Mrs. Claus

Origins

The wife of Santa Claus first appears in the 1849 short story 'A Christmas Legend' by James Rees, a Philadelphia-based Christian missionary. In that story, an old man and woman carrying bundles are given shelter on Christmas Eve; the next morning, the children find gifts, and the couple is revealed to be the hosts' long-lost elder daughter and her husband in disguise, not Santa Claus and his wife. The name 'Mrs. Santa Claus' appears in the Yale Literary Magazine in 1851, where a student author writing as 'A. B.' describes Santa Claus at a Christmas party and remarks that he seemed to have had Mrs. Santa Claus to help him. In 1854, an account of a Christmas musicale at the State Lunatic Asylum in Utica, New York included an appearance by Mrs. Santa Claus, holding a baby and dancing to a holiday song.

A passing reference to Mrs. Santa Claus was made in an 1862 essay in Harper's Magazine. In the 1864 comic novel 'The Metropolites' by Robert St. Clar, she appears in a woman's dream wearing Hessian high boots, short red petticoats, and a large straw bonnet, bringing finery. In the 1878 children's book 'Lill in Santa Claus Land and Other Stories', a lady sits at a golden desk writing in a large book while Santa Claus looks through a telescope; the story leaves uncertain whether that lady is Mrs. Santa Claus.

20th century

Mrs. Claus appeared in various 20th-century media, starting with Bell Elliott Palmer's 1914 one-act play Mrs. Santa Claus, Militant, followed by Sarah Addington's 1923 story The Great Adventure of Mrs. Santa Claus and Phyllis McGinley's 1963 children's book How Mrs. Santa Claus Saved Christmas. Nat King Cole released the 1953 song "Mrs. Santa Claus" with Nelson Riddle's orchestra, and Cheech and Chong had a 1971 hit with "Santa Claus and His Old Lady." On television, Shirley Booth voiced her in the 1974 stop-action special The Year Without a Santa Claus, and Angela Lansbury starred as the title character in the 1996 live-action musical Mrs. Santa Claus.

21st century

A 2009 Boost Mobile ad featuring Mrs. Claus sparked debate. In 2016, Marks & Spencer earned praise for a feminist-themed Mrs. Claus campaign. By 2018, public demand grew for Mrs. Claus to appear as an independent character, not just Santa’s partner. Sheryl Lee Ralph made history in 2023 as the first celebrity and first Black woman to portray Mrs. Claus in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Peanuts interpretation

In the 1992 special 'It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown', Charlie Brown tells his sister Sally that some people call Santa's wife Mary Christmas. Sally then writes a letter to Mary Christmas, congratulating her on deciding to keep her own name. The exchange includes Sally asking about Santa's middle initial and then learning his wife's name from Charlie Brown.