Christmas shows are live, film and television productions that honor the holiday that falls annually on December 25. These shows include retellings of the birth of Jesus Christ and tales about Santa Claus and the holiday itself. From their origin to modern times, Christmas shows have evolved from retellings of the nativity scene to fanciful productions about the Santa Claus myth.

In 1223, Saint Francis of Assisi performed with live animals in front of a life-size creche during midnight mass on Christmas Eve.http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0238.html This is often credited as the first Nativity Play, a show that recounts the details of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure in Christianity. The Auto de los Reyes, written in the 12th century, is a liturgical drama that depicts the three wise men and their journey to visit the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/44685/Auto-de-los-reyes-magos This presentation is one of the earliest forms of theater depicting religious events developed in Medieval times, often referred to as mystery plays.

King James I decreed that a play be acted on Christmas night in 1607.www.christmasorangecountyca.com In the 1700s, the Christmas show tradition continued to evolve in the United Kingdom in the form of musical theater known as pantomime. The panto genre is marked by broad comedy, slapstick, audience participation, cross-dressing and double entendre. Pantomime was brought to the U.S. in December of 2010 with the Lythgoe Family Productions presentation of Cinderella at the El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood, California.http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/theatreblog/2010/nov/30/hollywood-enjoys-british-panto

Just one year after Charles Dickens’ novella A Christmas Carol was published in 1843, eight separate productions of the show were being staged in London.http://charlesdickenslive.com/DickensCarol.html Over the years, countless secular and non-secular holiday productions have been staged worldwide. Productions include the Radio City Christmas Spectacular, various adaptations of A Christmas Carol and the contemporary pageant The Glory of Christmas at the Crystal Cathedral in Southern California. The most recent additions to the Christmas shows category are the musical Elf and Donny and Marie – A Broadway Christmas.

Christmas shows are also seen on television and in the movies. TV productions come in a variety of formats, including live action variety shows, traditionally-animated cartoons and stop-motion specials. Variety shows in the genre include Bing Crosby's White Christmas All Star Show and A Colbert Christmas. Hand drawn animated specials include “Frosty the Snowman” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas”. Stop-motion specials include Santa Claus is Coming to Town and A Year Without a Santa Claus.

Many feature films have been made about Christmas. These include dramas like It’s a Wonderful Life and A Miracle on 34th Street. There have been many holiday musical films such as White Christmas and Scrooge. Comedic holiday films include A Christmas Story and Home Alone. Animated films made for the big screen include The Nightmare Before Christmas and The Polar Express.

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular

The Radio City Christmas Spectacular started a two-week run on December 21, 1933, as a 30-minute live show followed by the musical film Flying Down to Rio.http://cinematreasures.org/theater/564/ The production was created by producer Leon Leonidoff and movie director Vincente Minnelli. The show featured the dance ensemble the Rockettes, who have appeared in every Radio City Christmas Spectacular to date. When the Music Hall stopped showing films in 1979, the Christmas Spectacular was expanded to a 90-minute format.http://www.americanprofile.com/article/36586.html In 1994, the first road show version of the Christmas Spectacular was produced in Branson Missouri and the touring production ran through 2003.http://articles.latimes.com/1998/dec/06/entertainment/ca-50939 Touring resumed in 2007, throughout 26 cities in the United States.http://www.radiocitychristmas.com/nationaltour/

Elf

On November 14, 2010, a new musical comedy called Elf opened at the Al Hirschfield Theater on Broadway.http://www.ibdb.com/production.php?id=488284 The show was based on the 2003 film, which was directed by Jon Favreau and starred Will Ferrell, Ed Asner, Bob Newhart and James Caan.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0319343/ The show features a book by Bob Martin and Thomas Meehan, music by Matthew Sklar and lyrics by Chad Beguelin. The original cast includes Sebastian Arcelus as Buddy the elf, Amy Spanger as his love interest Jovie, Matthew Gumley as Michael, Mark Jacoby as Walter and Cheers’ star George Wendt as Santa Claus.

The Year Without a Santa Claus

The Year Without a Santa Claus is a stop-motion animated TV special created by Rankin/Bass in 1974.http://www.tv.com/the-year-without-a-santa-claus-1974/show/48718/summary.html The hour-long show tells the story of the year that Christmas was almost canceled when Santa Claus decided to take the day off. Shirley Booth appears as the voice of Mrs. Claus. Mickey Rooney provides the voice-over for Santa Claus. The animated characters Heat Miser and his stepbrother Snow Miser are voiced by George S. Irving and Dick Shawn respectively. Original musical numbers in the special include the title track, The Snow Miser Song and The Heat Miser Song.

It’s a Wonderful Life

It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 film based on the short story The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern and direct by Frank Capra.http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/ The black-and-white movie stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a distraught man who, on Christmas Eve, is shown what the lives of his friends and family would have been like if he had never been born. Henry Travers costars as Clarence Odbody, George’s guardian angel. Donna Reed plays George’s wife Mary.