Canada's annual Christmas tree harvest is under way with farmers hoping that people's desire to maintain a holiday tradition will again override their worries about a slowing economy.

Households to cut Christmas gifts spending: survey (Reuters via Yahoo! News)

U.S. households could cut spending on Christmas gifts by about 11.3 percent this year, the Conference Board said on Friday, as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression erodes consumer wealth.

Meet our demands or the Christmas turkey gets it! (Reuters via Yahoo! News)

Hundreds of British meat inspectors have voted to strike in a dispute that threatens to disrupt supplies of turkeys and other meat to shops in the run-up to Christmas, their union said on Friday.

LIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS AT THE TOLEDO ZOO (The Toledo Blade)

The Toledo Zoo signals the arrival of the holiday season with its ‘Lights Before Christmas’ celebration, which features more than a million holiday lights and an 85-foot Norway spruce towering above the zoo Conservatory. The celebration will continue from 5 p.m. to8 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays and from 5 to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays through Dec. 31. The zoo will be closed on ...

Christmas concert will blend music, languages (The Tennessean)

A concert featuring lutes, recorders, a sackbut and an oud is not typical Christmas fare, but Gerald Moore, director of the Nashville Early Music Ensemble, said the concert tells the Nativity story in languages and music representing several cultures.