Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: Who was the original Santa Claus?
Santa Claus, also known as Saint Nicholas, Kris Kringle, Father Christmas, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring gifts to the homes of well-behaved ("good" or "nice") children on Christmas Eve (24 December) and the early morning hours of Christmas Day (25 December). The modern Santa Claus grew out of traditions surrounding the historical Saint Nicholas (a fourth-century Greek bishop and gift-giver of Myra), the British figure of Father Christmas and the Dutch figure of "Sinterklaas" (himself also based on Saint Nicholas). Some maintain Santa Claus also absorbed elements of the Germanic god Wodan, who was associated with the pagan midwinter event of Yule and led the Wild Hunt, a ghostly procession through the sky.
Quillgin (voiced by Thomas Haden Church) is an evil elf who resembles a human being and only appears in the "Regular Show Christmas Special". He made a magical present that was so powerful that it can give people anything they want and only lava could destroy it. However, as he used dark magic as a key component, it also turns people evil and he got so angry that he tried to use it to end Christmas forever and kill Santa, but it fails when Santa reveals to be wearing a bulletproof vest and steals the present from Quillgin. After Santa, the park gang, and the rival park team up, Mordecai and Rigby attempt to destroy the present by throwing it into the East Pines lava pit. Quillgin fights Mordecai and Rigby for the present while falling in the volcano and was killed after landing into the lava pit with the magical present. The Christmas Special is a parody of the Lord of the Rings, so Quillgin is a parody of Sauron who was originally an elf before his transformation into the Dark Lord.
The Nightmare Before Christmas (also known as Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas) is a 1993 American stop-motion animated musical dark fantasy Halloween-Christmas film directed by Henry Selick, and produced and conceived by Tim Burton. It tells the story of Jack Skellington, the King of "Halloween Town" who stumbles through a portal to "Christmas Town" and decides to celebrate the holiday. Danny Elfman wrote the songs and score, and provided the singing voice of Jack. The principal voice cast also includes Chris Sarandon, Catherine O'Hara, William Hickey, Ken Page, Paul Reubens, Glenn Shadix, and Ed Ivory.
On Christmas Eve 1950 Gian Carlo Menotti's Christmas opera "Amahl and the Night Visitors" was premiered by the NBC Opera Theater as the inaugural presentation made by the newly created Hallmark Hall of Fame. The first opera written specifically for television, it was immensely popular at its premiere and was dubbed by "Life" magazine as a Christmas Classic in 1952. Menotti never intended for the work to remain solely confined to the medium of television, and "Amahl and the Night Visitors" has since been the only Christmas themed opera to become an enduring part of the live opera performance repertory; particularly with smaller opera companies and at colleges and music conservatories. While predominately overlooked by larger opera houses, "Amahl" has been performed and recorded by The Royal Opera and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The success of Menotti's opera is also credited with inspiring the future investment in Christmas specials on American television which resulted in the creation of more than 50 Christmas operas and musicals for that medium.
While the Netherlands was a small country, the Dutch Empire was quite large so emigrants leaving the mother country had a wide variety of choices. New Amsterdam was not high on their list, especially because of the Native American risk. The major Dutch cities were centers of high culture, but they still sent immigrants. Most new arrivals were farmers from remote villages who, on arrival, in America scattered into widely separated villages with little contact with one another. Even inside a settlement, different Dutch groups had minimal interaction. With very few new arrivals, the result was an increasingly traditional system cut off from the forces for change. The people maintained their popular culture, revolving around their language and their Calvinist religion. The Dutch brought along their own folklore, most famously "Sinterklaas" (the foundation of the modern day Santa Claus) and created their own as in "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow". They maintained their distinctive clothing, and food preferences and introduced some new foods to America, including beets, endive, spinach, parsley, and cookies.
