Michael Nagle for The New York Times
Santa Claus and his reindeer atop a roller coaster at Hersheypark in Hershey, Pa.

By CINDY PRICE

ON a cold, damp Friday afternoon in early December, the crowd pouring into Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tenn., was in complete agreement: it was unseasonably cold for this time of year.

Matthew Clayfield | December 09, 2008

DRAWINGS of The Simpsons characters engaging in sexual acts with one another have resulted in a Sydney man being convicted on child pornography charges.

In the NSW Supreme Court yesterday, judge Michael Adams upheld a decision to convict Alan John McEwan for possessing child pornography after determining that a fictional cartoon character could be considered to “depict a person” under state and commonwealth law.

Justice Adams ruled the word “person” included imaginary or fictional characters and that an unrealistic representation of a figure did not preclude that figure from being a “person”.

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Spending a lot of time watching TV, playing video games and surfing the Web makes children more prone to a range of health problems including obesity and smoking, U.S. researchers said on Tuesday.

U.S. National Institutes of Health, Yale University and the California Pacific Medical Center experts analyzed 173 studies done since 1980 in one of the most comprehensive assessments to date on how exposure to media sources impacts the physical health of children and adolescents.

Tue Nov 4, 2008 1:51pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) - An original drawing of A.A. Milne’s popular children’s characters Winnie-the-Pooh, Tigger and Piglet fetched 31,200 pounds ($50,000) at auction on Tuesday.

The amount, which includes a 20 percent buyer’s premium, comfortably beat pre-sale expectations of up to 20,000 pounds, not including the premium.

The oval pencil sketch by E.H. Shepard, one of children’s literature’s most famous illustrators, shows Pooh dipping his paw into a pot of honey while sitting at a table as Piglet and Tigger look on.

Hundreds of thousands of children could be left disappointed this Christmas, after this year’s most popular computer game, the Nintendo Wii Fit, has run out at nearly every shop in Britain.

By Harry Wallop and Claudine Beaumont