A Famous Christmas-Night Murder; Santa’s Beard Through the Ages; the Making of a Holiday Classic

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Christmas may be over, but ’tis still the season for holiday features of yore, from the origin of A Christmas Story to George Balanchine’s Nutcracker dreams to JonBenét Ramsey’s tragic Christmastime murder.

Santa Gets His Claws

The cinematic holiday once ruled by Irving Berlin, Charles Dickens, and It’s a Wonderful Life now belongs to a little 1983 sleeper, A Christmas Story. Looking back at the movie’s ingredients—the comic genius of radio star Jean Shepherd, the low-budget magic of director Bob Clark, a cast that seemed like any American family—Sam Kashner describes how a fluke project punctured the cozy sentimentality of Hollywood tradition.

Missing Innocence

The Christmas-night murder of six-year-old beauty-pageant winner JonBenét Ramsey in Boulder, Colorado, shocked the country and turned her millionaire parents, John and Patsy, into suspects. With sources deep inside the investigation and among Ramsey relatives and friends, Ann Louise Bardach revealed the story behind the dreadful crime and the bitter split between the DA’s office and the police department.

Gstaad: The Social Peak

At the height of its annual season, Bob Colacello reported from the Gsnobbiest Gski resort in Gswitzerland, where Bill Buckley got gemütlich with David Bowie, where Valentino glugged glühwein with Doris Brynner, and where the most dangerous sport was Gsocial climbing.

Santa Claus’s Beard Through the Ages

In order to celebrate Christmas, the 1931 editors of Vanity Fair decided to clear up once and for all the age-old mystery of the origin of Santa Claus’s beard. As a result, they turned the problem over to Dr. Seuss and Dr. Ford, two of the most successful Santa Clauses who ever filched cigars from trusting tots in Gimbel’s Basement.

Balanchine’s Christmas Miracle

Fifty years ago, George Balanchine finally staged the Nutcracker of his dreams, a triumph for the New York City Ballet in its then new Lincoln Center home. Laura Jacobs tells how Balanchine’s childhood Christmases, his youth in St. Petersburg (dancing multiple roles in The Nutcracker himself), and his 41-foot tree sparked an American holiday tradition.

Christmas Old and New

Sketches by Pierre Brissaud to illustrate how quiet Christmas was in the old days.