Santa Claus

by Gerry Bowler

  24 “Here then for one”: Library of Congress, I’ll Be Home For Christmas, p. 14;

  25 However, he promised: “Santa Survives Storm But Had Close Shave,” The London Free Press, December 4, 1944, p. 1;

  26 A French sociologist: Martyne Perrot, Noël (Paris: 2002), p. 40;

  27 The cover of a New Yorker: Carter Goodrich, The New Yorker, 6 December 2004.

  VI: Santa at the Movies (and in the Jukebox Too)

  1 “In this picture you”: Frank Thompson, Great Christmas Movies (Dallas: 1998) p. 62;

  2 Using footage shot: Kleinschmidt’s Santa Claus and eight other Christmas shorts from the silent era have been issued in DVD format as Christmas Past – Vintage Holiday Films (Kino Video, 2001);

  3 One finally emerged: Twentieth-Century Fox, directed and written by George Seaton, based on a story by Valentine Davies. Davies published a novelized version of the film to capitalize on its popularity;

  4 A far more difficult: Castle Rock Entertainment, directed by Robert Zemeckis;

  5 The Santa Clause: The Santa Clause (1994), Walt Disney, directed by John Pasquin; Ernest Saves Christmas (1988), Buena Vista, directed by John R. Cherry III; Must Be Santa (1999), CBC, directed by Brad Turner;

  6 In Elf: Elf (2003), New Line Cinema, directed by Jon Favreau;

  7 Enquiring minds among: Rick Goldschmidt, The Enchanted World of Rankin/Bass (Washington: 1997);

  8 A longer remake of: Warner Home Video (1985), directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.; Universal Studios (2000), directed by Glen Hill;

  9 Providing an ever-: Tri-Star (1985), directed by Jeannot Szarc;

  10 On the other hand: Spectacor/Walt Disney (1991), directed by George Miller;

  11 The most popular movie: Buena Vista, (1994), directed by John Pasquin;

  12 In the 2002 sequel,: Buena Vista/Walt Disney (2002), directed by Michael Lembeck;

  13 Most Mrs. Santas: Embassy (1964), directed by Nicholas Webster;

  14 In Mrs. Santa Claus: Corymore Productions (1996), directed by Terry Hughes;

  15 In The Year Without Santa Claus: Vestron (1974), directed by Jules Bass and Arthur Rankin Jr.;

  16 In It Nearly Wasn’t: Ventura (1989), directed by Burt Brinckerhof;

  17 Like Father, Like Santa: Carroll Newman Productions (1998), directed by Michael Scott;

  18 In Mr. St. Nick: Disney Films/Hallmark (2002), directed by Craig Zisk;

  19 Santa Jr.: Hallmark (2002), directed by Kevin Conner;

  20 Once Upon a Christmas: Ardent (2000), directed by Tibor Takás; Viacom (2001), directed by Tibor Takás;

  21 One of the delights: A guide to many of these small-screen efforts is Fraser A. Sherman, Cyborgs, Santa Claus and Satan: Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films Made for Television (Jefferson and London: 2000);

  22 The 1959 Mexican: Cinematográfica Calderón (1959), directed by René Cardona;

  23 The Munsters’ Scary: Fox TV (1996), directed by Ian Emes;

  24 as in Prancer: Cineplex Odeon (1989), directed by John D. Hancock;

  25 as in Trading Places: Paramount (1983), directed by John Landis;

  26 In A Christmas Story: Christmas Tree Films (1983), directed by Bob Clark;

  27 in Jingle All the Way: 1492 Pictures (1996), directed by Brian Levant;

  28 Terror in Toyland: Academy (1980), directed by Lewis Jackson;

  29 Silent Night, Deadly: Slayride Inc. (1984), directed by Charles E. Sellier;

  30 In Santa Claws,: Market Square Productions (1996), directed by John A. Russo;

  31 In Elves,: Action International Pictures (1990), directed by Jeffrey Mandel;

  32 is Bad Santa: KL Line Productions (2003), directed by Terry Zwigoff. The even more foul-mouthed extended version is entitled Badder Santa;

