Morning, y’all! Anyone else ready for Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa?! It’s Lindsay Deutsch subbing in for Tyler Estep this week, soaking in all the holiday cheer and counting down to 2025. I promise to keep things short and sweet this week.
Today’s Christmas Eve eve’s weather is sunny and high 40s.
Let’s get to it. (May I suggest listening to one of these Christmas songs as you read?)
***
SANTA’S BACK!
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Santa is cancer-free!
This year, Jonathan Byrd, 66, of Watkinsville, returned yet again as Athens-area cheer-purveyor and child-gift-whisperer. But waving and smiling down aisles to “Joy to the World” at the Athens Symphony isn’t a yearly occasion he takes for granted.
In the fall of 2021, Byrd had COVID-19. Then his wife noticed he was jaundiced. Doctors discovered pancreatic cancer, the third-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States, according to The National Cancer Institute. Byrd had to take time off as Santa for treatment.
“We were going to do what we could, let God take care of the rest of it, and it would be what it would be,” he told the AJC’s Fletcher Page.
On Wednesday, a few days after his 2024 symphony appearances, Byrd got a chance to keep the good spirits going at the University Cancer & Blood Center in Athens, where he learned from blood work that he’s still cancer-free. After his checkup, Byrd, in his Santa outfit, visited patients receiving infusions.
How’s that for spreading holiday cheer?
Not signed up yet? What’re you waiting for? Get A.M. ATL in your inbox each weekday morning. And keep scrolling for more news.
***
THE WEEK AHEAD
🏀 Today: The Hawks host the Timberwolves and Atlanta native Anthony Edwards (7:30 p.m. on FanDuel Sports Southeast).
🎅 Tuesday: The last day for both “A Christmas Carol” at the Alliance Theatre and “A Christmas Story” at Theatrical Outfit.
🎄 Wednesday: Christmas! And the start of Hanukkah (festivities here)!
🕯️ Thursday: Kwanzaa begins, with plenty of events on tap.
🏈 Friday: Georgia Tech football takes on Vanderbilt in the Birmingham Bowl (3:30 p.m. on ESPN). The busiest air travel day of the holiday season, too.
***
MORE TOP STORIES
» President Joe Biden announced early Monday that he was commuting the death sentences of 37 federal inmates, preventing incoming President Donald Trump from carrying out their executions. The list includes two men sentenced to death for murders committed in Georgia.
» Vincent Fort, a former Democratic leader in the Georgia Senate and one-time candidate for Atlanta mayor and Congress who championed liberal causes for decades, has died of complications of cancer at 68.
» A Honduran migrant gave birth in the U.S. at a Texas hospital, then was sent back to Mexico. Now she’s suing the federal government.
» Authorities responded to reports of a shooting at Cumberland Mall on Sunday evening, which were later determined to be unfounded, according to Cobb County police. Police said the incident originated from a “large fight.”
» The state Department of Natural Resources has replaced a ferry ramp that collapsed on Sapelo Island’s Marsh Landing dock in October, killing seven people, along with its sister gangway on the mainland.
***
A YEAR IN THE ARTS
Atlanta and music: Atlanta’s music scene in 2024 included everything from hip-hop to Handel and heavy metal, jazz, blues and indie-punk. Take a look at 9 ways that Atlanta music swung in 2024, from Mozart to Mastodon. ArtsATL music writers came up with the nine performances that resonated with them the most this year.
Atlanta and theater: The year evoked a rainbow of emotions and reactions from Atlanta audiences, in and out of the theater. Topics covered the entire human condition, from getting that first job outside of prison to the challenges of emigration to falling madly in love. ArtsATL theater critics came up with the nine productions that truly leaped off the stage and into our consciousness.
ICYMI: Best books: AJC has named the best Southern books of 2024, amid an environment of book banning. Leah Tyler writes: “The battle over who decides what America’s children can read is intensifying. It will be interesting to see how Georgia’s new state law placing censorship powers in the hands of school principals, instead of librarians who are trained on inclusion and diversity, will affect the future of Southern storytelling.”
***
NATION AND WORLD
» Four women and a 9-year-old boy were killed and 200 people were injured when a man drove into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg on Friday.
» Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson, the speedster who shattered stolen base records and redefined baseball’s leadoff position, has died at 65.
***
FALCONS WIN
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Rookie quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was steady in his first NFL start and received a major boost from the defense as the Falcons beat the Giants 34-7 on Sunday at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, D. Orlando Ledbetter reports. “It was a really good team effort,” Falcons coach Raheem Morris said. “I’m more pleased with the way the team played today. The way they respond. Really rallied behind the young man.”
» Cunningham: ‘Almost flawless’ Michael Penix gives Falcons what they desperately needed
***
MORE TO EXPLORE
» Fani Willis’ political headaches are only growing after court’s ruling
» How America lost control of the bird flu, setting the stage for another pandemic
» College football playoff: bracket, schedule and kickoff times for the 2024 CFP
» Georgia farm provides 2,000 pounds of sweet potatoes for holiday meals
» Inside Claxton, Georgia’s best-known bakery
***
ON THIS DATE
Dec. 23, 1987
Two Georgia men who pulled a woman and her three small children from their vehicle after a crash — and shortly before it exploded — were honored by the Carnegie Hero Fund.
“If my family was in a similar situation, I would like to think somebody would help them,” one of them, Robert B. Grubbs of Newnan, said. “That’s all the reward I would like to get out of it.”
Credit: File photo
Credit: File photo
***
Thanks for reading this slightly shorter A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact Lindsay at lindsay.deutsch@ajc.com.
Until next time.
About the Author
