Festive fetish

London, Nov. 24: A man who has celebrated Christmas every day for the last 14 years with a full roast dinner, champagne and presents is scaling back his celebrations because of the credit crunch, reports The Daily Telegraph.

Andy Park, known as Mr Christmas, has munched his way through 117,600 sprouts, quaffed 5,110 bottles of Moet and sent himself more than 230,000 Christmas cards since his festive fetish began.

But this year the 44-year-old electrician, from Melksham, Wiltshire, is having to make swinging cuts to keep his unique devotion to Yuletide on the road.

“The credit crunch is getting to me big time and I may even have to cut out the champagne and start singing for my Christmas dinner,” said Park. “The lunch with all the trimmings and alcohol is costing in excess of £150 a week, but I’m fighting hard not to let the financial crisis ruin the celebrations.

“I’m only having one Christmas tree this year, instead of two, and I’m cutting back on the Christmas lights because of energy bills.”

Santa hunt

Berlin (Reuters): Wanted: Cheerful, chubby men, preferably with fluffy white beards and no criminal record, ready to work hard for one month. Germany is running out of qualified Santa Clauses and needs to recruit and train them fast, a leading job agency says. Germans are trying to shut out the financial crisis by taking comfort in traditional festivities, and there is an acute shortage of Santas to entertain children at shopping centres.

R&B tops

London (Reuters): American R&B star Beyonce topped the British singles charts on Sunday, ending the three-week reign of a charity single by the finalists of The X Factor television talent show, the Official Charts Company said. Beyonce’s If I were a boy rose from third spot last week while the X Factor single Hero slipped to number two.