This Side of the Pond

As has become my tradition, I took a few moments this week to look around at all the good things happening this season. Whether it made me laugh or smile, I’d like to share a few of them with you.

You have to hand it to Mariah Carey, that’s a woman with a dream she’s not willing to let go of. I think my grandmother would have referred to her as “like a dog with a bone”.

A quarter century after we all started singing “All I Want For Christmas” as part of our communal festive repertoire, she decided she wanted it to reach the top spot in the charts. Apparently it didn’t at the time it was released because it was an EP and there are rules, though I don’t really know what they are.

She started campaigning months ago and re-released the song – and it worked. Carey broke her own record as the most chart-topping solo artist and secured a mind-boggling 34 million radio plays.

It’s also the most-streamed song in the UK, which means she’s flooding the western world with song and fixing a 25-year-old regret while she’s at it. There’s a lesson in there somewhere about never giving up on your dreams.

My grandmother would also have had something to say about the Tennessee man who didn’t make it home for Christmas – I think her words would have been, “There’s always one”. This guy was caught at the airport with 84 pounds of marijuana wrapped as Christmas gifts. You have to admire his optimism.

Talking of airports, the main hub for planes in Lithuania should be commended for the thrifty attitude of its staff. This year, they didn’t waste money on a Christmas tree; instead, they made a surprisingly elegant one out of all the items that had been confiscated from passengers throughout the year.

The tree itself appears to be made entirely out of scissors, while the ornaments include pocket knives, lighters and nail clippers. At the top is a star fashioned from nine cheese knives, which really makes you wonder. Was there a specific destination all those people were heading to that offers abundant dairy?

In the UK, nothing is open on Christmas Day, which is why it’s a bad idea to visit the supermarket the day before. You’ll never encounter a more terrifying adversary than the grandmother who is worried she’ll run out of milk for tea and thinks you have your eye on the last bottle.

Well, that’s not strictly true, because there will be one place open this year. A fish and chip shop in Cardiff, Wales, will be opening its doors to the homeless, elderly and vulnerable, providing free food to anyone who comes.

“We realise that not everybody has the luxury to have a nice warm meal at a loved one’s house with family and friends, so we will try very hard on the day to emulate such an experience,” they said.

A story I will admit made me emotional involved an older lady in Oklahoma who posted on Craigslist asking if anyone might need a grandma for Christmas. She can cook and will bring gifts, she said.

A young chap came across the post and it broke his heart, so he tried to reach out to the lonely grandma. Unfortunately, the internet being what it is, mean people had responded to her post and she’d decided to take it down.

The young man posted his own ad, reaching out to her. Thousands of people shared it and he succeeded in getting hold of her – hopefully, thanks to his determination, she’ll have the merry Christmas Day she was yearning for.

In Canton, North Carolina, a four-year-old boy called the cops to report that someone had stolen his inflatable Santa, Rudolph and snowman from the front yard. His sorrow broke the heart of the police officer who responded, so he bought a replacement with his own money.

It’s been a hard year for the little boy, who spent 126 days in hospital and had six surgeries during that time, so the whole family was moved by the officer’s actions. The cop sparked a wave of good deeds, with neighbors bringing new decorations and a sign reading “The Grinch can’t steal our Christmas spirit.”

In a similar spirit of goodwill, the community of Nottingham in the UK responded to a plea from a man who had found himself in dire straits. He placed a sign outside his house begging for “a couple of tins of beans” for his Christmas dinner, because he had no food or electricity and didn’t know what to do.

Within hours, his neighbors had brought food, switched his power and heating back on and started a fundraiser that has now hit £11,500. Some of the donations were very small, from folk who have hit on hard times themselves but said they understand the need for everyone to help each other.

And finally, a tale of crossed cultures that explains why millions of people in Japan will celebrate Christmas this year with a “party barrel” of Kentucky Fried Chicken, as American a food as I can think of. Apparently, it all comes down to a white lie.

The man who brought KFC to Japan in 1970 was smitten by the story of Colonel Sanders, but his first attempt failed miserably because nobody could read the signs to tell what the store was selling. Takeshi Okawara was convinced people would love the food if they tried it, so he didn’t give up even when he was doing so badly he had to sleep on sacks of flour in the kitchen.

Redemption came when a local school asked him to dress as Santa-san and hand out chicken to a kindergarten class. The kids loved it, so another school did the same.

Okawara came up with the clever idea of promoting the food as a substitute for Christmas turkey, which the Japanese knew was eaten throughout the West. Christmas isn’t a traditional holiday in Japan, you see, but the idea had spread through theater, movies and stories – all that was missing was the food.

He decorated his Colonel Sanders statue as Santa-san, invented “party barrels” and attracted the attention of a national broadcaster, who asked him if KFC was common at Christmas overseas. Yes, he said, unable to resist the opportunity; by 1986, Japan boasted 600 KFC stores, the “party barrel” had become an important part of the country’s seasonal traditions, and that’s the surprising story of how America gave Christmas to Japan.