop or slow fires, many windows do not close or work correctly, foundation walls show signs of "water penetration" such as white mineral deposits, and stone masonry panels are falling off.
Also, the garage floor has cracks and garage columns are missing required fireproofing material, the suit alleges. At least two condo units have cracks in their interior walls, balcony decks were not installed correctly and the roof has holes that let water enter, when it's not just ponding. And rooftop HVAC equipment was installed on top of wood pallets.
The developer and other defendants have until April 22 to answer the complaint.
Melania Trump’s self-titled documentary is getting the celebrity-presidential treatment, it seems.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, “Melania,” a film helmed by exiled Hollywood director Brett Ratner that chronicles the first lady’s preparation to return to the White House alongside her husband, will get a red carpet premiere at Washington’s John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts—or, rather, the newly named Trump-Kennedy Center.
That’s the latest addition to an ongoing list of questionable moves surrounding the cinematic fluff piece.
When Amazon MGM Studios purchased the rights to the documentary in January 2025, critics were quick to call the deal a $40 million bribe from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who has spent the past year trying to worm his way back into President Donald Trump’s good graces.
Ratner is positioning himself for a big move off of Hollywood’s blacklist. During the height of the “Me Too” movement, the “Rush Hour” director faced multiple accusations of sexual assault from various actresses. He has denied all of the claims.
Six women came forward in 2017, including actress Olivia Munn, accusing him of doing things like masturbating in front of them or forcing oral sex.
Accused sexual predator Brett Ratner directed “Melania” and appeared in the recently released Epstein files.
The disgraced director appeared in the Jeffrey Epstein files released on Friday. Ratner is seen smiling ear to ear in an undated photo with Jean-Luc Brunel, the late French modeling agent and longtime Epstein associate.
Brunel died by suicide in a Paris jail cell in 2022 while facing charges for supplying minors to accused sex trafficker Epstein and for allegedly raping a minor.
Ratner had not publicly commented on the Epstein-linked photo as of Tuesday afternoon.
Despite Ratner’s notoriety, the president has been happy to ignore the director’s questionable past.
As for the upcoming premiere, it remains to be seen if Trump’s name will still be plastered on the Kennedy Center when the film is released on Jan. 30, 2026.
After all, the administration is already facing a lawsuit from House Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty, a Kennedy Center board member who said the vote to rename the center was not unanimous and dissenters were silenced.
But, hey, a “documentary” soon to stream on Amazon Prime is one hell of a Christmas present for Ratner and the attention-loving Trump family.
Here to put a big lump of coal in the toe of your Christmas stocking, it’s President Donald Trump’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau!
Big hand for these guys, everyone. They didn’t want to let the holidays come and go without letting the regular folks know just how little they think of us. So, tucked into the Federal Register, effective Wednesday: an advisory opinion that “earned wage access” or EWA products through certain payday loan apps do not count as loans under the Truth in Lending Act.
EWAs are a fancy name for apps like Chime and DailyPay—the ones that allow you to get part of your paycheck early. To use those, you give them direct access to your payroll information and repay the loan advance through a deduction from your paycheck. Those companies don’t work for free, of course, so while this is ostensibly just a process of you shuffling your own money around, hence the “earned wage access,” you’re still paying for the privilege.
But the Trump administration dares to dream: What if you had no idea what this was costing you, or other necessary info? Because that’s what it means to say these things aren’t loans under the Truth in Lending Act. If they aren’t loans, then whatever those apps charge does not technically count as interest rates or fees, and the whole thing just gets to be a delightful little secret to you until you see the fees hit.
The National Consumer Law Center explained that DailyPay, for example, extracts as much as $300 in fees per year from employees and as much as $1,400 over two years. That is a lot of money to pay in order to access your money!
Sure, at least six federal courts have said the opposite. And sure, federal courts are the final arbiters of what statutes say, not agencies, as per the conservatives on the Supreme Court in 2024 when they eliminated the requirement that courts defer to agency interpretations, but pish posh. Everybody knows that those same conservatives are the biggest Secret Santas a Trump administration could ever wish for, so you can likely expect this won’t be seen as some catastrophic government overreach.
