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MURRIETA (CBSLA.com) — It’s the time of the year when Christmas decorations adorn houses for blocks in communities throughout the Southland. But one entry in the Annual Holiday Home Decorating Contest in Murrieta that features a mythical creature from European folklore has sparked complaints from residents. The house in the 37000 block of Floral Creek Circle features a large handcrafted Krampus, who is sometimes referred to as “evil Santa” or the “Christmas devil” and dates back to pre-Christian Germanic traditions. With a doll on its back and a broomstick in its hand, the clawed black creature is perched on the...

Very Funny Santa Claus Explanation (video).

My nomination for the dumbest comment of the week by a television host on a news channel goes to CNN's Brian Stelter. While talking to Slate's Aisha Harris about the reaction to her article calling for Santa Claus to be a penguin, the new Reliable Sources host wondered if Megyn Kelly wouldn't have been so adamant about Santa being white if Fox News had more black viewers (video follows with transcript and commentary):http://www.mrctv.org/videos/cnns-stelter-megyn-kelly-mightnt-have-insisted-santa-was-white-if-fox-had-more-black-viewers BRIAN STELTER: You know, to tell you what I think for a minute, I kind of wonder if FOX had a different audience demographic, if she would...

Santa Claus came early to San Francisco this year, but he forgot his long pants. As did quite a few of the hundreds of other Santas, and several of their helpers, who gathered by the Christmas tree in Union Square on Saturday. The Santas were kicking off the start of this year's SantaCon, a worldwide event that features a daylong bar crawl that sends many of its participants to the naughty list. The jingling bells, holiday-colored sequins, mistletoe and fake, cottony beards met in Union Square before heading off to the bars in various other neighborhoods throughout the city. Many...

Why does Santa need a fighter escort? Children's groups outraged as NORAD militarises Christmas Eve tracker • NORAD officials say the inclusion of jet fighters is a nod to the true mission of the agency - which is to track and intercept airborne threats Outraged child advocates are blasting NORAD's new 3D Santa Tracker program because it includes a fighter jet escort for jolly old Saint Nick. Some say the new online portrait could give kids the wrong impression about Santa Claus - associating him with the military and violence. But Pentagon officials argue the North American Aerospace Defense Command...

• Racism controversy dampens Holland's Sinterklaas tradition Children across Europe eagerly await the arrival of St. Nicholas on December 6. But in Holland, the tradition has racist implications that the Dutch aren't quite willing to give up. For the Dutch, Sinterklaasavond (St. Nicholas Eve) on December 5 is the biggest celebration of the year - bigger than Christmas. That evening, families gather and exchange presents, and children leave out their shoes in the hopes that Sinterklaas will have fill them with candy by the next morning. What seems like a harmless holiday devoted to gifts, candy, and children, has a...

Exclusive: Pamela Geller traces death of the republic to 2 short words The United States of America was created as an independent nation whose founding ideal was the principle of individual rights. Freedom. Ayn Rand said that “freedom, in a political context, means freedom from government coercion.” America was the first moral government based on individual rights, the nation of the Enlightenment. In this age of Obama, that ideal has been tossed aside for … “free stuff.” I have, for some time, struggled with the new reality: America void of her reason, existing without the reason for her existence, her...

I lost the argument with my wife. Should we encourage our childrenÂ’s faith in Santa Claus? I was concerned that doing so might later undermine both our credibility as parents and our childrenÂ’s belief in God. It may not be a conversation that most couples have. Then again, must couples donÂ’t include a former JehovahÂ’s Witness who was raised without holidays. As a child, I absorbed the cold hard truth dispensed from my parents. There was no Santa Claus. Other childrenÂ’s parents cruelly lied to them. The privilege of knowing the truth served as consolation for receiving no presents.Though...

No Christmas passes by without depictions of Santa Claus, and yet we know little about St. Nicholas, the real man behind the red-suited, white-bearded legend. A U.S. scholar, who discovered the truth about him, offers insights on what the "original" Santa was known for. While the vast majority of saint stories that circulated in the early church involved extraordinary miracles and healings or dramatic martyrdoms and confessions of Christ, the story of Nicholas was about a regular family facing a familiar crisis to which ordinary people could relate, writes Adam C. English, author of The Saint Who Would Be Santa...

