The hot holiday item in Britain this year is the black artificial Christmas tree. A full 50 days before Christmas, sales of artificial black trees suggest that the familiar green needles may be a thing of the past. Decorating experts say black and white is a strong interior trend and a black tree is a good way to do it.

show promoter, dubbed a "grinch" by prosecutors for selling thousands of children tickets to a nonexistent Christmas pageant, is sentenced to more that seven years in prison Wednesday. David Lee Ellisor was convicted in February of eight counts of mail fraud for a December 2003 scam where he sold $10 tickets to over 2,700 Miami-Dade County schoolchildren and parents for a "Christmas Around The World" show he claimed would be attended by ambassadors and feature live reindeer.

A Texas man is arrested on Monday after calling the cops to complain someone had stolen his stash of marijuana. Stephen Knight, 17, called authorities and said three men broke into his apartment, hogtied him with Christmas lights, and stole some marijuana, as well as a plasma screen television.