Santa Claus

 brings gifts to the homes of well-behaved children during the night between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Samantha has known him for a long time.

Encounters
Samantha and Darrin pick up Michael from the orphanage and bring him home for the holidays to spend Christmas with them. Their efforts to get Michael to share in the festivities of the season fail because he does not believe Santa Claus is real.

After Michael admits that he would believe in Santa Claus if he really existed, Samantha takes him and Darrin on her broomstick to the North Pole, where Michael meets Santa Claus. Later, back at home, Darrin and Michael awake. Although both feel they have dreamed the trip, Michael now believes in Santa Claus. (1964)

At the Stephens' house at Thanksgiving dinner, Aunt Clara suggests visiting Santa at the North Pole the night before Christmas as an educational opportunity for Tabitha. (1967)

McMann & Tate client Jesse Mortimer, a cynical and cantankerous man, thinks Christmas is a bunch of nonsense and calls it humbug. Samantha decides to show him the true spirit of Christmas by taking him to the North Pole to meet Santa Claus. Although Mr. Mortimer thinks it was all a dream, he finds some Christmas cheer. He brings a gift to the Stephenses on Christmas Day and sends his butler and family to Lake Placid for the holidays. (1967)

Cultural History
Santa Claus is a legendary figure who is the traditional patron of Christmas in the United States and other countries, bringing gifts to children. His popular image is based on traditions associated with Saint Nicholas, a fourth-century Christian saint. Father Christmas fills the role in many European countries.

The Dutch are credited with transporting the legend of Saint Nicholas (Sinterklaas) to New Amsterdam (now New York City), along with the custom of giving gifts and sweets to children on his feast day, December 6. The current depiction of Santa Claus is based on images drawn by cartoonist Thomas Nast for Harper’s Weekly beginning in 1863. Nast’s Santa owed much to the description given in the poem “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (also known as “’Twas the Night Before Christmas”), first published in 1823. The image was further defined by the popular Santa Claus advertisements created for the Coca-Cola Company from 1931 by illustrator Haddon Sundblum. Sundblum’s Santa was a portly white-bearded gentleman dressed in a red suit with a black belt and white fur trim, black boots, and a soft red cap.

Santa Claus is said to live at the North Pole with his wife, where he spends the year making toys with the help of his elves. There he receives letters from children asking for Christmas gifts. On Christmas Eve he loads his sleigh with toys and flies around the world, drawn by eight reindeer, stopping at each child’s house; he slides down the chimney and leaves the gifts, refreshing himself with the milk and cookies left for him by the household’s children.

Episodes

 * Cecil Kellaway in A Vision of Sugar Plums (1964, 1965 repeat)
 * Don Beddoe in Humbug Not to Be Spoken Here (1967)
 * Ronald Long in Santa Comes to Visit and Stays and Stays (1969)