''The Spirit of Christmas'' is a

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year ...

television special A television special (often TV special, or rarely television spectacular) is a standalone television show which may also temporarily interrupt episodic programming normally scheduled for a given time slot. Some specials provide a full range of ent ...

performed by

marionettes A marionette (; french: marionnette, ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed ...

. (includes photos of DVD jacket) First airing in 1953, it was produced by Mabel and Les Beaton, through their company, Stringtime Productions. Its half-hour showing time is divided into two marionette segments, one dramatizing the 1823 poem "

A Visit from St. Nicholas ''A Visit from St. Nicholas'', more commonly known as ''The Night Before Christmas'' and ''Twas the Night Before Christmas'' from its first line, is a poem first published anonymously under the title ''Account of a Visit from St. Nicholas'' i ...

" and one telling the story of the Nativity. The live-action part of the film features Alexander Scourby, who narrates and also plays

Clement Moore Clement Clarke Moore (July 15, 1779 – July 10, 1863) was an American writer, scholar and real estate developer. He is best known as author of the Christmas poem " A Visit from St. Nicholas." Moore was Professor of Oriental and Greek Literatur ...

in the ''Visit from St. Nicholas'' segment. The jacket of the DVD version calls it "The

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...

Holiday Classic," referring to the region of the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

where it was originally broadcast. The jacket also describes it as a "50s TV Christmas classic, which has led it to being misdated as first being shown in 1950. Into the 1960s, the special was aired multiple times per Christmas season, without commercial interruptions except for opening and closing remarks by "your telephone company" (

Bell Telephone The Bell System was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), that dominated the telephone services industry in North America for over one hundre ...

). It was also available as a 16mm film licensed to schools for showings to students. It disappeared from the airwaves for several decades but began airing on

public television Public broadcasting involves radio, television and other electronic media outlets whose primary mission is public service. Public broadcasters receive funding from diverse sources including license fees, individual contributions, public financing ...

again in 1998. It was unusual in that it was made in color, despite all television broadcasting at the time being in black-and-white. The "St. Nicholas" segment includes music from ''

The Nutcracker ''The Nutcracker'' ( rus, Щелкунчик, Shchelkunchik, links=no ) is an 1892 two-act ballet (""; russian: балет-феерия, link=no, ), originally choreographed by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov with a score by Pyotr Ilyich Tchai ...

'' ballet.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Spirit of Christmas, The 1953 television specials Christmas television specials Marionette films Puppet films Works based on A Visit from St. Nicholas Television shows based on poems