christmas

Not all heroes wear capes, but this one might. Frankly, we don’t know becuase their identity is a mystery.

Someone dropped a winning lottery ticket worth $1,000 into a Salvation Army bucket at a Walmart in Erie, Pa on December 6. And we never even got a chance to thank them.

via The Nest

“We’ve received donations of winning instant tickets in the past, but they’re usually in an amount of $10 or $20 – never something of this size,” Major Leslie Walter, officer of the Salvation Army in Erie, told Fox. “We are very grateful for this generous donation, which will help us to serve people and families in need.”

But how can we contact them if we need their help in the future. Like Batman, they’ve disappeared into the night, waiting to fight again.

And should they fight again, please feel free to send winning lottery tickets to The Daily What, mysterious stranger.

via Lady Geekgirl

After a year of people generally treating each other like garbage, it’s nice to have your small heart grow two sizes in an instant. That seemed to be the intention of these Best Buy employees.

via GIPHY

After weeks of seeing the same kid at the same Best Buy Wii station, the employees of the Valley Stream, NY decided to surprise him with a console of his own. They pooled their money together and bought him a Wii-U. 

As they published on YouTube:

"This video was taken in the Valley Stream Best Buy, this kid came in every single day to play the display WiiU, the employees in this store saw an opportunity to make a child smile and did just that. They chipped in and purchased a WiiU for him with their own money. This is amazing, why shop at Amazon when you have genuine people in this world that you can continue to help keep a job."

It’s true. Very rarely does a mailman deliver me a free thing from Amazon. But this video certainly delivered something: Good feelings.

Everyone celebrates the holidays in their own way. Whether you’re lighting the menorah or putting presents under the tree, one thing remains true: The holidays are a season of giving and warm wishes.

Which explains why this pastor gave the gift of cold reality with a dash outright crazy to a line of people waiting to see Santa Claus at the mall this weekend. That'll bring people back into the church for sure. 

via Reddit

Over the weekend, Pastor David Grisham from Last Frontier Evangelism walked into a mall in Amarillo, TX and did a real bang up job of getting people interested in the story of Christmas. Grisham walked up and down the line, telling the children that “There is no Santa Claus.” Here's what he had to say: 

”Folks, my name is Pastor David. Kids, I wanted to tell you today that there is no such thing as Santa Claus. Santa Claus does no exist. The Christmas season is about Jesus. Jesus was born 2,016 year ago... The man you’re about to see today is just a man in a suit dressed up like Santa, but Santa does not exist."

Then addressing the parents, he continued:

"Don’t lie to your children and tell them there’s such a thing as Santa when you know in reality that there are no flying reindeer. There is no workshop on the North Pole. There is no elves making toys.”

Anyway, parents in line didn’t take too kindly to someone with such a tenuous grip on reality lecturing them on reality. So a couple of dads with beards confronted this man and informed him that it’s perfectly fine for them to lie to their children if they want to.

And you know what, it is every parent's right to lie to their children. When they say, you can’t have ice cream for dinner, of course you can have ice cream; they just don’t want you to. Lies all lies!

But according to Huffington Post, there actually is a Santa Claus. They write:

”Whether Grisham knows it or not, historians say the character of Santa Claus as we know him today is based off a Christian saint, Saint Nicolas, whose generosity toward children as a Greek bishop led to him being declared a patron saint of children and bringer of gifts.

One of St. Nicolas’ most famous acts, which may sound familiar to those who celebrate Christmas, was him saving three sisters from being sold into prostitution by dropping a bag of gold down the indebted family’s chimney so they could pay off their dowries. One of the bags happened to land in one girl’s stocking that had been hung up to dry, according to historian Bill Petro.

So open a book, Grisham, and stop trying to ruin everyone’s Christmas by reminding parents that they lie to their children, so their kids can have one nice day out in this awful year.

via Reddit

For some reason, picking out the perfect Christmas tree puts people on pins and needles. Let’s get something straight, the only needles you should be on are the ones that fall from your tree.

That’s enough kidding around becuase finding the perfect tree can make or break your Christmas. So unless you want to have a terrible Christmas and have your family hate you, you better listen to stand-up comic and unaccredited Christmas tree enthusiast Joe Pera. He might not be a professional, but he knows a thing or two and loves to help. He also has an Adult Swim special on the subject

Pera recently appeared on a Detroit local news show to help the morning crew pick out the perfect tree. He tells them about his trip to Anderson’s tree farm in Newbury, Michigan, where the farm’s proprietor Merle and his wife Caroline taught him a whole lot. The segment, with the stuttering and dead air, is as soothing as they are unsettling.

The whole thing is delightfully awkward in the best way possible, and when this anchor tells him that she uses a plastic tree, well, things get tense.

via Splitsider

He made the rounds that morning, delivering Christmas tree to a few other shows to similar results.

Silent night. Holy night. Artificial Intelligence, right? Sort of.

Look, we all know that eventually artificial intelligence will replace humanity. There’s nothing we can do to stop that. But it would seem that researchers at the University of Toronto are looking to speed things along.

Inverse reports that in a test to see how well A.I. could master the feeling the of holiday cheer and yuletide sentiment, the researchers forced a computer program to look at a picture of a Christmas tree and write a song about it. Not only are they proving that A.I. can write songs — which explains Coldplay — but also that it can capture the feelings associated with the holidays, decidedly human feelings.

via Reddit

Well sort of. The lyrics don’t instill a lot of faith in our new A.I. overlords:

“Lots to decorate the room/The Christmas tree is filled with flowers.

I swear it is Christmas Eve/I hope that is what you say.

The Best Christmas present in the world is a blessing/

I’ve always been there for the rest of our lives.

A hundred and a half hour ago/ I’m glad to meet you.

I can hear the music coming from the hall/ A fair tale

A Christmas tree. There are lots and lots and lots of flowers.”

Of course this could be code, which we will only decipher until after it’s too late, especially the cryptic line “I’ve always been there for the rest of our lives.” In fact, what we’re probably hearing here is not a Christmas song, but some sort of National Anthem for the United States of Artificial Intelligence.

via Gifs Boom

We are in so much trouble.