The Irish Christmas Number One has been confirmed as "The Climb" by Joe McElderry. Just before mid-day today, IRMA announced the official Irish Christmas Music Chart and the challenge by Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name" for the No. 1 spot has been unsuccessful here despite it's runaway victory in the U.K.
This morning on the Christmas Eve Breakfast Show, we were keeping an eye on Santa as he made final preparations for his trip around the world. He finally took off just before 9:30am Irish time and, at the time of writing (12:18PM), is currently between the Solomon Islands and Micronesia - on the opening leg of his journey, near Australia.
With the reindeer on top form and a lighter sleigh load this year, Santa is expected to arrive earlier than usual in Ireland, so Irish kids are reminded to get to bed good and early! You can follow Santa on his travels here:
Niall found this on YouTube this morning... possibly the most bonkers Christmas movie ever!
The plot of this 1964 sci-fi drama is pretty basic... Martians kidnap Santa Claus because there's nobody on Mars to give the kids any presents! There is a happy ending however, as the title of the movie suggests... The movie is called "Santa Conquers the Martians" - and you can watch the FULL movie here! ... or just watch the trailer, here:
With only one week to go to Christmas Day, today is the first day when music sales in Ireland will go towards deciding who will get this year’s coveted Christmas Number One!
With the hot favourite to take the top spot being Joe McElderry, winner of UK talent competition, “The X Factor”, a group has been calling on music fans to boycott his song and download something else instead.
Last year, a similar group campaigned to get Jeff Buckley’s version of “Hallelujah” to No. 1 ahead of X-Factor winner Alexandra Burke’s version but it came in at No. 2 in the UK and Ireland.
Investigators in Chattanooga, Tennessee say a small boy who ran away from home was found roaming his neighbourhood alone, saying he wanted to be with his dad.
The problem was, his daddy’s in jail – so the little 4 year old, named Hayden –said that’s where he wants to be too. On this particular night, he did his best to get into trouble in the hopes of getting arrested and joining his daddy.
He drank beer, wandered around the neighbourhood and broke into a neighbour’s house, where he stole five wrapped Christmas presents from under their tree.
A team of health experts have accused Santa of promoting obesity and drink-driving. They say a fat, tipsy Father Christmas with no regard for health and safety sends out the wrong message to children and they want to give him a makeover.
They also say that the tradition of leaving a glass of sherry out for Santa could be seen to promote drink-driving, adding that with a few billion houses to visit Santa would soon be over the limit.
Other dangerous activities he could be accused of promoting include speeding, disregard for the Highway Code and extreme sports such as roof surfing and chimney jumping. Despite the risks of high-speed air travel Santa is ‘never seen wearing a seat belt or a helmet’.
Well, it’s not exactly festive, but it’s proving very popular, - a British law firm is offering an unusual present for unhappy married couples this Christmas – in the form of divorce gift vouchers!
Lloyd Platt & Company in London said it has received hundreds of enquiries since putting the vouchers on sale last month.
Offering couples half-hour or hour-long advice session with a lawyer, the firm has sold 54 vouchers in three weeks, according to newspaper reports.
Here we are a week before Christmas — and we’re not even half done with our shopping. In a survey released on Wednesday, it was revealed that the average person had completed just 46.7% of their holiday shopping by the second week of December.
Nearly 20% of people had not even started their shopping as of late last week, while only 8.6% of shoppers had completely finished.
The results are somewhat surprising given retailers’ claims this season that good merchandise would sell out quickly because of lower stock levels.
The Irish Kidney Association, is asking the Irish public to give a different kind of gift this Christmas … and ‘give the Gift of Life’ … by carrying a donor card. The organ donor awareness drive aims to encourage people to begin to think, talk and ultimately make the personal decision to carry a donor card.
Organ donor cards can be obtained by phoning the Irish Kidney Association on LoCall 1890 543639, by visiting the Irish Kidney Association website at www.ika.ie, by free texting the word DONOR to 50050, or by asking at your local pharmacy/medical centre.
Ireland has one of the highest rates of organ donation in the world. The aim of the 'Give the Gift of Life' organ donor drive is to highlight awareness over the Christmas period, increase the number of organ donor/donations, and persuademore people to carry this cost-free card that has the potential to dramatically transform a recipient’s life.
