Pooh-pooh
Christmas Eve marks the 100th birthday of Winnie-the-Pooh, which first appeared in a short story in the Evening News on that day. The character was inspired by a bear bought by a Canadian vet, Harry Colebourn, at a railway station in Ontario on his way to serve on the Western Front – he named it Winnipeg Bear after his home town. The animal became the unofficial mascot of the 2nd Canadian Infantry Brigade on its voyage across the Atlantic, but on arrival in London he gave it to London Zoo, where it was seen by A.A. Milne and his son Christopher Robin. The real animal, however, was female and underwent gender reassignment as it was transformed into a children’s character.
Annual round-up
Some of the things 2026 is supposed to be the year of:
— Fire Horse (Chinese astrology)
— Women farmers (UN)
— Rangelands and Pastoralists (UN)
— Volunteers for Sustainable Development (UN)
— Reading (National Literacy Trust)
— Math (Conference Board of Mathematical Sciences, US)
No can do
Some things you won’t be able to do in 2026 as bans come into force:
— Buy a lamp or bulb containing mercury
— Buy wet wipes in Wales
— Dump biodegradable waste in a landfill site in Scotland
— Buy certain types of semi-automatic pistol in California
— Buy pudding with food stamps in Florida
Bah humbug
Where is the best place to go to avoid Christmas?
— There are only around 30 countries in the world where there will be no public holiday on either 25 December or 7 January, the latter being Christmas in the Orthodox Church and other churches that still use the Gregorian calendar. Many of the countries where there is no day off for Christmas are Muslim countries but they also include Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Japan, Mongolia, North Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
— If you fancy a country which bans both public Christmas trees and the hijab, your best bet is Tajikistan, which retains a policy of secularism from Soviet days even though the majority of the population is Muslim.
— The ban on Christmas trees doesn’t mean you can’t buy Christmas decorations based on the Tajikistan flag on Amazon.
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