+
More

Watch shocked customers receive an unforgettable gift from very generous Secret Santas.

Amid the ads, long lines, and mall parking lot battles, it's easy to forget that winter is the season of giving.

GIF via "Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas."


And while the rest of us generously give to our friends and family (and to one or two charities) this time of year, afew anonymous donors are doing their part in a major way to keep the holiday spirit alive.

One man, known only as Santa B, recently paid off hundreds of layaway bills at two Pennsylvania Walmart stores, totaling nearly $160,000.

Managers at the Walmart stores in Mechanicsburg and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, both received visits from the generous donor, who presented them with cashiers checks for $79,000 each to cover the outstanding layaway balances their respective stores.

"He said he'd had a very successful business and wanted to give back to his neighbors in the community," Walmart manager Steven Myers told WGAL. He also said the generous donor even bore a passing resemblance to the jolly old elf.

GIF via WGAL-TV/YouTube.

And Santa B isn't the only one making holiday wishes come true this year.

Other anonymous donors across the country have paid off layaway bills at their local Walmart stores. One mystery donor paid off balances totaling nearly $100,000 at two stores in northeastern Ohio. And another donor in northern Florida made a $200,000 donation to cover layaway bills at stores in Gainesville and Chiefland.

Image via WGAL-TV/YouTube..


It should be noted here that the Waltons, the family of Walmart founder Sam Walton, have a combined net worth of $149 billion and easily could've done this with every single one of their stores and still had enough money left over to swim in Olympic-sized money pools. So while it's doubtful, I'm secretly hoping these generous donors are the Waltons in disguise. Or at the very least, that the Waltons see these stories and are inspired to give back to the minimum-wage workers and the shoppers that keep them living so comfortably.

Don't hold my breath, you say? Fair enough. Back to celebrating all of this holiday do-goodery.

Even the local police are getting in the giving mood.

An anonymous donor gifted the Hutchinson, Kansas, police department with $1,500 to give to people in need. The Local Fraternal Order of Police heard about the donation and matched it.

With the $3,000, officers have been stopping people randomly (and in some cases, surprising people with a known need) to make some holiday wishes come true. As if being randomly pulled over by a cop only to find out you aren't actually in trouble isn't gift enough.

"We’re just there to give him some money for the holidays, and you can really see it on their face, and [when] we give him the money, how happy they are," Officer Grant Ingram told local news station, KSN.

Photo via iStock.

Deputies near Tucson, Arizona, are handing out $100 bills to unsuspecting residents, thanks to a big donation from a former Secret Santa.

"'Secret Santa' is a guy who used to get on his motorcycle and give out $100 bills to people during the holiday season," Sheriff Chris Nanos told KVOA. "An accident left him unable to do that anymore."

So Santa passed the torch (and a $10,000 donation) to the Pima County Sheriff's Department, where deputies have the delightful task of making the season bright for people in the community.

Not Pima County's motorcyle-ridin' Secret Santa but close enough. Photo by iStock.

You don't need to be a millionaire (or even a thousand-aire) to make someone's day.

Whether it's paying it forward the next time you're in the drive-through, donating a winter coat to someone in need, or simply plugging a meter that's about to expire (so long as your city is cool with that), you too can be a hero this holiday season.


GIF via "Mean Girls."

(Just leave the whole "coming-down-the-chimney" thing to the pros, OK?)

See some of the smiling faces courtesy of Santa B in Pennsylvania in the video below:

Joy

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

Keep ReadingShow less
Family

Pediatrician shares two simple tips that could save a child's life at a pool party

"The more folks present, the safer the pool is, right? Wrong."

Photo by Ash Dowie on Unsplash

If there's a body of water anywhere, a designated adult needs to have their eyes on it.

It's that time of year when the weather across the country is warm enough for families to enjoy outdoor barbecues, picnics and pool parties. That means it's also the time of year when tragedy will strike a certain percentage of families who get blindsided by how quickly and easily a child can drown in a backyard pool, even when they're surrounded by people who care about them and their safety.

We've all been at a gathering where adults are coming and going, chatting, setting up food, taking trips to the bathroom, all while kids are busy playing in the water. In such scenarios, it's easy to assume that someone else is keeping an eye on the pool.

But as pediatrician Diane Arnaout has shared, the harrowing reality is that the more people there are at a pool party the more likely it is that a child could slip into the pool or become distressed in the water without anyone noticing.

In a Facebook post that has been shared more than 77,000 times, Dr. Arnaout wrote:

Keep ReadingShow less

Drew Barrymore speaks during the FLOWER Beauty launch at Westfield Parramatta on April 13, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.

Drew Barrymore, 48, has been in the public consciousness since she starred as Gertie in 1982’s mega-blockbuster, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. So, it makes sense that many people of a certain age feel as if they’ve grown up with her.

Now, she’s an even more significant part of people’s lives as the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which runs every weekday on CBS.

On May 25, the show’s Instagram page posted a touching video of an off-the-cuff moment between Barrymore and a fan during a taping of her show. In the clip, Barrymore realizes that someone in the audience is crying. So, instead of ignoring the fan, she jumps to action to see what is the matter.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Musician uses traditional Chinese instrument to create hypnotic cover of 'Hotel California'

There are literally hundreds of covers of this song floating around on the internet, but this one has its own unique flair.

Moyun/Youtube

Moyun peforms "Hotel California" on the guzheng.

The Eagles' hit song, “Hotel California,” has been covered countless times over the years by a variety of artists, including the likes of Nancy Sinatra, the Gypsy Kings and that guy at your local karaoke spot.

And while every rendition gives the song a fresh dynamic, one musician with a penchant for mystery has transformed the rock n’ roll staple into something entirely new.

Using a traditional Chinese string instrument called a guzheng, Moyun plays the song focusing mostly on its two guitar solo arrangements, creating a sound that has all the otherworldly beauty of an ancient folk tale.
Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Man rewatches shows from his childhood and his recaps of the bonkers storylines are priceless

Rob Anderson's hilarious recaps of shows like "Mighty Ducks," "Beethoven," and "7th Heaven" might make you wonder how they got made in the first place.

@hearthrobert/TikTok

These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

And so, what do we do with these problematic pieces of old-school pop culture? Well, we can certainly update them to better reflect a more modern attitude, but that also comes with a set of potential problems. Or we could simply never watch them again. Certainly an option given all the content out there. But then we might miss an opportunity to better understand what seemed to work for the mainstream then, and why it doesn’t work now.

And then there’s the third option—allow ourselves to be entertained by their cringiness.

That’s certainly the route taken by Rob Anderson. Over on TikTok, Anderson has taken ultra-popular movies and television shows from his childhood and given them hilarious recaps capturing how absurd some of the storylines are.
Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Woman decides that she is the love of her life and marries herself at her retirement home

“I said, you know what, I’ve done everything else. Why not?”

77-year-old woman decides she's the love of her life and marries herself.

We joke about marrying ourselves or a platonic friend if some arbitrary amount of time has passed without a proposal from an imaginary suitor. And sure, some people do wind up marrying a friend in more of a business arrangement, but it's not very common that someone follows through with marrying themselves.

Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli, decided that she was going to break the mold. The 77-year-old sat down and thought about all of the things she had done in life and who was with her the entire time cheering her on. It was an easy answer: herself. She was her biggest cheerleader, the person who always showed up and the love of her life, so Fideli made the plan to marry herself.

On a beautiful May day, friends and family gathered in the O’Bannon Terrace Retirement Community, where Fideli is a resident, to witness the ceremony.

Keep ReadingShow less