How Christmas is celebrated in the world’s most remote regions

By Alejandro Alvarez
December 25, 2018 | 2:44 PM

WASHINGTON — More than two billion people celebrate Christmas, and even in some of the most remote and loneliest corners of the world, holiday cheer finds a way.

Here’s a look at how Christmas is being celebrated on some of the most far-flung and oft-forgotten regions, from desolate islands to the frozen wilderness.

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School bus emergency? Fairfax County students have a plan to handle it

By Heather Gustafson
August 21, 2026 | 10:05 PM

This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage. The wheels on the bus will soon be going round and round again in Fairfax County, Virginia, and some of its young riders are learning what to do if there’s an emergency on the way to school. The annual Safety Patrol Training Camp, hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools' Office of Transportation Services, combined hands-on exercises with classroom lessons to teach students how to keep calm during emergencies on buses. The training can feel remarkably realistic, with overturned school buses on their side or completely upside down in the middle of the county bus depot. Other buses, right side up, fill with smoke that is water-based but mimics the intensity of a bus overheating.

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