There is no pro-consumer reason to exempt these companies from disclosure requirements. No employee benefits by not knowing how much these things cost. The only benefit is to the payday lenders, who are now allowed to run amok.
People attend a protest in support of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Feb. 10 at the CFPB headquarters in Washington.
Oh well. Soon we won’t even have a CFPB to kick around any longer if the Trump administration has its way. The remaining agency employees have already been doing nothing for months, literally—as in they have been told to do none of the work necessary to protect consumers, because who wants that?
The administration has also completely frozen funding for the agency, and it runs out in a few weeks … forever. On Monday, 21 states sued, arguing that the administration can’t shutter the CFPB by freezing funding in part because it is not the administration’s funding to freeze. The agency gets its money via the Federal Reserve precisely to insulate it from this sort of thing.
But Russell Vought, the Christian nationalist ghoul and Project 2025 architect who directs the Office of Management and Budget, also heads the CFPB, and he has simply refused to accept the money from the Fed.
We’re well past the fiction that this is a government meant to do anything except enable cronyism and financial corruption. Regular folks who live paycheck to paycheck get to suffer, while predatory lenders run wild and free.
One of the interesting open-source projects to come about this year was Wayback as an X11 compatibility layer using Wayland. Wayback could be used by default on Alpine Linux next year among other distributions. For ending out 2025 development, Wayback 0.3 is now available...
The House of Representatives cleared the way for a massive overhaul of the federal environmental review process last Thursday, despite last-minute changes that led clean energy groups and moderate Democrats to pull their support.
The Standardizing Permitting and Expediting Economic Development Act, or SPEED Act, overcame opposition from environmentalists and many Democrats who oppose the bill’s sweeping changes to a bedrock environmental law.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and backed by Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine), passed the House Thursday in a 221-196 vote, in which 11 Democrats joined Republican lawmakers to back the reform effort. It now heads to the Senate, where it has critics and proponents on both sides of the aisle, making its prospects uncertain.
After Missouri lawmakers passed a gerrymandered congressional map this fall, opponents submitted more than 300,000 signatures seeking to force a statewide vote on whether to overturn the map. But Republican state officials say they will use the map in the meantime.
Missouri courts now appear likely to weigh in.
“If we need to continue to litigate to enforce our constitutional rights, we will,” said Richard von Glahn, a progressive activist who leads People Not Politicians, which is leading the campaign opposing the gerrymandered map.
As some states engage in an extraordinary redraw of congressional districts ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, state courts may decide the fate of the new maps. President Donald Trump has pushed Republican state lawmakers to gerrymander their states’ congressional maps, prompting Democratic state lawmakers to respond in kind.
Nationwide, state judges are poised to play a pivotal role in adjudicating legal challenges to the maps, which have been drafted to maximize partisan advantage for either Republicans or Democrats, depending on the state. Maps are typically only redrawn once a decade following the census.
While some state courts have long heard map-related lawsuits, the U.S. Supreme Court has all but taken federal courts out of the business of reviewing redrawn maps this year. On Dec. 4, a majority of the court allowed Texas’ new map, which seeks to secure five more U.S. House seats for Republicans, to proceed. A federal lawsuit against California’s new gerrymandered map, drawn to favor Democrats, hasn’t reached the high court.
A woman holds a sign as she joins others during a rally to protest against redistricting hearings at the Texas Capitol in Austin on July 24.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s brief, unsigned majority decision voiced concern about inserting federal courts into an “active primary campaign,” though Texas’s primary election will occur in March. Critics of the court’s decision have said it effectively forecloses federal challenges to this year’s gerrymanders. The justices could also issue a decision next year that makes it more difficult to challenge maps as racially discriminatory.
State courts are taking center stage after gerrymandering opponents have spent decades encouraging them to play a more active role in policing maps that had been drawn for partisan advantage. Those efforts accelerated after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 limited the power of federal courts to block such maps.
“Basically, every one of the 50 states has something in its constitution that could be used to constrain partisan gerrymandering,” said Samuel Wang, director of the Princeton Gerrymandering Project.
State constitutions, which are interpreted by state supreme courts, typically have language that echoes the right to freedom of speech and association found in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, Wang said. They also include a right to equal protection under the law, similar to the 14th Amendment.
