Find out who brings Christmas gifts in France, Germany, Spain, and many other countries by looking at this neatly coloured map.

This song could have been in the movie Bad Santa. The title can be deceptive though, you might expect a heavy metal or trash song and instead you get an amazingly melodic song with some sarcastic lyrics and they manage to keep it family friendly.

Cliches about sausage-munching Germans are a thing of the past. These days everything has to be "bio". So is it a surprise that vegan Christmas markets are on the up? A customer's curiosity has been piqued. "The beans there, what's that?" he asks. Sometimes the offerings in the vegetarian-vegan "dining room" at Munich's Winter-Tollwood Christmas market need a bit of explanation.

People around the world have long embraced the spooky side of the holiday season. By Jenni Avins. (Nov. 29, 2017)

A cartoon about Christmas trees. One tree entices another with his festive decorations.

It sounds like a sermon that would be delivered in Uganda, but it’s actually from the mouth of an American pastor in Arizona. Conservative Christian Pastor Steven Anderson openly called for executing every gay person in America during a Sunday sermon at his church in Tempe, Arizona. He claimed from the pulpit that gays need to be put to death in the name of God by Christmas Day in an effort to wipe out AIDS, even though AIDS is not a virus exclusive to the LGBT community. Anderson opined:

Experts on Friday defused an explosive device found near an outdoor Christmas market in the German city of Potsdam near Berlin, local police said on Twitter. Germany is on high alert for potential militant attacks nearly a year after a Tunisian Islamist hijacked a truck, killed its driver, and then rammed the vehicle into a Christmas market in central Berlin, killing 11 people there.

It's part of the 'Spotify Singles: Holiday' playlist, which also features tracks from Wolf Alice, Wyclef Jean and Rostam.

The story of the original St. Nicholas is a tale of mistaken identity and grave robbery.

It’s unfortunate that Die Hard, the best Christmas movie of all time, isn’t really a film you can watch with your kids. But this year, instead of suffering through Elf once again, you can spend some quality time with your PG-rated family members by reading a new holiday children’s book based on the adventures of John McClane.

Christmas trading for the UK book market saw its strongest sales in 10 years, new figures have revealed. Nielsen BookScan reports that a total of £83.3m worth of print books were sold in the run-up to Christmas, which marks the highest since 2007. It is also suggested that sales in the UK print book market last year were up for the second year in a row, The Book Seller reports.

A 12-year-old boy who sleeps for three and a half months at a time has celebrated his first Christmas awake in four years. Connor Prince, from Toton, Nottinghamshire, has rare sleep disorder Kleine Levin Syndrome, which has caused him to sleep through the past four Christmases. His mum Dana, 44, said: ‘The last three years have put such a strain on the family, as we haven’t been able to plan any holidays.

Which objects would you choose to tell the story of your life? By Gemma Carney.

For some countries, the day after Christmas is a holiday in its own right.

R.O. Blechman

Virtual Reality

This time of year, when you take a walk in the streets of Dakar—the capital city of Senegal, that is 92%-95% Muslim in one of the hottest parts of the world, you stumble upon decorated snowmen, Christmas trees with cotton snowballs, traditional masks covered in Christmas lights. It lifts your spirits and gives you hope the end of the world might not be as near as it seems. The other day I told someone here I love the religious tolerance in Senegal. They told me it’s not “religious tolerance” but “solidarity.” I love that.

This year, many people in the liberated city of Aleppo are celebrating for the first time since the war began. RT’s Lizzie Phelan talked with residents of the war-ravaged city now recovering from its wounds.

Elizabeth II missed royals’ traditional visit to church in Sandringham for first time since 1988 due to ongoing heavy cold