Christmas Characters

The abused, underpaid clerk in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

A snowman created in a popular Christmas song released in 1950, and further popularized in a 1969 animated TV special.

Miserly curmudgeon and protagonist of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

The green creature who tried to steal Christmas in the 1957 Dr. Seuss book, a 1966 animated TV special, and a 2000 film starring Jim Carrey.

Chicago area suburbanite who survives redneck in-laws, an electrocuted cat, and an incinerated Christmas tree in his quest to provide the best ever Christmas for his family in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

Kindly witch who delivers gifts to children in Italy on Epiphany Eve.

A figure in British folklore from the 17th century, he became more closely associated with gift-bringing (especially to children) in the Victorian era, and is today nearly synonymous with Santa Claus.

Accidentally left Home Alone when his family leaves to spend Christmas in Paris, this 8-year-old boy foils a pair of burglars instead.

Raised at the North Pole as an elf, he learns he is human upon reaching adulthood.

This cynical little girl came to believe a department store Santa was the real one in the 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street.

Also known as the Magi and the Three Wise Men, they — not Santa — are the holiday gift bringers in a number of countries.

In Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, deceased former business partner who now wanders the Earth encumbered by heavy chains and money boxes forged during a lifetime of greed and selfishness.

One of Santa’s personas, derived from the German tradition of the Christkindl (Christ child) who brings holiday gifts in western Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and elsewhere.

The little boy consumed with getting a Red Ryder Carbine Action 200-shot Range Model air rifle for Christmas in the 1983 film A Christmas Story.

A disheveled companion of St. Nicholas who is the sole gift bringer in parts of German-speaking Europe, in Pennsylvania Dutch communities and in German-Brazilian communities.

This horned creature of Alpine folklore visits children with Saint Nicholas on the night of 5 December and punishes the wicked ones with birch rods.

Norwegian postal employee who, with reclusive woodsman Klaus, inadvertently puts an end to the war between two clans in the 2019 animated film Klaus.

The star of the show, as far as secular Christmas celebrations go in the US.

This reindeer was not mentioned in Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit from Saint Nicholas” (1823), but came to life in a 1939 story by Robert L. May, and was immortalized in a song written by Johnny Marks in 1949 and an animated TV special in 1964.

This Christian Bishop of Myra (d. cir. 343 CE) is alleged to have had a penchant for secret gift-giving and is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, repentant thieves, children, brewers, pawnbrokers, unmarried people, and students in various cities and countries around Europe.

The man who was saved from a Christmas Eve suicide by his guardian angel in the 1946 film It’s a Wonderful Life.

The companion of Saint Nicholas who visits Swiss children and punishes ill-behaved ones with his birch broom.