Some state constitutions guarantee free and fair elections, language that doesn’t appear in the U.S. Constitution. Thirty states have some form of a constitutional requirement for free elections, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
At least 10 state supreme courts have found that state courts can decide cases involving allegations of partisan gerrymandering, according to a 2024 review by the State Democracy Research Initiative at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
So far this year, California, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Texas and Utah have adopted new congressional maps. New maps also appear possible in Florida, Maryland and Virginia. A handful of other states — Alabama, Louisiana, New York and North Dakota — may have to change their maps depending on the outcome of court cases.
Some of those new or potential maps could face legal obstacles. Florida, New York and Ohio all have state supreme courts that have previously found problems with partisan gerrymanders. Maryland Democrats have so far not moved forward with a gerrymander, in part because of fears of an adverse decision from the state Supreme Court.
Four state supreme courts — including in Missouri — have determined that they cannot review partisan gerrymandering claims, though state courts may still consider challenges on other grounds, such as whether the districts are compact or contiguous.
In Missouri’s case, courts could also clear the way for a referendum vote over the new map, which is intended to force out U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, a Democrat who has represented Kansas City in Congress for the past two decades. Republicans currently hold six of the state’s eight congressional districts.
The map already faces a bevy of lawsuits, most notably over whether state officials must count some 103,000 referendum signatures gathered before the governor signed the map into law; at least 106,000 signatures are needed to send the map to voters.
Opponents of the new map have also filed lawsuits asserting the Missouri Constitution prevents redistricting without new census data and that an area of Kansas City was simultaneously placed into two separate congressional districts.
Missouri Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins’ decision this month (relying on an opinion from Missouri Republican Attorney General Catherine Hanaway) to implement the new congressional map, despite a submitted referendum petition, is expected to become the latest legal flashpoint. Opponents of the map argue it is now paused under state law.
Hoskins spokesperson Rachael Dunn said in a statement to Stateline that local election officials have until late July to verify referendum signatures — months after candidate filing ends March 31 and days before the Aug. 4 primary election. At that point, blocking the new map would be all but impossible, even if map opponents have gathered enough signatures to force a vote.
“Once signatures are all verified, the Secretary will certify the referendum based on constitutionality and verification,” Dunn wrote.
Hanaway’s office didn’t respond to questions.
Breaking out of lockstep
As federal courts limit their review of gerrymandering because of U.S. Supreme Court decisions, some state supreme courts are reluctant to wade into the issue because of a practice called “lockstepping.”
State supreme courts often interpret their state constitutions in line with — or in lockstep with — how the U.S. Supreme Court views similar language in the U.S. Constitution. Because the U.S. Supreme Court has declined to limit partisan gerrymandering, some state supreme courts have also declined to impose limits.
Gerrymandering opponents have used a variety of arguments over the years to try to prod state supreme courts out of lockstep. They have emphasized differences in wording between state constitutions and the federal one, and provisions in state constitutions — such as the free elections requirement — not found in the U.S. Constitution.
Sometimes these arguments work — and sometimes they don’t. The North Carolina Supreme Court in 2022 ruled against partisan gerrymandering. But after two Republicans were elected as justices that fall, the court reversed itself months later.
“Across the country, we have seen advocates turn to state supreme courts, and state courts in general, for state constitutional arguments against gerrymandering or voter suppression more broadly. And it’s been met with mixed success,” said Sharon Brett, a University of Kansas associate professor of law. In 2022 as litigation director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas, she unsuccessfully argued a case before the state’s high court challenging Kansas’ congressional map.
Demonstrators hold signs during a rally protesting a proposed election redistricting map on Oct. 21 in Raleigh, N.C.
In states where legislatures draw congressional maps, some lawmakers argue that state constitutions shouldn’t be interpreted to curb legislative authority over mapmaking. Court-imposed limits amount to violations of the traditional separation of powers, they say, with the judiciary overstepping its authority to interfere in politics.
“We expect them to be nonpartisan. We expect them to be unbiased. We expect them to be fair. We expect them to read the constitution and to protect or at least respect the separation of powers,” said Utah Republican state Rep. Casey Snider, speaking of Utah courts during a floor speech earlier this month.
