Santa Claus

Latest Articles

Whispers of immortality

Failure
'Twas the night before Christmas.
By KARL STEVENS | December 13, 2011

Sarah Smith's revisionist Santa Claus
The diametric opposite of the Antarctica-set Happy Feet Two , or at least geographically, Sarah Smith's revisionist Santa Claus tale still delivers the same kind of offbeat holiday animation.
By PETER KEOUGH | November 21, 2011

The magic of mushrooms

Traversing Maine's myco-culture in search of delicious treats
It's a hot, sticky July afternoon and I'm riding shotgun in Uncle Bob's pick-up truck. We've just spent the past couple hours walking off-trail through the woods, and we're doing much better than I had expected.
By NICHOLAS SCHROEDER | August 03, 2011

The man in the yellow fur coat

As the Boston Athenaeum stages an Edward Gorey retrospective, his biographer reflects on the artist's lasting legacy
The cultural critic Mark Dery worked as a clerk for Manhattan's Gotham Book Mart in the early '80s. One afternoon, he was taken by surprise.
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | February 05, 2011

Photos: Santa Speedo Run 2010

Santa Speedo Run 2010 | Boylston Street | December 13, 2010
The Santa Speedo Run charity fundraiser made its way down Boylston Street on December 13, 2010.
By NINA MASHUROVA | December 13, 2010

Holiday Gifts for People We Hate

When a lump of coal just won't do
The North Pole has become the most depressing and perverted hole on Earth.
By SANTA AND MRS. CLAUS | December 08, 2010

Review: A Radio City Christmas at PPAC

High-kicking holiday spirit
The Radio City Christmas Spectacular , at the Providence Performing Arts Center through November 28, should be called Santa Claus and the 18 Leggy Showgirls . They could have packed the place with hubbies.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | November 16, 2010

Real talk

Stephin Merritt and Magnetic Fields consider Realism
"If you're not writing about yourself, you can say anything you want, and it will probably be more revealing of your personality than if you're writing openly about your own life."
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | February 03, 2010

Review: Tooth Fairy

It bites
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson dons a pink tutu and wings as Derek, a hockey player who's earned the nickname "The Tooth Fairy" for his knack for knocking out opposing players' bicuspids on the ice.
By BRETT MICHEL | January 26, 2010

Meet Santa

Hoopleville
He can't stop the violins, either
By DAVID KISH | December 22, 2009

Holiday shorts

Dark Water's five-piece celebration
I have nothing against A Christmas Carol , but there's a lot of it out there right about now.
By MEGAN GRUMBLING | December 16, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

Sterling-Cooper sells the season

Behind the scenes of the Phoenix' s Gift Guide, starring the cast of Mad Men
The Guide to the Season isn’t about any particular gift, just like it’s not about any particular holiday. It’s a feeling. A sensation. A supplement.
By CLEA SIMON | December 10, 2009

A JP Christmas

What's the purpose of this holiday, anyways?
Boy, things sure did change when I found out there was no Santa Claus
By KARL STEVENS | December 09, 2009

The Carols of Christmas

The song’s the thing in The Gift of the Magi
One can't just break out into Christmas carols, even in this warm and fuzzy season.
By BILL RODRIGUEZ | December 08, 2009

Tech Support

Stereo equipment is so passé. This year's unnecessarily awesome gadgets will stir coffee and turn T-shirts into guitars.
"Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools." So wrote Henry David Thoreau, a long time ago, in Walden .
By MIKE MILIARD | December 08, 2009

By | January 01, 0001

The Big Hurt: Season's beatings

The Big Hurt holiday shopper
Taking advantage of your seasonal obligation to buy stuff for people, the music industry unleashes its annual torrent of giftable crap: holiday albums, greatest-hits packages, high-profile releases, deluxe reissues.
By DAVID THORPE | December 04, 2009

10 memorable moments from Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade

From historical to horrific to humorous, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is iconic
The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is an unapologetic, cross-promotional cheese-fest. But whether you love or hate it, you have to admit that its giant balloons are nearly as synonymous with the holiday feast as turkey, cranberries, and indigestion.
By ASHLEY RIGAZIO | November 25, 2009

Glenn Beck's unhinged Sweater saga

Knit Twit Dept.
Hello, America. A special Glenn Beck Program tonight: I'm speaking to you from somewhere in the North Pole, and let me tell you [adopts cartoonish yokel voice with rubbery exaggerated shiver] it is coooooooold up here.
By MIKE MILIARD | November 24, 2009

Make-believe Main Street

Lifestyle centers create public squares in private places. Can a nation undone by sprawl be saved by the Mall?
WaterFire, bocce, oh my!
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | November 10, 2009

The Brother Thomas Fellows

Good news for a change
“Art is something seen about something unseen,” is one way Brother Thomas Bezanson described his calling.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | October 21, 2009

Yule be sorry

Little gifts lurk among holiday horrors
It eventually occurred to me that most if not all of the Christmas music I listened to, I did so in the service of some ulterior message.
By MICHAEL BRODEUR | December 12, 2008

30 on 30

30 local luminaries look back on 30 years of the New Paper and the Providence Phoenix
The Providence Phoenix celebrates 30 years with 30 interviews
By PROVIDENCE PHOENIX STAFF | October 24, 2008

Sex on wheels

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult just never get old
Subcultures all need their touchstones: entities that over time assume the stature of full-fledged institutions.
By BARRY THOMPSON | September 16, 2008

The T and the Tube

London’s Underground is seething with danger. Boston’s T has cuckoo juice
From time to time, upon discovering that I moved here from my native London, a well-meaning Bostonian will make the conciliatory observation that our two cities are not, after all, so very different.
By JAMES PARKER | April 30, 2008

Crossword: ''90-Degree Turnz''

One letter gets shifted
One letter gets shifted
By MATT JONES | March 19, 2008

Going to Hell

Bread and Puppet tours Bush's inferno
“Abandon all hope, you who enter here” are the words we find inscribed across the gate of Hell at the beginning of the third canto of Inferno.
By GREG COOK | January 29, 2008

Stormy weather

Snow cleanup undermined by incompetents and flying monkeys
Phillipe + Jorge are not upset or disappointed that Governor Don “Laughing Boy” Carcieri was out of the country, in Iraq, during the recent winter storm imbroglio.
By PHILLIPE AND JORGE | December 19, 2007

The best of times

Local notables share their favorite holiday traditions
Holidays and their attendant celebrations foster memories — of all kinds, to be sure — but it’s the good ones we strive to re-create.
By JOHNETTE RODRIGUEZ | December 14, 2007