Reynolds gives Wrexham locals early Christmas gifts and watches team play with famous guests

WREXHAM, Wales (AP) — Ryan Reynolds treated Wrexham's locals to an early Christmas gift on his latest trip to north Wales — and he brought more Hollywood celebrities along for the ride.

Reynolds, who co-owns Wrexham's soccer club with Rob McElhenney, watched the team draw with Cambridge 2-2 on Saturday in the company of actor and producer Channing Tatum, who appeared in the latest “Deadpool and Wolverine” movie alongside Reynolds.

Also at the match was Brandon Sklenar, who co-starred with Reynolds’ wife, Blake Lively, in romantic drama “It Ends With Us,” and Green Day singer Billie Joe Armstrong.

The previous night, Reynolds went to a pub in the center of Wrexham and said he would be buying a round of drinks for everyone there. He joked the pub “might be bussing in another hundred people” to benefit from his generosity.

In video footage shared on social media, Reynolds took to the microphone in the pub and said: “If I don’t come visit each and every one of you tonight in your homes, I just want to say happy holidays.”

He said he couldn’t stay long because he wanted to make the most of his “night off” away from his children.

Reynolds and McElhenney have owned Wrexham since 2021 and have overseen the team's rise from the fifth tier of the English game. The team's notoriety has increased since the owners launched a popular fly-on-the-wall TV series, “Welcome to Wrexham.”

After the draw with Cambridge, Wrexham was third in League One, two points off the lead.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Brandon Sklenar arrives at SToK Cae Ras, ahead of the English Football League One soccer match between Wrexham and Cambridge United, in Wrexham, Wales, Saturday Dec.14, 2024. (Cody Froggat/PA via AP)

Brandon Sklenar poses for a photo with fans as arrives at SToK Cae Ras, ahead of the English Football League One soccer match between Wrexham and Cambridge United, in Wrexham, Wales, Saturday Dec.14, 2024. (Cody Froggat/PA via AP)

Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds arrives at SToK Cae Ras, ahead of the English Football League One soccer match between Wrexham and Cambridge United, in Wrexham, Wales, Saturday Dec.14, 2024. (Cody Froggat/PA via AP)

Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds arrives at SToK Cae Ras, ahead of the English Football League One soccer match between Wrexham and Cambridge United, in Wrexham, Wales, Saturday Dec.14, 2024. (Cody Froggat/PA via AP)

Wrexham co-owner Ryan Reynolds arrives at SToK Cae Ras, ahead of the English Football League One soccer match between Wrexham and Cambridge United, in Wrexham, Wales, Saturday Dec.14, 2024. (Cody Froggat/PA via AP)

The Geminids — among the few major meteor showers to come from asteroids — will be visible until Dec. 21, although peak viewing was on Dec. 13. Here’s what to know about the Geminids and other meteor showers. It's one of the year's last chances to see fireballs in the sky.

The shower often produces meteors with a distinctly more yellow glow, likely due to the unusual origin material, said Sally Brummel, planetarium manager at the University of Minnesota’s Bell Museum.

Under ideal viewing conditions, the Geminids typically put on one of the best and brightest shows of the year because of the high volume of meteors visible each hour. However, an almost full moon this year means up to 15 meteors per hour were expected at peak time, according to the American Meteor Society.

The moonlight “will wash out a lot of them," Brummel said.

Viewing lasts until Dec. 21. Here’s what to know about the Geminids and other meteor showers.

Multiple meteor showers occur annually and you don’t need special equipment to see them.

Most meteor showers originate from the debris of comets, but a few — including the Geminids — result from the debris of asteroids. The Geminids come from the sun-orbiting asteroid 3200 Phaethon.

When rocks from space enter Earth’s atmosphere, the resistance from the air makes them very hot. This causes the air to glow around them and briefly leaves a fiery tail behind them — the end of a “shooting star.”

The glowing pockets of air around fast-moving space rocks, ranging from the size of a dust particle to a boulder, may be visible in the night sky.

The rocky nature of asteroid debris makes the Geminids especially likely to produce fireballs, said NASA's William Cooke. “Those are pretty tough rocks that can penetrate deep into the atmosphere,” he said.

Meteor showers are usually most visible between midnight and predawn hours.

It’s easier to see shooting stars under dark skies, away from city lights. Meteor showers also appear brightest on cloudless nights when the moon wanes smallest.

And your eyes will better adapted to seeing meteors if you aren’t checking your phone.

The next meteor shower, the Ursids, will peak on Dec. 22.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

FILE - A meteor streaks across the sky during the annual Geminids meteor shower over an Orthodox church on the local cemetery near the village of Zagorie, Belarus, late, Dec. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/Sergei Grits, File)

FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2023 photo provided by NOIRLab, meteors from the Geminid meteor shower streak across the sky above the Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory (KPNO), a program of the National Science Foundation's NOIRLab, located about 56 miles (90 kilometers) southwest of Tucson in the Tohono O'odham Nation. (NSF/NOIRLab via AP, File)

A shooting star, top right, is seen over eastern Brandenburg, Germany, while a person shines a flashlight into the night sky, Saturday, Dec. 14, 2024. (Patrick Pleul/dpa via AP)