In Utah, state courts waded through a yearslong legal battle over whether state lawmakers must adopt a non-gerrymandered map. After the Republican-controlled legislature repealed and replaced an independent redistricting process, the Utah Supreme Court last year ruled lawmakers had violated the state constitution.
A Utah district court judge in November then adopted a congressional map that will likely lead next year to the election of a Democrat. The state’s four congressional seats are currently all held by Republicans.
“What we would like is them to redistrict based on population — fairly,” Katharine Biele, president of the League of Women Voters of Utah, said of state lawmakers.
Republican Gov. Spencer Cox called the Utah legislature into special session earlier in December to respond to the judge’s decision. Lawmakers pushed back candidate filing deadlines in hopes that an appeal to the Utah Supreme Court will result in a decision overturning the judge’s adopted map.
They also passed a resolution condemning the judiciary.
Constitutional concerns
As the Indiana legislature weighed a gerrymandered map to boost Republicans this month, some lawmakers were reluctant to constrain state courts. Democrats currently hold two of the state’s nine congressional districts.
The GOP-controlled Indiana Senate voted down the map in a major setback to Trump’s national redistricting push. The vote came after a floor debate where opponents raised concerns about limiting court involvement; the legislation included a provision sending any legal challenge directly to the Indiana Supreme Court, bypassing a jury trial.
Indiana Republican state Sen. Greg Walker said the measure violated the state constitution, which guarantees an “inviolate” right to a jury trial in all civil cases. “In legal terms, ‘inviolate’ has the implication of being sacred, as opposed to being just a piece of the law,” Walker said on the floor.
State Sen. Mike Gaskill, a Republican who sponsored the map, said during a speech that Indiana residents would benefit from a quick process to resolve legal challenges. “Both sides, in any case, want them to be settled quickly so that they don’t cause chaos and interruptions in the elections process,” he said.
If the map had passed, opponents would have likely attacked the measure using a provision of the Indiana Constitution that requires “free and equal” elections.
Editor’s note: Warning: Although we’ve done our best to avoid spoiling anything major, please note this list does include a few specific references to several of the listed shows that some might consider spoiler-y.
This was a pretty good year for television, with established favorites sharing space on our list with some intriguing new shows. Streaming platforms reigned supreme, with Netflix and Apple TV dominating our list with seven and five selections each. Genre-wise, we've got a bit of everything: period dramas (The Gilded Age, Outrageous), superheroes (Daredevil: Born Again), mysteries (Ludwig, Poker Face, Dept. Q), political thrillers (The Diplomats, Slow Horses), science fiction (Andor, Severance, Alien: Earth), broody fantasy (The Sandman), and even an unconventional nature documentary (Underdogs).
As always, we’re opting for an unranked list, with the exception of our “year’s best” selection at the very end, so you might look over the variety of genres and options and possibly add surprises to your eventual watchlist. We invite you to head to the comments and add your own favorite TV shows released in 2025.
AI coding agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google can now work on software projects for hours at a time, writing complete apps, running tests, and fixing bugs with human supervision. But these tools are not magic and can complicate rather than simplify a software project. Understanding how they work under the hood can help developers know when (and if) to use them, while avoiding common pitfalls.
We'll start with the basics: At the core of every AI coding agent is a technology called a large language model (LLM), which is a type of neural network trained on vast amounts of text data, including lots of programming code. It's a pattern-matching machine that uses a prompt to "extract" compressed statistical representations of data it saw during training and provide a plausible continuation of that pattern as an output. In this extraction, an LLM can interpolate across domains and concepts, resulting in some useful logical inferences when done well and confabulation errors when done poorly.
These base models are then further refined through techniques like fine-tuning on curated examples and reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF), which shape the model to follow instructions, use tools, and produce more useful outputs.
The next kernel cycle that will be known as either Linux 6.20 or Linux 7.0 depending upon how Linus Torvalds handles the versioning for this next x.20 milestone. More than likely it will be Linux 7.0 given his historical versioning scheme, but whatever the case, ahead of this next kernel cycle some initialization changes for the CXL subsystem are building up...
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