1941: Santa in a Jeep “The panzer “Santa”, with well-filled sack of radios, books, cookies, and other gifts dear to soldiers hearts, glides up to the door of the barracks in Camp Lee’s Quartermaster Corps and it isn’t hampered by lack of snow in Virginia. Camp Lee, Virginia, Quartermaster Replacement Center” - US Army Center of Military History

Every year during the Christmas season I replace my regular column with a story I wrote years ago. It’s totally fictitious, but there are bits and pieces of autobiographical material here and there that reflect on my earliest remembrances of Christmas time in North Carolina. We always have a get together with family and friends at our house on Christmas Eve night. We share some food and drink and then sit around the den in a circle and everybody gets a turn to say whatever is on their minds followed by me reading Luke's version of the Christmas story. Several...

Turns out, everyone’s susceptible to the holiday blues: a mall Santa was fired in Maine for being a downright grinch. Parents complained and fa-la-la-la-la, he lost his job. Taking to Facebook, the angry parents voiced their irritation with the Scrooge Santa. The mother of 6-year-old Chantel Mailhiot told WGME 13 that the Santa wouldn’t allow her daughter to sit on his lap simply because she didn’t purchase a $20 photo package. Apparently, though, it gets worse: even after little Chantel told Santa she wanted an American girl doll, he told her that instead, she’d get an “American football.” After Chantel’s...

He's making a LinkedIn profile. He's checking it twice. He's gonna find out which employers are naughty or nice. Santa Claus is coming to town -- and he needs a job. While the unemployment rate dropped to 7.7% last month, as the Labor Department reported today, more and more Santa Clauses around the country are going without work this holiday season. There's no official Kris Kringle employment index, but agencies that place Santas at gigs around the country say the prospects for many of the men in red suits is Ho-ho-hopeless. "There's no question about it, the number of Santas...

Today (Dec 6) is the Feast of St. Nicholas. The real St. Nicholas was nothing close to the St. Nick (Santa Claus) of the modern age. He was a thin curmudgeonly man with a zeal for the Lord that caused flairs of anger. Compromise was unknown to him. The slow transformation of him into “Jolly ole’ Saint Nicholas is a remarkable recasting of him centuries in the making. Some years ago the Washington Post featured an article entitled Poles Apart: Nicholas of Myra; How a 4th-Century Bishop Achieved Fame 1,500 Years Later, With a Whole New Attitude.On this feast of...

video here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erDCrUgfSfQ

Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana fiercely shot back at Mitt Romney’s claim Wednesday that President Barack Obama outmatched the 2012 Republican presidential nominee by offering "gifts" to African-Americans, Hispanics and young voters. “I absolutely reject that notion,” Jindal, who was a surrogate for Romney’s campaign, said at the Republican Governors Association conference in Las Vegas. “I think that's absolutely wrong.” “I don't think that represents where we are as a party and where we're going as a party,” he continued. “That has got to be one of the most fundamental takeaways from this election.” Romney made the comments on...

'Bama Claus Is Spreadin' It Roundoriginal music and lyrics by John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie, updated lyrics by Rebel_Ace You better vote "D" And never vote "R" To Get Stuff for Free From the Welfare Czar 'Bama Claus is spreadin' it round 'Bama Claus is spreadin' it round 'Bama Claus is spreadin' it round The Union's got a list, Who voted twice; Show it to the press they put it on ice. 'Bama Claus is spreadin' it round 'Bama Claus is spreadin' it round 'Bama Claus is spreadin' it round The Rich they are not Paying We know how...

Grapevine police investigate the scene where they found seven people dead outside Dallas in Grapevine, Texas, Sunday, Dec. 25, 2011. Four women and three men who police believe to be related were found apparently shot to death, and authorities said they believe the shooter is among the dead. Six members of a Texas family apparently opened Christmas presents just before a relative dressed as Santa Claus showed up, opened fire and killed them before killing himself, police said Monday. Grapevine police spokesman Sgt. Robert Eberling said the shooter showed up in the Santa outfit shortly before gunfire erupted and was...

Seven People Found Dead in Dallas-Area Apartment Published December 25, 2011 GRAPEVINE, Texas – Seven people believed to be related had opened their Christmas gifts and started cleaning up the wrapping paper when they were shot to death in a suburban Texas apartment, police said Sunday. Authorities said they believe the shooter is among the dead, but got a warrant before doing a full search on the small chance that it was otherwise. Four women and three men, aged 18 to 60, were found in an adjoining kitchen and living room area when police entered the apartment around midday, said...