  33 In 2004, the American: http://www.ascap.com/press/2004/holidaysongs_120204.html;

  34 Fry’s work is a: Stephen J. Haller, “Guide to Records: Fry – ‘Santa Claus Symphony,’ ‘Niagara Symphony,’ ‘Macbeth Overture,’ ‘The Breaking Heart,’ ” American Record Guide [64-2], March-April 2001, p. 96;

  35 In the same era: Dale V. Nobbman, Christmas Music Companion Fact Book (Anaheim Hills: 2000), p. 72;

  36 In 1918, Montreal composer: A record label of the Victor Talking Machine Company;

  37 On the whole, secular: John McDonough, “Singing Under the Mistletoe,” Downbeat – Jazz, Blues and Beyond, [68-12], December 2001, p. 62;

  38 He sang the song: Albert J. Menendez and Shirley C. Menendez, Christmas Songs Made in America, (Nashville: 1999), p. 104;

  39 “Those of you who”: Originally issued on Oker records; reissued on Goodbye Babylon, Dust-To-Digital DTD-01, 2003, CD 6-25;

  40 In 1964, the song: Rankin/Bass Productions (1964), directed by Kizo Nagashima and Larry Roemer;

  41 “Santa Claus (I Still: It is attributed to “Fowler/Gentry/Gentry/Jarrard/Owen.”;

  42 Though the tune is: Other songs making regular appearances on this list include “Jingle Bells,” as performed by various choirs of cats and dogs, “Suzy Snowflake,” “The Little Drummer Boy,” and “Chipmunks Roasting on an Open Fire.”;

  43 A whole host of: Also: “Grandma’s Spending Christmas With the Superstars” (in heaven), “Grandpa’s Gonna Sue the Pants Off Santa,” “Grandpa Got Worked Over by a Mobster,” “Grandpa Got Run Over by a Beer Truck” (driven, of course, by a jealous Grandma), “Osama Got Run Over by a Reindeer” (outside his cave Christmas Eve), “Grandmas Got Run Over by the Fascists” (an anti-war protest), and “Don’t Make Me Play That Grandma Song Again.” In 2000, an animated Christmas movie of “Grandma” was shown on television. Warner Home Video (2000), directed by Phil Roman;

  44 Ella Fitzgerald delivered: Dave Marsh and Steve Propes, Merry Christmas, Baby: Holiday Music from Bing to Sting (Boston: 1993), p. 22.

  VII: Does Santa Have a Future?

  1 “There is, I believe”: Sir Edward Strachey, “Christmas at an English Country House,” Atlantic Monthly, December 1894, p. 731;

  2 Correspondents in Moscow: “Santa Claus Barred in Russia,” The Literary Digest, December 28, 1929, p. 20; Jeffrey Brooks, Thank You, Comrade Stalin (Princeton: 2000), p. xv;

  3 To compensate for the: “East Bloc’s Santa Exiled by Russian,” New York Times, December 25, 1952, p. 20;

  4 “The myth of Santa”: James H. Barnett, The American Christmas: A Study in National Culture (New York: 1954), p. 35;

  5 The first blow from: “Santa Now a ‘Sugar Daddy,’ Not Saint, Catholic Editor Says,” Washington Post, December 16, 1949, p. 1. This accusation was answered by Felix Morley, “In Defence of Santa Claus,” Human Affairs 51 [308], December 21, 1949;

  6 The American Santa,: Martyne Perrot, Noël (Paris: 2003), p. 49;

  7 Less than a day: Claude Lévi-Strauss, Le Père Noël Supplicié (Paris: 1952), p. 11;

  8 Moreover the impudent: “Santa, Yule Cards Criticized in Spain,” New York Times, December 15, 1952, p. 17;

  9 For such folk, Santa: Michael Schwartzentruber and Kathy Sinclair, Simplify and Celebrate (Kelowna: 1997), pp. 16–17;

  10 One child’s solution: Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staehli, Unplug the Christmas Machine (New York: 1991), pp. 50–56;