On December 10, 1951, Easton Mayor Joseph Morrison flipped the switch to light up the Christmas Candle during its first dedication ceremony. Joining Morrison and Frank Bechtel in the dedication were a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi and a Protestant minister, to demonstrate the Christmas Candle was meant to serve as a symbol of peace for all religions and denominations. News reports indicate between 500 and 1,000 people attended the ceremony. In addition to the candle, the decorations included Christmas trees, smaller candle displays, large plywood wreaths and Christmas lights set up by students from the Easton High School and the city's Wolf and Schull junior high schools. It also included a plaque honoring the Easton area men and women on active duty in the United States armed forces. The Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission decorated the nearby Northampton Street bridge, which crossed the Delaware River, with its first Christmas light display in 14 years. A series of nightly Christmas choir concerts were held in front of the Christmas Candle starting December 18, and organ music was piped to the Centre Square from the city's First Presbyterian Church. Downtown business owners participated by decorating their windows with Christmas themes. Morrison called the Christmas Candle display "the most elaborate in Easton's history". The Christmas Candle was so large it drew the attention of airplanes passing over the city.
Russian Orthodox Christmas was celebrated on the International Space Station, on January 7, 2011. Cosmonauts had the day off, but one of the other crew tweeted, "Merry Christmas to all Russia." The whole crew also celebrated on December 25, two weeks prior.
Christmas in Russia ( "Rozhdestvo Khristovo", in the Russian Orthodox Church called Е́же по пло́ти Рождество Господа Бога и Спа́са нашего Иисуса Христа), commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, is celebrated on 25 December in the Julian calendar used by the church, which falls on 7 January in the common Gregorian calendar. Christmas is considered a high holiday by the Russian Orthodox Church, one of the 12 Great Feasts, and of only 4 Feasts preceded by a period of fasting. On Christmas Eve, 6 January, there are several long services, including the Royal Hours and Vespers combined with the Divine Liturgy. The family will then return home for the traditional Christmas Eve "Holy Supper", which consists of 12 dishes, one to honour each of the Twelve Apostles. Devout families will then return to church for the "всенощная" All Night Vigil. Then again, on Christmas Morning, for the "заутренняя" Divine Liturgy of the Nativity. Since 1992 Christmas has become a national holiday in Russia, as part of the ten-day holiday at the start of the new year.
The popularity he gained caused a shift in his self-perception according to critic Kate Flint, who writes that he "found himself a cultural commodity, and its circulation had passed out his control", causing him to become interested in and delve into themes of public and personal personas in the next novels. She writes that he assumed a role of "influential commentator", publicly and in his fiction, evident in his next few books. His trip to the U.S. ended with a trip to Canada: Niagara Falls, Toronto, Kingston and Montreal where he appeared on stage in light comedies.
Soon after his return to England, Dickens began work on the first of his Christmas stories, "A Christmas Carol", written in 1843, which was followed by "The Chimes" in 1844 and "The Cricket on the Hearth" in 1845. Of these, "A Christmas Carol" was most popular and, tapping into an old tradition, did much to promote a renewed enthusiasm for the joys of Christmas in Britain and America. The seeds for the story became planted in Dickens's mind during a trip to Manchester to witness the conditions of the manufacturing workers there. This, along with scenes he had recently witnessed at the Field Lane Ragged School, caused Dickens to resolve to "strike a sledge hammer blow" for the poor. As the idea for the story took shape and the writing began in earnest, Dickens became engrossed in the book. He later wrote that as the tale unfolded he "wept and laughed, and wept again" as he "walked about the black streets of London fifteen or twenty miles many a night when all sober folks had gone to bed."
In Catholic countries in Europe (continued later with the Anglican Church in England), November 1 (All Saints' Day), became known and is still known as the day to honor those who have died, and who have been deemed official saints by the Church. November 2, (All Souls Day), or "The Day of the Dead", is the day when all of the faithful dead are remembered. On that day, families go to cemeteries to light candles for their dead relatives, leave them flowers, and often to picnic. The evening before All Saints'—"All Hallows Eve" or "Hallowe'en"—is unofficially the Catholic day to remember the realities of Hell, to mourn the souls lost to evil, and to remember ways to avoid Hell . It is commonly celebrated in the United States and parts of the United Kingdom in a spirit of light-hearted horror and fear, which is marked by the recounting of ghost stories, bonfires, wearing costumes, carving jack-o'-lanterns, and "trick-or-treating" (going door to door and begging for candy).
