A collection of 1,760 Christmas bauble decorations

Sylvia Pope, a Swansea resident nicknamed Nana Baubles, started collecting Christmas bauble ornaments in 1999 and earned a Guinness World Record this year with 1,760 pieces.

Her collection of Christmas baubles began after seeing someone else’s festive decor. The ornaments hang from the ceilings inside the home, with more decorating the exterior of her house. She said her collection is centred on making the holidays magical for her family.

“I think Christmas is a wonderful time to excite the children, so I do believe you should do the best you can for them,” she said.

World’s largest vegan burger

A Northern Ireland food company earned a Guinness World Record by serving a vegan burger that weighed 358 pounds, 4 ounces.

Finnebrogue Artisan, based in Downpatrick, County Down, said a team of 10 employees used the company’s Naked Evolution Burger recipe to create the patty, and local bakery Irwins was employed to bake the vegan bread bun.

The burger was topped with tomatoes, lettuce, vegan cheese, onions and the company’s burger sauce.

The giant patty — the equivalent of 1,274 of the company’s standard-sized vegan burgers — took nine hours to cook.

A Guinness adjudicator was on hand to verify that the finished product was a new world record for the largest vegan burger.

Homeowner tries to smoke out snakes, burns down house

A Maryland home was accidentally burned to the ground by the owner trying to get rid of a snake infestation, officials said.

The homeowner in Poolesville, a town about 25 miles outside of Washington D.C., was attempting to use smoke to purge the snakes from the house. In the process, the house caught fire, causing about $1 million in damage, The Washington Post reported. Pete Piringer, a spokesman for the county fire department, said that 75 firefighters were called to put out the blaze that started in the basement.

The fire, caused by placing coals too close to combustible material, was accidental and no one was hurt. But the well-being of the snakes is “undetermined.”

Rare Pacific football fish found on a beach

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California in San Diego said a rare female Pacific football fish, also known as an anglerfish, was found washed up at Swami’s Beach in Encinitas, California.

The 13-inch-long, 5-pound fish is one of only 31 Pacific football fish specimens to have ever been collected by researchers.

“Experts don’t have any evidence to theorise why these fish are washing ashore in Southern California, but want to learn more about the specimens that have been collected or any new ones that might wash up,” Scripps spokeswoman Brittany Hook said in a Facebook post.

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 1st, 2022