One Of The First Christmas Specials For Kids, ‘The Spirit Of Christmas’
Remember This? One Of The First Christmas Specials For Kids
‘The Spirit Of Christmas’, first aired in 1953 and was sponsored by Bell Telephone. The holiday special was produced by puppeteer Mabel Beaton, who started performing marionette shows for her community in a make-shift theater during the 1930s. By the late 40s, she decided to elevate her puppeteering career by creating filmed marionette programs. She got lucky with her first try when she presented her half-hour Christmas special, ‘The Spirit of Christmas’, to The Bell Telephone Company. The president enthusiastically green-lit the show as their 1953 Christmas special, and it became their holiday show for the next several years during the 50s.
The special is split into two segments, the first being a presentation of Clement C. Moore’s poem, ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’. The second segment portrays the story of the birth of Christ. Ms. Beaton maintained that her forte was with serious material, but the Santa Claus story at the beginning of the show was her concession to the commercial appeal of secular Christmas stories. If the narrator’s voice sound familiar, it should. It’s Alexander Scourby, the voice of ‘Victory At Sea’ and many biblical presentations. on DVD!
I loved watching this as a child. It was magical. As a matter of record, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer TV listings, it aired for the first time on December 22, 1951.
In Philly PBS station WHYY ch 12 has aired it for the past several years.
Here’s an ad for the 1953 airing on the Boston TV stations