  11 Such churches despise: David W. Cason, Christmas-Keeping and the Reformed Faith (Dallas: 1995), p. 25;

  12 “Parents who tell their”: Michael Schneider, “Is Christmas Christian?” in Michael Schneider and Kevin Reed, Christmas: A Biblical Critique (Dallas: 1993), p. 14;

  13 “I die because those”: “A Farewell from Santa Claus,” Life, December 23, 1897, p. 555;

  14 So spoke Dr. Brock: A good introduction to this colourful character is Allen Irving, Brock Chisholm: Doctor to the World (Markham: 1998);

  15 “Suddenly he leaped”: Brock Chisholm, “The Family: Basic Unit of Social Learning,” The Coordinator (4.4), June 1956, p. 10;

  16 Moreover, said Chisholm: Barnett, The American Christmas, p. 41;

  17 Chisholm announced in: Lepa
gnol, p. 124;

  18 Other psychiatrists piled: Adriaan de Groot, St. Nicholas: A psychoanalytic study of his history and myth (New York: 1965), p. 161;

  19 Consequently, the child: Renzo Sereno, “Some Observations on the Santa Claus Custom,” Psychiatry, 14:4, 1951, p. 390;

  20 Barney, the purple dinosaur: Russell W. Belk, “A Child’s Christmas in America: Santa Claus as Deity, Consumption as Religion,” Journal of American Culture, vol. 10, 1987, pp. 89–90, offers a catalogue of such research. See also Bowler, The World Encyclopedia of Christmas, pp. 182–83, and Paul Thompson, “A Christmas Fairy Tale,” European Journal of Psychotherapy, Counselling and Health, 5:2, June 2002;

  21 Led by the ironically: The best introduction to this phenomenon is Albert Menendez, The December Wars: religious symbols and ceremonies in the public square (Buffalo: 1993). The secularist view is expressed by Albert Feldman, Please Don’t Wish Me a Merry Christmas (New York: 1997) and Tom Flynn, The Trouble With Christmas (New York: 1993);

  22 Other Santas handed: The many amusing aspects of this story may be followed in www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,39928,00.html; http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/593049/posts?page=11; http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/fr/583869/posts; http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/000/

  621taocw.asp;

  23 Workers immediately: http://www.catholicleague.org/catalyst/2002_catalyst/01202.htm;

  24 Minority leaders denounced: http://www.papillonsartpalace.com/ausMOStrali.htm;

  25 In the holiday season: National Post, December 13, 2002, p. A6;

  26 A gyno-Briton of: Lepagnol, p. 125; Bruce Curtis, “The Strange Birth of Santa Claus: From Artemis the Goddess and Nicholas the Saint,” Journal of American Culture, 1995, 18(4), p. 26;

  27 The whole story seemed: Douglas Marshall, “Classical Mythology, Day I: The Pilgrims, George Washington and Santa Claus,” Classical World, 84:4, 1991, p. 300;

  28 The suggestion that Santa: Max A. Myers, “Santa Claus as an Icon of Grace,” in Christmas Unwrapped: Consumerism, Christ and Culture (Harrisburg: 2001), p. 188;

  29 Paganism is linked to: Dell deChant, The Sacred Santa: Religious Dimensions of Consumer Culture (Cleveland: 2002), p. 195;

  30 Santa is one of those: Lévi-Strauss, Père Noël Supplicié, pp. 27–29; Mottet, Le père Noël est une figure, p. 133;

  31 Toward the end of: Perrot, Noël, p. 10;

  32 Merchants were asked: Mark Landler, “For Austrians, Ho-Ho-Ho Is No Laughing Matter,” New York Times, December 12, 2002, p. A4. The group’s Web site is http://www.pro-christkind.at/;

  33 In 1997, a mob shouting: Bowler, The Encyclopedia of Christmas, p. 168;

  34 Even Islamic Turkey: Terry Trucco, “Finnish Finesse: Capitalizing on Santa,” Wall Street Journal, December 22, 1986, p. 1; Erik Bjerager, “Scandinavians, Finland All Contend They Are True Home of Jolly St. Nick,” Wall Street Journal, December 24, 1987, p 1; Hugh Pope, “Moslem Turks Have a Bone to Pick Over the Lost Relics of St. Nicholas,” Wall Street Journal, August 31, 1998, p. B1;

