Latest Lifestyle News

In a calendar rarity, Hanukkah starts this year on Christmas Day

Dec. 21, 2024 10:16 AM EST

Hanukkah, Judaism’s eight-day Festival of Lights, begins this year on Christmas Day, which has only happened four times since 1900. For some rabbis, the intersection of the two religious holidays provides an auspicious occasion for interfaith engagement. “This can...

It's eggnog season. The boozy beverage dates back to medieval England but remains a holiday hit

Dec. 21, 2024 08:26 AM EST

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Edited by Anna Furman for movement Saturday, Dec. 21 at 8 a.m. ET. Prelinked photos CATC101-107 and video by Terry Chea. At Scoma’s Restaurant in San Francisco, this holiday season 's batch of eggnog began 11 months ago. The process typically...

Thousands greet the winter solstice at the ancient Stonehenge monument

Dec. 21, 2024 07:10 AM EST

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of tourists, pagans, druids and people simply yearning for the promise of spring marked the dawn of the shortest day of the year Saturday at the ancient Stonehenge monument. Revelers cheered and beat drums as the sun rose at 8:09 a.m. (0809 GMT) over the...

NORAD's Santa tracker was a Cold War morale boost. Now it attracts millions of kids

Dec. 21, 2024 01:25 AM EST

The Christmas tradition has become nearly global in scope: Children from around the world track Santa Claus as he sweeps across the earth, delivering presents and defying time. Each year, at least 100,000 kids call into the North American Aerospace Defense Command to inquire about...

Amazon and Starbucks workers are on strike. Trump might have something to do with it

Dec. 20, 2024 18:44 PM EST

Amazon delivery drivers and Starbucks baristas are on strike in a handful of U.S. cities as they seek to exert pressure on the two major companies to recognize them as unionized employees or to meet demands for an inaugural labor contract. The strikes that started Thursday and...

Baby pigs get Christmas pardon from Florida mayor in a Cuban twist on White House turkey tradition

Dec. 20, 2024 18:05 PM EST

MIAMI (AP) — As the stars of Friday's show in downtown Miami, baby pigs Glinda and Elphaba will never have to worry about gracing the dinner table at a Cuban American family's home on Christmas Eve. Public pardons for the two piglets were granted by the mayor of Miami-Dade County,...

White House starts scrapping pending regulations on transgender athletes and student debt

Dec. 20, 2024 15:22 PM EST

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is abandoning his efforts to provide some protections for transgender student athletes and cancel student loans for more than 38 million Americans, the first steps in an administration-wide plan to jettison pending regulations to prevent President-elect...

Nuna Baby Essentials is recalling over 600,000 child car seats because harness may not hold children

Dec. 20, 2024 11:27 AM EST

DETROIT (AP) — Nuna Baby Essentials is recalling nearly 609,000 child car seats because the harness adjuster can loosen and the seats may not restrain children. The company says in documents posted Friday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that the recall affects...

It's beginning to look like another record for holiday travel

Dec. 20, 2024 08:47 AM EST

Drivers and airline passengers without reindeer and sleighs better make a dash for it: it's beginning to look like another record for holiday travel in the U.S. The auto club AAA predicts that more than 119 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home between Saturday and...

Leap of faith: A few young women in US buck the trends by joining the ranks of Catholic nuns

Dec. 20, 2024 08:06 AM EST

PALMYRA, Pa. (AP) — It was a radical idea, and for many years she had been resistant. But as Zoey Stapleton, 24, walked down a darkened hiking trail, steps behind her parents, she counted back from three and “took a leap of faith,” revealing to them that she wanted to become a...