Christmas Mania

Firefighters in Mentor, Ohio, struggled to keep avid Christmas shoppers from continuing to enter the Dillards at Great Lakes Mall after a Dec. 6 electrical fire filled the store with smoke.

In Anderson, S.C., driver David Allen Rodgers, who was driving a float in the town's Christmas parade on Dec. 3 (despite being inebriated), was arrested after impatiently breaking out of the slow-moving parade line and speeding down Main Street, endangering riders and spectators.

The London regional manager of unemployment offices banned traditional Christmas decorations because he did not want his clients (since they are jobless in the holiday season) to feel worse by witnessing any festive spirit.

Melody Howell of Richburg, N.C., expanded her collection of full-sized, designer-decorated Christmas trees this year to 52, all placed inside her 2,500-square-foot home.

[Chicago Tribune-AP, 12-8-06] [WIS-TV (Columbia, S.C.)-AP, 12-6-06] [The Sun (London), 12-9-06 Wilmington Star, 12-10-06]