The Christmas Hall of Fame exists to recognize those individuals, events, characters and creators who have shaped and influenced the celebration of Christmas around the world.
On Thanksgiving 2019 Jeff Westover of MyMerryChristmas.com fame. released his newest project, that being an official fan voted Hall of Fame for everything Christmas. Right now you can go to the site and vote for the first group of potential inductees. (shown below)
As you can see to the left, I placed votes for Bing Crosby and St.Nicolas. Here is the reasoning behind my votes, I why I already regret the choices
Santa Claus -
In my opinion, Santa Claus [the character] shouldn't be separated from St. Nicholas {the historical figure]. Without him, the character may never have existed. I would bring up the a similar issue with Scrooge/Dickens. I don't see a positive reason to bring in the fictional character without including the person that created them. Now you could argue that St.Nicholas did not actually invent Santa Claus, but by all accounts they are the same person. If you dive into the legend of Santa Claus you'll find that it can be traced back hundreds of years. In fact It is believed that Nicholas was born sometime around 280 A.D. Nicolas was admired for his piety and kindness, St. Nicholas became the subject of many legends. It is said that he gave away -
all of his inherited wealth and traveled the countryside helping the poor and sick. Even the name we know the character Santa Claus was derived from Nicolas' Dutch nickname, Sinter Klaas, which was a shortened form of Sint Nikolaas (Dutch for Saint Nicholas). John Pintard, is credited with bringing him to the American audience in 1804. When he would distribute woodcuts of St. Nicholas, The background of the engraving was said to contain Santa images including stockings filled with toys and fruit hung over a fireplace.
For this reason I made St.Nicolas my first vote for the Hall of Fame. Without him, Christmas would be almost unrecognizable. I would much rather see him on the list of potential Inductees as St. Nicolas / Santa Claus.
Bing Crosby -
I would dare you to find a list of Christmas classics that didn't include Crosby. That's thanks in a large part to him having 2 of the best selling singles of all time. White Christmas has sold 50 million copies (boasting 197 million streams on Spotify) while his version of Silent Night has sold 30 million. On a separate note, Bing was a pioneer in the radio broadcasting field. He would become the first performer to pre-record his own radio shows which enabled him to master his commercial recordings onto magnetic tape. He would then construct his radio programs using the same directorial tools used in motion picture production, a practice that became an industry standard. In addition to his work with early audio tape recording, he helped to finance the development of videotape. You could find ground to say that his work help pave the way for the Christmas video classics we know and love to this very day. However, he is also very much human and very much has some skeletons in his closet. I would suspect some may try to keep him out of the Hall of Fame for how he was said to have treated his family, especially his children, I would argue that his inclusion would be based purely on his professional career, saying nothing about his personal life.
My Next issue that I would love to explore deals with...
A Charlie Brown Christmas -
Charles Schulz is currently a potential inductee for the Hall of Fame, But should he be? Beyond 'A Charlie Brown Christmas' what impact did he have on Christmas? Or is he being elected solely based on that special? Of course this special gave us many new holiday favorites including, The Linus moment (A bases for determining a Christmas movie), The twig Christmas tree, an incredible sound track, and a platform for other 30 minute Christmas specials going forward. Is that enough though? Does he belong in the Hall of Fame?
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