Snow White is the first and original Disney Princess. A main character in Walt Disney Animation Studios' 1st animated feature film "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), Snow White is a beautiful young princess, described by her evil stepmother's Magic Mirror as having 'hair as black as ebony, lips as red as the rose, skin as white as snow' and also dubbed by the Mirror as the 'Fairest Of Them All'. She is forced to seek refuge in the home of the seven dwarfs where she hides from her evil stepmother, Queen Grimhilde, who got angered by the fact that Snow White's beauty was greater than hers. She asked the Huntsman to kill the princess; however, as an act of pity, he ends up setting her free and telling her the Evil Queen's plan. Snow White is often described as a kind, optimistic, tidy and happy person who sees the good in everyone. Originally voiced by Adriana Caselotti and animated by Marc Davis and Les Clark, she and her movie are based on the heroine and story of the German fairy tale "Snow White" (1812) by the Brothers Grimm. She has also been voiced by Mary Kay Bergman, Carolyn Gardener, Katherine Von Till, and most recently Pamela Ribon. A crisp, blood red apple has become her trademark with years of exposure.
A customary day for the celebration of fatherhood in Catholic Europe is known to date back to at least the Middle Ages, and it is observed on 19 March, as the feast day of Saint Joseph, who is referred to as the fatherly "Nutritor Domini" ("Nourisher of the Lord") in Catholicism and "the putative father of Jesus" in southern European tradition. This celebration was brought to the Americas by the Spanish and Portuguese, and in Latin America, Mother's Day is still celebrated on 19 March. The Catholic Church actively supported the custom of a celebration of fatherhood on St. Joseph's day from either the last years of the 14th century or from the early 15th century, apparently on the initiative of the Franciscans.
Burt Hummel (Mike O'Malley) surprises Kurt and Rachel by showing up at their New York apartment. Burt explains to Rachel the significance of Christmas in Kurt's life, especially after the death of Kurt's mother. Rachel goes on a cruise, while the Hummels continue to bond in New York. Burt reveals to Kurt that he has prostate cancer, but it was diagnosed at an early stage and his chances for survival are very high. Burt then surprises Kurt again by revealing that he has paid for Blaine Anderson (Darren Criss) to travel to New York to spend Christmas with them. They have an awkward but cordial reunion, and sing "White Christmas". Back at the apartment, Burt, Kurt, and Blaine continue several of the Hummels' Christmas traditions, and have dinner.
There are seven public holidays in Russia, except those always celebrated on Sunday. Russian New Year traditions resemble those of the Western Christmas, with New Year Trees and gifts, and Ded Moroz (Father Frost) playing the same role as Santa Claus. Orthodox Christmas falls on January 7, because the Russian Orthodox Church still follows the Julian calendar, and all Orthodox holidays are 13 days after Western ones. Two other major Christian holidays are Easter and Trinity Sunday. Kurban Bayram and Uraza Bayram are celebrated by Russian Muslims.
Christopher Columbus inadvertently landed on the island during his first voyage across the Atlantic in 1492, where his flagship, the "Santa Maria", sank after running aground on December 25. A contingent of men were left at an outpost christened La Navidad, on the north coast of present-day Puerto Plata. On his return the following year, Columbus quickly established a second compound farther east in present-day Dominican Republic, La Isabela after the destruction of La Navidad.
Christmas on the International Space Station covers the celebration of Christmas on the International Space Station. Christmas is celebrated each year by the International Space Station crew, their families, and ground-staff. Crew are given time off duty according to their respective culture, religion/faith and ethnicity. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas according to the Julian calendar, whilst the Catholic Church and the various Protestant denominations use the Gregorian calendar so the crew may celebrate Christmas more than once on the station choosing between 25 December or 6, 7 or 19 January.
