For crazy holiday related news stories to begin:

Neighbor uses lawn decoration to subdue knife-wielding man

When a drunken neighbor came over and threatened his Thanksgiving guests with a kitchen knife, one Del Paso Heights man allegedly took matters - and a plastic candy cane - into his own hands.

In what police said was self-defense, the man used the two-foot plastic lawn decoration to beat 49-year-old Donald Kercell until police could take Kercell into custody, said Sacramento Police spokesman Sgt. Norm Leong.

Kercell allegedly became intoxicated, went over to a neighbor's home on the 3600 block of Dayton Street early Thursday evening and began waving a kitchen knife at people gathered on the lawn, Leong said.

When Kercell cut a few people's clothing, Leong said, a man at the home decided to fight back. Other people at the home called police.

Leong said the candy cane-wielding man does not face any charges. The knife-wielding man, however, was arrested and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.

http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/017411.html

Holidays make people snap. Not that my family is that bad, but I still hate forced family hallmark holidays. So I'm currently in negotiations for having this Xmas to be my family's last. Seriously.

dude wouldn't get out my yard. what would YOu have done, huh?

I once witnessed my dad chase my uncle around the backyard with a 13 inch kitchen knife. On Christmas!

when my brother and I were small, we had a babysitter who told us a scary story, and right at the climax, a friend of hers who she had snuck into the house jumped out and chased my brother and I around the house with a huge knife.

mom fired her.