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The White House is ringing in the holidays, unveiling on Monday its annual Christmas decor theme: “Home is Where the Heart is.” The decorations are an ode to the “enduring American spirit of generosity, patriotism and gratitude,” the White House said. Take a look at the White House as it is all dolled up for the holidays. Photos by The Hill’s Greg Nash.

My previous immediate Substack column was titled, “Holiday Warnings.” However, unfortunately, we’ve graduated to “Holiday Terror.” This weekend we received chilling news about two mass terror attacks. The first was a shooting on Brown University’s campus and the second was against Jews attending an open-air Chanukah celebration on an Australian beach. We are grieving for all the victims and their families. But lost in this dark weekend was also an explicit warning by the federal government’s Director of National Intelligence that there may be as many as 18,000 terrorists living in our midst. Yes. This extraordinary disclosure by DNI chief...

The response has been so overwhelmingly hostile that McDonald’s were forced to pull the advert after just three days – and their folly has cost them a fortune.Be afraid, be very afraid. That’s what we’d been told in the advertising and commercial production industry. AI is coming for your job. It’ll be faster than you, more creative than you and certainly more cost-effective than you. Well, if the McDonald’s new – but swiftly deleted – Christmas ad was anything to go by, we haven’t, for the moment, got too much to worry about. The completely AI ad was produced for...

Because of the shift from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in the 1500s, Christmas ended up being celebrated 11 days earlier than before. When the change reached America in the 1750s, some people continued to observe December 25 as sacred and also marked January 6 as “Old Christmas.” This tradition held on strongly in Appalachia and remained part of Kentucky's holiday heritage as a parallel celebration alongside the newer Christmas date. The Forgotten Holiday Called 'Old Christmas' | 5:57 KET - Kentucky Educational Television | 44K subscribers | 47,374 views | November 26, 2025

Black Friday spending surged this year to new highs, fueled by record-breaking online spending that reached $11.8 billion on Black Friday alone, according to market data. Online sales made on Black Friday made up about 10% of total sales for the month of November, more than $111 billion dollars, according to Adobe Analytics’s report on holiday shopping trends. This represents a 9.1% increase in online sales compared to last year. Adobe tracks over 1 trillion U.S. retail site visits.

As millions of American families prepare to gather for Thanksgiving, they’re seeing a dose of the economic relief President Donald J. Trump is fighting to deliver. After inheriting the worst inflation crisis in 40 years from Joe Biden and Democrats, the Trump Administration’s actions to unleash American energy, slash regulations, and crush inflation are translating into lower gas prices in many states and a decrease in the cost of Thanksgiving dinner.Make no mistake: this is not “mission accomplished.” Americans are still paying far too much after four years of reckless Democrat spending and regulation — and that’s why the Trump...

Too many non-working holidays are costing the United States “BILLIONS OF DOLLARS” and hindering the country from success, President Donald Trump exclaimed on Thursday. Trump posted to his Truth Social account against non-working holidays, suggesting that neither employers nor employees liked them and that the United States was on track to make every day a non-working holiday. The president posted the message on Juneteenth, a federal holiday commemorating the emancipation of slaves in the United States. “Too many non-working holidays in America. It is costing our Country $BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to keep all of these businesses closed. The workers don’t...

When most people hear "Easter," they think of a single Sunday filled with lilies, hymns, and maybe a few chocolate eggs. But in the Church's liturgical calendar, Easter is far more than just a day—it's a whole season. In fact, Easter lasts for 50 days! That’s right—Easter is a season, not just a Sunday. Easter Sunday kicks off a 50-day celebration known as Eastertide or the Great Fifty Days, which runs from Easter Sunday to Pentecost Sunday. This season is meant to be a joyful, ongoing reflection on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and what it means for the world....

It is interesting to think that some of the holidays we celebrate in the Western World, with so much frivolity and lightheartedness, have gritty, deep, meaningful life stories behind them, to the degree that if the spirit behind them was examined with a level of inquisitiveness, seriousness, care, and regard, the examples radiating from them would in turn change people’s hearts, minds, and lives for the better, particularly in ways where overcoming hardships, adversity, and a myriad of difficulties are paramount and only possible due to God stepping in, calibrating their hearts and minds to His will, and overcoming what...

Michelle Obama provoked a wave of online criticism Friday after she shared a New Year's message with her followers on Instagram. The former first lady posted a video wishing her followers "Happy Holidays" and highlighting the work of the Obama Presidential Center as 2024 comes to a close. But critics noted with disapproval that her video begins on a sour note. "Happy holidays, everyone. I know it's been a difficult few months for so many of us, and that folks are feeling a little bit anxious and uncertain," Obama says in the video. "But even during these tough times, there...

