The Spirit of Christmas (TV program) The Spirit of Christmas (TV program) The Spirit of Christmas is a Christmas television special performed by marionettes. It first aired in 1953 in the United States. Its half-hour showing time is divided into two marrionette segments, one dramatizing "A Visit from St. Nicholas" 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 in the "Visit from St. Nicholas" segment. The jacket of the DVD version calls it "The Philadelphia Holiday Classic," which refers to the region of the United States where it was originally
A Visit from St. Nicholas "breast" in "The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow" is frequently bowdlerized to "crest"; the archaic "ere" in "But I heard him exclaim ere he drove out of sight" is frequently replaced with "as". This change implies that Santa Claus made his exclamation during the moment that he disappeared from view, while the exclamation came before his disappearance in the original. "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night" is frequently rendered with the traditional English locution "Merry Christmas". The poem has been set to music by composer Ken Darby (1909 – 1992), and by British child