From 1947 to 1949, the newspaper printed the comic strip "Li'l Folks", by Twin Cities native Charles M. Schulz. This comic introduced a number of characters who would later return in 1950 in the syndicated comic strip "Peanuts", including Charlie Brown and a dog strongly resembling Snoopy.
There are more than 20,000 North American Christmas tree growers, 95 percent of the trees they produce are sold or shipped directly from the farms. On each of the planted in Christmas trees annually there are usually about 2,000 trees, the number of trees that survive to harvest varies from 750–1,500 depending upon location. Christmas trees take an average of 6 to 10 years (from transplant) to mature for harvest and each year 73 million new Christmas trees are planted.
On November 3, 1493, Christopher Columbus landed on a rugged shore on an island that he named Dominica. On the same day, he landed at Marie-Galante, which he named Santa María la Galante. After sailing past Les Saintes (Todos los Santos), he arrived at Guadeloupe (Santa María de Guadalupe), which he explored between November 4 and November 10, 1493. The exact course of his voyage through the Lesser Antilles is debated, but it seems likely that he turned north, sighting and naming many islands including Santa María de Montserrat (Montserrat), Santa María la Antigua (Antigua), Santa María la Redonda (Saint Martin), and Santa Cruz (Saint Croix). He also sighted and named the island chain of the Santa Úrsula y las Once Mil Vírgenes (the Virgin Islands), and named the islands of Virgen Gorda. He continued to the Greater Antilles, and landed on the island of San Juan Bautista, present day Puerto Rico, on November 19, 1493. His men rescued two boys who had just been castrated by their captors.
A bill to accord national recognition of the holiday was introduced in Congress in 1913. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson went to Spokane to speak in a Father's Day celebration and wanted to make it official, but Congress resisted, fearing that it would become commercialized. US President Calvin Coolidge recommended in 1924 that the day be observed by the nation, but stopped short of issuing a national proclamation. Two earlier attempts to formally recognize the holiday had been defeated by Congress. In 1957, Maine Senator Margaret Chase Smith wrote a proposal accusing Congress of ignoring fathers for 40 years while honoring mothers, thus "[singling] out just one of our two parents". In 1966, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued the first presidential proclamation honoring fathers, designating the third Sunday in June as Father's Day. Six years later, the day was made a permanent national holiday when President Richard Nixon signed it into law in 1972.
Initially, the Puppet characters on "Sesame Street" did not actually appear on Sesame Street itself, but were relegated to the intermediary segments. Muppets creator Jim Henson wanted them to be integrated into the series, suggesting a giant bird and creature living in the neighborhood's trash can. The character was developed by "Sesame Street" head writer Jon Stone and Henson, based on the personality of a “magnificently rude” waiter. Puppeteer Caroll Spinney found inspiration for the voice in the driver of a New York City taxi he took to the studio.
One genre of movies suggests that Santa Claus is not historically a single individual but a succession of individuals. The feature film "" (1985), starring David Huddleston as Santa Claus and British actress Judy Cornwell as his wife Anya, shows how Santa and Anya are discovered by a clan of elves called the Vendequm. (Dudley Moore portrays Patch, the central character and main focus of the story; Burgess Meredith portrays their wise leader, the Ancient One, who reveals that Claus represents the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy, whereby he has been designated as "the Chosen One", whose mission it will be to deliver the elves' toys to children all over the world. The film's prologue features Claus and Anya performing Santa-like duties in their home village, and strongly suggests Santa's saintly origins. In "Ernest Saves Christmas" (1988), Ernest P. Worrell (Jim Varney) joins the challenge of Santa Claus, alias Seth Applegate (Douglas Seale), to convince Florida kids' show host Joe Carruthers (Oliver Clark) to become the next Santa. In "The Santa Clause" (1994), Tim Allen plays Scott Calvin, who accidentally causes Santa Claus to fall off the roof of his house. After he puts on Santa's robes, he becomes subject to the "Santa clause" (like a contract), which requires him to become the next Santa. Despite his average appearance, over the next year he grows fat, his hair whitens, and he grows a beard by magic to look the part. Reluctant at first, he falls in love with his newfound role. This film spawned two sequels. In 2002's "The Santa Clause 2", he must find a wife (the "Mrs. Clause") and in 2006's "", he must battle Jack Frost for control of the North Pole. A recent and unique television special also draws upon the succession theme. In "Call Me Claus" (2001), Lucy Cullins (Whoopi Goldberg) is an African American woman destined to become the next Santa Claus. She, too, is reluctant to take on the role. In "The Hebrew Hammer" (2003), the role of Santa Claus is traditionally passed down from father to son. The system is disrupted when the reigning Santa is murdered by his son, Damian, who then uses the position to attack the competing holidays of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa.
