Volunteers at a US Air Force base monitoring Father Christmas’s progress around the world have answered a record number of Christmas calls.
An airlift from Khartoum of sick, elderly and other "extremely vulnerable" South Sudanese has re-started on Christmas Eve.
North Korea has slammed a display of Christmas lights staged by a South Korean church group near the border as an "unacceptable provocation".
Thousands of Palestinians and tourists have been flocking to Bethlehem to mark Christmas at the site Jesus Christ is believed to have been born.
South Koreans have lit a Christmas tree-shaped tower near the tense border with North Korea for the first time in two years.
Europeans are cutting down on Christmas shopping and pinching their pennies this festive season due to austerity measures.
The hunt for the perfect Christmas tree may soon become a great deal easier: just pick a nice clone.
As malls straddling religious divides turn it down, shoppers don’t miss the agony that is Boney M, writes Thalia Holmes.
Figures released by Statistics South Africa this week revealed a mixed bag for the South African economy.
December 25 was also traditionally the birthday of the Persian god Mithra, known as the Sun of Righteousness and Lord of Light.
A fresh version of ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas has sparked a censorship row.
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/ 25 December 2011
A bomb has exploded in a Catholic church on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria, with a shortage in ambulances hampering the evacuation process.
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/ 25 December 2011
Pope Benedict has ushered in Christmas, urging people to see through the commercialism of the season and rediscover the significance of the day.
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/ 24 December 2011
Christians have begun flocking to Bethlehem to celebrate Christmas following a tumultuous year of political upheaval and change across the Arab world.
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/ 21 December 2011
There’s nothing consumerist about revelling in the giving of gifts — in fact, it’s the very essence of human civilisation.
With hopes of qualifying for the Champions League again high, Tottenham’s manager Harry Redknapp is keen to keep his players’ minds on the task ahead.
A church group has unveiled a poster to remind people of the religious aspect of Christmas — while making a statement about modern-day extravagance.
A regional association of accounting firms says that the cost of an extra public holiday will result in an estimated R7-billion loss in turnover.
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/ 15 December 2011
In exactly a week from now I, like many South Africans, will decamp to the coast to become a beach bum, writes <b>Nikiwe Bikitsha</b>.
Maponya Mall’s Christmas theme is strictly Western, but its Santas are multicultural.
Kgalema Motlanthe has declared December 27 a public holiday after Fedusa asked the presidency for an extra day as Christmas falls on a Sunday.
An eBucks’ online survey has shown that 32% of South Africans plan on spending between R250 and R500 on each gift they buy.
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/ 12 December 2011
An acute butter shortage in Norway has left people worrying about how to bake their Christmas goodies with shelves empty and prices through the roof.
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/ 11 December 2011
People who think they only need three days’ leave between Christmas and New Year’s Day are in for a shock — they actually need to apply for four.
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/ 9 November 2011
The festive season always bears heavy on our pockets, so why not plan effectively for a change?
For ordinary Zimbabweans this Christmas will bring a mixture of pleasure and pain, with once-empty shops full of food but most unable to pay for it.
Zimbabweans are not big on Christmas trees, but love to decorate their homes with balloons, colourful ribbons and cards from loved ones.
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/ 24 December 2009
The top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land delivered Christmas wishes and prayed for the day when Palestinians would no longer be confined.
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/ 25 December 2008
We will count those who threw it in and left the country this year. Bloody cowards, we will lie to ourselves for comfort.
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/ 23 December 2008
It’s easy to dislike Christmas when you were born a cynical old man. As a child, as if in training to become a columnist, I hated everything.
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/ 26 December 2007
A man in a clerical habit abused me in the church hall of the Johannesburg parish of the Immaculate Conception in Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank. It happened after a children’s Christmas party — and my abuser was a Catholic cleric. My uncle, Cardinal Owen McCann, was the archbishop of Cape Town at the time. His position as president of the South African Catholic Bishops’ Conference was not enough to deter my abuser.