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News, gift guides and stories from our studio.
Rudolph has a documented twentieth-century beginning. Robert L. May created the character for a 1939 Montgomery Ward promotional booklet; the familiar song and recordings came later and require...
Santa’s reindeer team developed in printed stories. An early nineteenth-century book and the poem known as ‘A Visit from St. Nicholas’ provide different dated stages; Rudolph belongs to...
Matthew describes visitors from the east and three kinds of gifts. The familiar picture of three named kings comes from a longer history of Christian interpretation and art,...
A small red-hatted figure can suggest Christmas today, but household folklore reaches beyond delivering presents. Norwegian accounts of the nisse connect care, work, food and an uneasy relationship...
Krampus is associated with Saint Nicholas visits in parts of Alpine tradition, but he is not the saint or simply an evil Santa. Regional practice and modern performance...
La Befana is a figure of Italian folklore associated with gifts around Epiphany. Her familiar broom and stockings belong to a seasonal story; they should not be treated...
The Christkind connects the language of the Christ child with an angel-like gift-bringing figure in popular custom. A market performer, a religious meaning and an unseen household visitor...
Saint Lucy’s feast and a Swedish Lucia procession share a name and a date, but they are not one unchanged ceremony. Religious remembrance, regional customs and modern community...
The ghosts in A Christmas Carol give Scrooge access to memories, other people’s lives and a possible future. Dickens uses a supernatural journey to make choices and consequences...
A season can become a character before that character acquires a sack of presents. Earlier English personifications of Christmas help explain why a festive visitor need not begin...
Christmas stockings connect a small household object with stories about a secret visitor. Older printed sources show the custom developing in American holiday literature, but they do not...
The Nutcracker did not begin as an American holiday ritual. A European story and ballet became the starting point for productions that American companies adapted, repeated and made...
