After the crystal ball drops on New Year’s Eve in New York City, it will rise again, sparkling in red, white and blue to usher in 2026 and kick off months of celebrations for the nation’s upcoming 250th birthday. The patriotic touches at this year’s Times Square gathering, including a ...
NEW YORK (AP) — Welcome to exhausted America 2025: Most adults are more than a little fine with doling out cash as gifts, and many plan to be asleep before midnight on New Year’s Eve, according to a new AP-NORC poll. About 6 in 10 Americans say cash or gift cards are “very” acceptable as holiday presents, but they’re much less likely to say that about a gift that was purchased secondhand or re-gifted, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. “Cash is OK for the grandkids I guess,” said Nancy Wyant, 73, in rural central ...
The Christmas holiday season is a time to step back from the busy pace of modern life and connect with our nearest and dearest instead of screens, apps and chatbots. Here are some suggestions on how to unplug from the online world for the next few weeks as you sit down for a festive meal, ...
When a measles outbreak hit West Texas this year, school absences surged to levels far beyond the number of children who likely became sick, according to a study, as students were excluded or kept home by their families to minimize the spread of the disease. Absences in Seminole Independent School District, a school system that served students at the heart of the outbreak, climbed 41% across all grade levels compared with the same period the two previous years, according to the Stanford University study. The preliminary study, which has not been published or finished a formal peer ...
The most popular holiday movies tend to be ones people grew up with such as “A Christmas Story” (“You’ll shoot your eye out!”); anything with the Grinch, “Home Alone,” “A Charlie Brown Christmas;” the debated “Die Hard;” the whimsical “Ernest Saves Christmas;” the ...
UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State Extension is encouraging people to kick off the winter blues by attending an upcoming class designed to help adults improve their health and strength through an exercise program. The Lifelong Improvements through Fitness Together, or LIFT, class is held twice weekly in one-hour sessions, offered as a 12-week or eight-week in-person workshop at various locations from December 2025 through February 2026. An eight-week live virtual option, LIFTed, will take place from noon to 1 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays, Jan. 13 through March 5, 2026. This class ...
