Nominees for the Inaugural Class of the Christmas Hall of Fame

Like every other Hall of Fame out there the first inductees go through a unique process. It will seem to some that we have missed the obvious while others will say why don’t you just induct them all.

To all this we just say “ya gotta start somewhere”.

So as you read about our nominees for 2020 induction we want you to realize a few things:

First, not all of them are going to make the first cut.

Our voting criteria — which is more critical in future years than in this first year — stipulates that in order to be inducted a nominee has to be a top 10% vote getter in their category.

As you see below, we have two Historical Figures, three fictional characters, two writers and one each of an actor, entertainer and artist.

Out of a list of ten no-doubt-about-it hall of famers a few of them are going to be shut out. Your votes will decide that.

Second of all, this initial class will be very small compared to what is coming for 2021. As we give folks a full year between now and Thanksgiving 2020 we anticipate filling every category we now have with nominees. The voting page will look huge next year.

Over time, the Christmas Hall of Fame will become quite a repository for Christmas information of all types. We will talk about it year round. We will share histories, biographies, legends, myths, pictures, videos and all manner of links in our back-and-forth about who will be Christmas Hall of Fame worthy.

It’s going to be fun.

Here are the nominees, in no particular order, for 2020. You should know them all:

1. Jesus Christ. Christmas bears Jesus‘ name and for billions of faithful around the world he is still the “reason for the season”.
2. Santa Claus. He gets more mail than anyone and most don’t even paint a nice picture of him any more. But we love him. Santa rocks.
3. Charles Dickens. Writer of A Christmas Carol, he’s been erroneously portrayed by Hollywood. Dickens was a Christmas fanatic.
4. Bing Crosby. The father of pop Christmas music is still, nearly 50 years since his death, the one today’s singers want to be like. Bing brought us a lot of Christmas.
5. Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Our surveys had Rudolph 2nd overall. Pretty unreal. Rudolph is a star.
6. Ebenezer Scrooge. Which Scrooge do we honor? The tormented one of the redeemed one? We seem to love both Scrooges.
7. Charles Schulz. It is amazing how one man’s life touches another. Charles Schulz influences generations still. But people think Christmas when they think of him.
8. Jimmy Stewart. He made exactly two Christmas movies. Both of them are Hall of Fame material. A better man you would be hard pressed to find, too.
9. St. Nicholas. Thank goodness we remember him. He was a giant to his generations. And he really helped launch what Christmas has become.
10. Clement Clark Moore.  He blended the legend of St. Nicholas and launched the images we use today of Santa Claus – with a simple poem.

Much is going to be share here about these ten sure-fire hall-of-famers this year. We expect to have a number of experts weigh in and we’re hoping for lots and lots of votes.

When we pull the curtain back after the votes are tallied and announced for Thanksgiving 2020 we will find what our true “first class” really is — and where we go from there. We hope you join us.