Christmas | featured news

Sarah Palin is writing another book, this one focused on putting faith and values back into Christmas. The former GOP vice presidential candidate is writing A Happy Holiday IS a Merry Christmas, in which she'll focus on Christian values and criticize the "over-commercialism" and "homogenization" that have come to define the day. The Associated Press says the book will come out in November.

... Leading the pack is Working Title/Universal’s Les Misérables debuting #1 in 2,808 theaters and receiving a coveted ‘A’ CinemaScore from audiences... Well, my insiders say today’s grosses looked like a big $15M to $20M — now more like $18M — for the PG13 film that runs 2 hours and 37 minutes and stars Hugh Jackman, Anne Hathaway, and Russell Crowe.

It was a half hour from closing on a cold Christmas Eve, and the last few customers were milling around inside the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Springfield, Mo., when a man approached the register

Pope Benedict XVI marked Christmas Eve with Mass in St. Peter's Basilica and a pressing question: Will people find room in their hectic, technology-driven lives for children, the poor and God?...

All year long Santa keeps an eye on you.

My brother got married yesterday. He’s in the military so the service was arranged in between deployments. His new wife understands that their lives will be largely like this: planning for birthdays, anniversaries and other events in between being shipped in and out. It is tough but it is the life that he signed on for when he joined the Navy. It is something that all military personnel make work. It is part of their sacrifice.

For billions of people, the life of Jesus has huge mythical resonance with the power to change hearts and minds, says Jay Parini

Anyone left on your Christmas list just aching for a 65-inch Samsung 3D flat-screen television? Just your luck. The Vatican's duty-free department store has one on sale for €2,899 ($3,840) — a nifty savings over the €3,799 ($5,032) it costs at Italy's main electronics chain Euronics.

A gunman opened fire in a suburban Portland shopping mall Tuesday, killing two people and wounding another as people were doing their Christmas shopping, authorities said. Witnesses described a scene of chaos and disbelief as a gunman wearing some sort of camouflage outfit and a white mask shot an initial burst of fire and then more rounds at Clackamas Town Center. Shoppers tried to find safe areas as teams of police officers began entering the mall to find the shooter.

A Missouri man posing as "Secret Santa" is giving away $100,000 this holiday season and spent a day in New Jersey and New York giving away money to people robbed of their belongings or homes by Superstorm Sandy.