Happy Holi-daze

We're only a little more than a week into the "official" holiday season, and it's already spawned a few oddball stories:

• A guy who stole some trees and wreaths from a Christmas store displayed them in his yard with the tags still on. (He was caught.)


• A college student in Montana has been charged with hitting a mall Santa in the face with a pie.


• In Anaheim, three mothers got in a brawl over who was first in line to see Santa.


• Over in England, a substantial increase in insurance premiums has forced one local Santa to wear a seatbelt in his 5 mph sleigh.


• And finally, on the lighter side: In Alaska, a moose got himself loopy on crabapples, got tangled in a string of Christmas lights, and ended up hanging out in the front yard of a bar, much to the amusement of patrons.

If things stay this weird, I'll probably have another roundup of stories like this before the season is over.