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 expert James Lowe and Dr. Joe Nickell, author of "Pen, Ink and Evidence." On January 20, 1829, Troy editor Orville L. Holley alluded to the author of the Christmas poem, using terms that accurately described Moore as a native and current resident of New York City, and as "a gentleman of "more" merit as a scholar and a writer than many of more noisy pretensions." In December 1833, a diary entry by Francis P. Lee, a student at General Theological Seminary when Moore taught there, referred to a holiday figure of St. Nicholas as being "robed in fur, and dressed