Health providers in Canada have expressed concern in the weeks leading up to Christmas and the New Year that the country’s overburdened healthcare system could see a dangerous surge in the number of patients in emergency rooms, encouraging prospective patients to exhaust other available options before going to hospitals. The holidays approach following the publication of reports this month that wait times to see doctors in Canada, particularly specialists, are longer than even in the modern history of the country, and thousands of Canadians are dying on waitlists for life-saving medical interventions.

Democrat voters are more likely than Republicans to cut down on time spent with family members due to political differences, a post-election survey showed as the holidays ramp up. The Public Religion Research Institute’s (PRRI) survey posted on December 13 found that “As the holidays approach … Democratic voters (23%) are nearly five times as likely as Republican voters (5%) to say they will be spending less time with certain family members because of their political views.” PRRI President and Founder Robert P. Jones told Axios, “It may be tense around the Hanukkah and Christmas table. It’s not just that...

It's that time of year where we gather with Loved ones and "not so loved" ones. This will be an ongoing thread through the holidays where we can vent about those who we would rather not be around but are required to do so. Feel free to vent here about that special someone who manages to ruin your holidays, inlaws you abhor having over for dinner, and even that boss or co-worker who destroys the Xmas spirit.

Yale University chief psychiatry resident Dr. Amanda Calhoun said Friday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that liberals who were devastated by Donald Trump’s presidential re-election should separate from family members who voted for him. Host Joy Reid said, “I wonder if also, are people challenged with the idea of how do you interact with people you know voted for this? If you’re an LGBTQ person and know someone in your family voted essentially against your rights or you’re a woman, knowing this man was calling people the B word. JD Vance was literally calling Kamala Harris the trash. And said we’re...

A Yale-affiliated psychiatrist encouraged LGBTQ+ people whose family members voted for Donald Trump to cut ties and shun their relatives over the upcoming holidays — as fallout from the election reached hysteria on left-leaning MSNBC. Yale University child psychiatry fellow Dr. Amanda Calhoun dug into the issue of the post-election crises in the LGBTQ+ community with MSNBC’s Joy Reid on Friday night. “There is a societal push that, if somebody is your family, they are entitled to your time. And I think the answer is absolutely not,” Calhoun said in a clip shared online. “So, if you are going through...

After sipping pumpkin spiced lattes in August and putting up Halloween decorations in late September, Samantha Kowalczyk already looks forward to drinking eggnog-flavored coffee and filling her Wilmington, Delaware, home with cinnamon and sugar cookie scented candles and other holiday aromas. The 30-year-old thinks seasonal flavors and scents should be available year-round. And apparently others feel the same way. In response to growing customer demand, stores of all stripes, from Bath and Body Works and online holiday decor retailer Balsam Hill to Whole Foods Market and doughnut maker Krispy Kreme, are bringing out their festive collections weeks before the Nov....

Every year on April 16, Washington, DC commemorates the anniversary of the signing of the 1862 DC Compensated Emancipation Act, the law that abolished slavery in the District of Columbia and freed 3,000 individuals in bondage in the nation’s capital. As we honor this day and celebrate independence, we also recognize the struggle — historically and in our current moment — to achieve true freedom and justice for all.

In a controversial decision, the Stamford Board of Education has voted to remove Columbus Day and Veterans Day from the list of school holidays, requiring students to attend school on these dates. The decision, passed with a 5-3 vote, overruled previous years’ push-back from local veterans and Italian-Americans. The motion’s supporters, Joshua Esses, Michael Hyman, Gabriela Koc, Versha Munshi-South, and Antonia Better-Wirz, advocated for a shorter school year, arguing that a 181-day calendar extending into mid-June was too long.

January 6th was the darkest day in American history. It was the greatest threat to our Democracy since the Civil War. Donald Trump encouraged his supporters at assault the Capitol and threaten members of congress and his Vice President. Our Democracy prevailed but we must take a moment to remember how fragile put democracy is. I demand that Americans take off school and work to remember January 6th as a holiday to reflect on the events that happened on that day and how our Democracy can survive other National tragedies like The Civil War, World War I, World War II,...

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) became the third GOP member of Congress to be “swatted” during this week’s holiday recess, following earlier false reports to law enforcement of incidents at the homes of Reps. Brandon Williams (R-NY) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.). “Last night, while at dinner with my wife, cowards ‘swatted’ my home in Naples. These criminals wasted the time & resources of our law enforcement in a sick attempt to terrorize my family,” Scott posted Thursday on X. The Republican senator also thanked the Naples Police Department and the Collier County Sheriff’s Department “for all they do to keep...