Christmas in the arts and media:
A large number of Christmas stories have been written, usually involving heart-touching tales that involve a Christmas miracle. Several have passed into popular culture and become part of the Christmas tradition.
Perhaps the most popular is Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the tale of curmudgeonly miser Ebenezer Scrooge. Scrooge rejects compassion and philanthropy, and Christmas as a symbol of both, until he is visited by the "Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future", who show him the consequences of his ways. Through this and other Christmas stories, Dickens is sometimes credited with shaping the modern celebration of Christmas (tree, plum pudding, carols) and the movement to close businesses on Christmas day.
If Dickens shaped the wider traditions of Christmas, Thomas Nast and Clement Moore provided us with the popular images of Santa Claus. Nast's 19th century cartoons gave Santa his familiar form, while Moore's poem A Visit from Saint Nicholas (popularly known as The Night Before Christmas) gave us the rotund Santa and his sleigh landing on rooftops on Christmas Eve.
Another Christmas story is the acclaimed film, It's a Wonderful Life whose theme mirrors A Christmas Carol. Its hero, George Bailey, is a businessman who sacrificed his dreams to help his community. On Christmas Eve, a guardian angel finds him in despair and prevents him from committing suicide, by magically showing him how much he meant to the world around him.
John Denver and the Muppets: A Christmas TogetherRadio and TV stations popularise Christmas by broadcasting Christmas carols and Christmas songs. Many TV shows celebrate the holiday with a "Christmas Special" episode. In addition to popular music, classical music like the Hallelujah chorus from Handel's The Messiah may also be played.
UK media Christmas
In the United Kingdom this is usually of extended length, allowing some popular shows to gain high ratings and essentially become Christmas institutions (for example, Morecambe and Wise, The Two Ronnies, Only Fools and Horses, Top of the Pops). HM Queen Elizabeth II annually broadcasts a 10-minute speech on Christmas Day at 3 p.m., charting her views of the past year and giving her own reflections and advice. Also, the popular animated tale The Snowman is screened every Christmas on Channel 4, and a new story, The Bear, by the same artist and company, is usually broadcast around the same time.
Many of the long-running UK soap operas have Christmas specials, usually involving a dramatic storyline developed over several weeks which culminates just before (or at) Christmas. Often, these stories are tragic, involving a death, divorce, a dramatic revelation or similar.
In the United Kingdom, the music industry features the battle of bands and artists to make it to the 'Christmas No. 1' spot, which is always recognised on the first Sunday before, or on, Christmas Day. Many of these songs are extremely festive (for example, Slade's "Merry Xmas Everybody" from 1973), while others are novelty songs that remain at the top of the chart for one week only (such as Mr. Blobby's "Mr. Blobby" from 1993). Gospel singer Cliff Richard has been recognised as a fixture of Christmas charts, appearing nearly every year in the run-up to Christmas and subsequently being mocked for doing so.
U.S. media Christmas
In the United States, most family-oriented TV series also produce a Christmas special. Stand-alone Christmas specials are also popular, from newly created animated shorts and movies to repeats of those that were popular in previous years, such as Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and A Charlie Brown Christmas. Also, some local affiliates provide the "Yule Log," a block of time on Christmas morning devoted to nothing but a footage of a fireplace coupled with popular Christmas music.