  35 The earliest academic survey: Ludy T. Benjamin, “The Santa Claus Survey: A Pioneering Nebraska Study in Child Psychology,” Nebraska History, Winter 1995, p. 188;

  36 A thirteen-year-old girl: Benjamin, “Santa Claus Survey,” p. 193;

  37 Duncombe’s groundbreaking: Ludy T. Benjamin, Jacqueline F. Langley, and Rosalie Hall, “Santa Then and Now,” Psychology Today, December 1979;

  38 He realized that not only: Maurice Timothy Reidy, “Santa’s Helper,” Commonweal, December 17, 1999; Gerald T. Kowitz and E. Jayne Tigner, “Tell Me About Santa Claus: A Study of Concept Change,” The Elementary School Journal, 62:3, December, 1961;

  39 Many children (up to: Claude Cyr, “Do reindeer and children know something that we don’t? Pediatric inpatients’ belief in Santa Claus,” Canadian Medical Association Journal, December 10, 2002;

  40 “At Christmas”: Andrew Carson, “Early Memories of Scientists: Loss of Faith in God and Santa Claus,” Individual Psychology, 50:2, June 1994, p. 156;

  41 Rather than being: Janet Gill & Theodora Papatheodorou, “The Use of Magic/Mythic Stories and Their Relevance to Children’s Development: The Case of the Father Christmas Story”; paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the European Early Childhood Education Research Association, Helsinki September 1–4, 1999, p. 22;

  42 Though they are not: Marilyn Motz, “The Practice of Belief,” The Journal of American Folklore, 111:441, Summer, 1998, pp. 340–43;

  43 It is further believed: Debbie Andalo, “It’s good to believe in Santa, says psychiatrist,” Guardian, December 1, 2004; Theodora Papatheodorou and Janet Gill, “Father Christmas: Just a Story?” International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 7:3, 2002;

  44 One might say these: Brady Snyder, “Ho no! Salt Lake code may ban Claus,” Deseret Morning News, September 10, 2004;

  45 Should Handley misbehave: http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive-/santabob1.html;

  46 It is they, in study: Valerie Cyr, “Do Reindeer”; Krista Foss, “Santa Claus: You Better Watch Out,” Globe and Mail, December 22, 2001; Anderson and Prentice, “Encounter With Reality”; Lynda Breen, “What if Santa died?: Childhood Myths and Development,” Psychiatric Bulletin, 28, December 2004, pp. 455–56; Papatheodorou and Gill, “The Use of Magic/Mythic Stories.” In the midst of Japanese prison camps parents have kept up the myth and used Santa Claus to make their children a fraction happier at Christmas. Bernice Archer and Kent Fedorowich, “The Women of Stanley: Internment in Hong Kong, 1942–45,” Women’s History Review, 5:3, 1996, p. 386;

  47 Few kids today will: Theodore Caplow, “Christmas Gifts and Kin Networks,” American Sociological Review, June 1982, 47:3, p. 389;

  48 As the family comes: Cindy Dell Clark, Flights of Fancy, Leaps of Faith: Children’s Myths in Contemporary America (Chicago: 1995), p. 32, states that the family is the contemporary institution most at risk since it relies on emotion rather than reason.

  Picture credits:

  1.1 Author’s collection;

  2.1 Author’s collection;

  3.1 Library of Congress;

  4.1 “Coca-Cola” trademarks appear courtesy of Coca-Cola Ltd;

  5.1 The Present with a Future by Adolf Dehn, 1942 from Corbis;

  6.1 © The New Yorker Collection 1987 Ed Frascino from cartoonbank.com. All Rights Reserved;

  7.1 © B. Parmeev/Plakat, 1975;

  col1.1 (Photo section) “Belsnickle,” © Ralph Dunkelberger.