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Christmas Morning is a comic but poignant short story by Ireland's Frank O'Connor, first published in The New Yorker in 1936. The narrator of the story is Larry Delaney, an Irish boy who appears regularly in O'Connor's stories, and serves as O'Connor's alter ego.
Larry is a typical mischievous Irish boy who likes to skip school and runs with a rough crowd. Larry fears that, because of his misbehavior, Santa Claus won't be leaving him any presents for Christmas. His fears are stoked by his mother, who scolds him constantly and compares him unfavorably to his smarter, better-behaved younger brother Sonny. Larry resents his mother, who constantly pushes him to excel at school and frets aloud that he will amount to nothing, like his drunken father.
On Christmas morning, Larry wakes up early and finds that Santa Claus has left only a book in his stocking, while there's nothing but a toy gun in Sonny's. Since Larry has no interest in books, he switches the presents, taking the gun for himself and leaving the book to the more studious Sonny. He imagines that no one but Santa Claus will ever know the difference.
To his horror, his mother sees the difference instantly, and weeps that her son is a thief. In that instant, Larry realizes for the first time that there is no Santa Claus, only an impoverished mother who's been striving vainly to raise a decent son under miserable circumstances. By giving Larry a book, his Mother had been trying to steer him to success and a better life. By shunning the book and stealing the toy gun, Larry has broken his mother's heart, and convinced her that he will become a rotter like his father.
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Father Christmas is the traditional English name for the personification of Christmas. Although now known as a Christmas gift-bringer, and typically considered to be synonymous with Santa Claus, he was originally part of a much older and unrelated English folkloric tradition. The recognisably modern figure of the English Father Christmas developed in the late Victorian period, but Christmas had been personified for centuries before then.
Mrs. Claus is the legendary wife of Santa Claus, the Christmas gift-bringer in Western Christmas tradition. She is known for making cookies with the elves, caring for the reindeer, and preparing toys with her husband.
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Santa Claus: The Movie is a 1985 Christmas film starring Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, and David Huddleston. It depicts the origin of Santa Claus, and his modern-day adventure to save one of his elves (Moore) who has been manipulated by an unscrupulous toy company executive (Lithgow). It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and was the last major fantasy film produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind.
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is a 1902 children's book, written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by Mary Cowles Clark.
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The Secret World of Santa Claus is a French and Canadian children's animated television show. It is syndicated to several countries worldwide, including Teletoon in Canada, and Super RTL in Germany, in and is generally seen every December during the holiday season. On December 25, 1999, Christmas Day, The Secret World of Santa Claus marathon took place from 6:00am to 7:00pm. As of 2013, it has been released on 2 DVDs from Cinedigm in the US.
The Year Without a Santa Claus is a 2006 made-for-television comedy family fantasy film, a live-action remake of the Rankin-Bass television special The Year Without a Santa Claus which premiered on NBC December 11, 2006. A widescreen DVD was released on December 12, 2006.
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The Christmas That Almost Wasn't is a 1966 American-Italian film that stars Rossano Brazzi and Paul Tripp, and was originally released by Childhood Productions Inc.
Pinocchio's Christmas is a 1980 Christmas stop motion television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions that is a holiday adaptation of the 1883 novel The Adventures of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The special was originally aired on ABC on December 3, 1980. It aired annually during the Christmas season on Freeform and as of 2018 airs on AMC.
A Miser Brothers’ Christmas is a stop motion spin-off special based on some of the characters from the 1974 Rankin-Bass special The Year Without a Santa Claus. Distributed by Warner Bros. Animation under their Warner Premiere label and Toronto-based Cuppa Coffee Studios, the one-hour special premiered on ABC Family on Saturday, December 13, 2008, during the network's annual The 25 Days of Christmas programming.
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus is a 1985 Christmas stop motion animated television special produced by Rankin/Bass Productions and based on the 1902 children's book The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus by L. Frank Baum, the writer of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The special first aired December 17, 1985 on CBS in the United States, and December 24, 1986 on TV Asahi in Japan under the title Santa's Secret and Great Adventure. This was Rankin/Bass' final "Animagic" stop motion production filmed in Japan; later productions would be traditionally animated.
Charles Willis Howard was an American actor and teacher most famous for portraying Santa Claus in department stores and parades. In 1937, he established the Charles W. Howard Santa Claus School which today is the oldest continuously-run Santa school in the world.
Hoops & Yoyo Ruin Christmas is an American animated 2011 Christmas TV special that aired on CBS on November 25, 2011. The special was based on the Hallmark Cards characters Hoops&Yoyo.
The Story of Santa Claus is a 1996 CBS animated television special directed by Toby Bluth. It features the voices of Ed Asner, Betty White, and Tim Curry.
Le Père Noël is a 2014 French-Belgian comedy film directed by Alexandre Coffre and starring Tahar Rahim and Victor Cabal.
The Christmas Chronicles is a 2018 American Christmas comedy film directed by Clay Kaytis from a screenplay by Matt Lieberman. The film stars Kurt Russell, Judah Lewis, Darby Camp, Lamorne Morris, Kimberly Williams-Paisley, and Oliver Hudson. It is the first installment in The Christmas Chronicles film series. The film was produced by 1492 Pictures and Wonder Worldwide and was released on November 22, 2018, on Netflix.
A Boy Called Christmas is a 2021 British Christmas fantasy film directed by Gil Kenan from a screenplay by Ol Parker and Kenan, based on the 2015 book of the same name by Matt Haig.
Santa Claus is a 1912 fantasy silent film in which a little girl dreams that she goes to Toyland where she helps Santa Claus in his workshop.