Santa Claus Museum & Village is an attraction being developed near the community of Santa Claus, Indiana. In 2005, a local development company purchased Santa's Candy Castle and other buildings that comprised Santa Claus Town and announced plans to restore and re-open them to the public. Santa's Candy Castle was the first building of the original Santa Claus Town to be re-opened to the public, when its doors opened on July 1, 2006. The 40-ton, 22-foot concrete Santa Claus statue was restored in 2011. In 2012, a local historic church and the town's original post office were moved to the site next to the large Santa Claus statue.
Deutsch Evangelische St. Paul’s Kirche was relocated to the park in 2012. It was built in 1880. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Mrs. Santa Claus is a 1996 American made-for-television musical fantasy-comedy film starring Angela Lansbury in the title role as Mrs. Claus, the wife of Santa Claus. The film was billed as the first original musical written for television since "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella" in 1957. It was originally broadcast as a Hallmark Entertainment presentation on CBS on December 8, 1996.
Some less-than-serious films feature Santa Claus as a superhero-type figure, such as the 1959 film titled "Santa Claus" produced in Mexico with José Elías Moreno as Santa Claus. In this movie, Santa allies with Merlin the magician to battle the Devil, who is attempting to trap Santa. In the Cold War-era film "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians" (1964), Santa Claus is captured by Martians and brought to Mars, and ultimately foils a plot to destroy him. "The Night They Saved Christmas" (1984), starring Art Carney as Santa, likewise chronicles how Santa Claus and Claudia Baldwin (Jaclyn Smith), the wife of an oil explorer, have to save the North Pole from explosions while Baldwin's husband is searching for oil in the Arctic. "Santa Claus: The Movie" also contains a subplot in which Santa Claus rescues Joe (Christian Fitzpatric) from his best friend Cornelia's (Carrie Kei Heim) evil step-uncle B. Z. (John Lithgow). Santa is a hero in "The Nightmare Before Christmas", held captive by Oogie Boogie, although he is spiteful and enraged at Jack when freed. The latest films to depict Santa Claus in such a manner are "" (2005), and the Dreamworks film "Rise of the Guardians". In the Chronicles of Narnia film, Father Christmas (James Cosmo) supplies the Pevensie children with the weapons and tools they need to battle the White Witch (Tilda Swinton). In "Rise of the Guardians", where he referred often to as North (Alec Baldwin), is shown as one of the main characters and leader of the guardians, who are the heroes of movie. In the show "South Park", Santa is often depicted with firearms; in the episode "Red Sleigh Down", he battles Iraqis to try to bring Christmas to Iraq. In the episode "A Woodland Critter Christmas", he uses a combat shotgun to blast away satanic animals who try to give birth to the AntiChrist. Santa (played by Nick Frost) made a brief appearance at the end of the "Doctor Who" episode, "Death in Heaven". In the following episode, which served as the show's 2014 Christmas special, "Last Christmas", he plays a more prominent role. It is eventually revealed that the scenes with him are the characters experiencing a shared dream, and he is their subconscious trying to help them wake up before they are killed. At the episode's end, he successfully awakens the Doctor and Clara, reuniting the two.