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In Spain, entrepreneurship is largely a high-class hobby. Family money and connections have long been the best indicators of small business' success. A recent World Bank report ranked Spain lower than Bangladesh and Afghanistan on the ease of starting a business. Now Spain's ruling conservatives want to change that.

In Britain, every year on Christmas Day, the Queen delivers a speech to her subjects. Recently in Cornwall, which is part of England, a new royal tradition has taken root based on an episode of The Simpsons.

With several things to worry about — including the possibility of automatic tax increases and spending cuts — it appears American consumers weren't in the cheeriest of holiday spirits on the last weekend before Christmas. Shoppers were out, but analysts say their spending was subdued.

That jolly old elf has fooled NORAD, Google and others trying to track him, says astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson. The "science of Santa" makes the most sense if you figure he's getting to the homes of good girls and boys via wormholes, not down the chimneys.

Lawmakers and President Obama are expected to return to Washington Thursday to resume efforts at averting the fiscal cliff. Lawmakers failed to reach a deal late last week and went home for the holiday break. Guest host Celeste Headlee talks with Bloomberg Businessweek contributor Roben Farzad for a look at the last-minute options.

A combination of greater job security, fewer bills and rising wealth sent shoppers heading off to car dealerships, malls and restaurants. "Job growth was not great, but it was good enough to make people feel like things are getting better," said Nariman Behravesh of IHS Global Insight. NPR's Marilyn Geewax covers 2012's economic good news.

There's going to be more snow in California and then over the Rockies and into the Plains. But it's parts of the Gulf Coast and Southeast that could see the most severe storms on Christmas Day.

The hustle of the holidays can put a strain on married couples struggling to find some time together. Father Leo Patalinghug says that cooking together in the kitchen goes a long way toward strengthening a marriage. He speaks with guest host Celeste Headlee about his cookbook, "Spicing Up Married Life."

For most of us, riding from floor to floor in an elevator is a completely mundane process. Lee Gray, an associate dean at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is known as the Elevator Guy. He spends a lot of his time researching the history of elevators and why we behave so oddly in the big metal boxes.

President Barack Obama nominated Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) for Secretary of State during his second term. In a piece in the Washington Post, Katrina vanden Heuvel, editor of The Nation, lays out a number of key questions the Senate Foreign Relations Committee should ask the nominee.