I wrote Joy of Six: love. www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/j...

Zeke gives our student-edited edition of Hawthorne’s Wonder-Book for All Very Good Boys and Girls 47/10 and recommends that you trot over to Children’s Corner Critical Editions to get a copy for pedagogy or pleasure today! @thomasruyssmith.com @jordanstein.bsky.social @officialbaas.bsky.social

I know I said last week’s #ScholarSunday thread was the year’s final one, but y’all did too much good work this week to ignore—so here’s a Christmas bonus, my 256th thread of public scholarly goodness from the past week! Add more below, share widely, & enjoy! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

Did medieval people buy each other Christmas gifts? New Year's Day was the main gifting day, but little is known about everyday people's present giving. Our project on London's customs records has uncovered a wealth of affordable items imported around this time: gloves and hats to toys and rattles🧵

For @thisistheheff.bsky.social's America: A History Podcast, @thomasruyssmith.com and I talked about how the American Santa came into being and the many lives he has lived since.

Here it is, the final regular #ScholarSunday thread of 2025, my 255th thread of great public scholarly writing, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the past week. Add more below, please share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

I had a great chat with Luis Andres Henao for this fun @apnews.com Christmas explainer:

Mark Twain & Dollis Hill—a ruined corner of London that will always be a little paradise for Twain’s ghost. #LiteraryLandscapes by @thomasruyssmith.com. #MarkTwain #DollisHill #GladstonePark #London newterritorymag.com/literary-lan...

If you’re looking for some gift ideas, please allow me to suggest STARTLING TALES OF SANTA CLAUS. 80 pages, self-contained, no ads, great for new comics readers, good for like ages 13+

Enjoyed writing about Mark Twain’s time at Dollis Hill in London for #LiteraryLandscapes 👉 newterritorymag.com/literary-lan...

I do actually have a podcast that goes beyond the story contest. It's just kinda been dead for a year. But I'm trying to bring it back. ;) Starting with some weird Xmas Baking and Linda Raedisch whose Secret History of Christmas Baking is awesome. weirdchristmas.com/2025/12/14/p...

Home alone with the dog so we’re watching Good Boy.

So the best new Christmas film so far this year is… ummm…. the Jonas Brothers Christmas movie. Jingle Bell Heist was pretty charming too.

Wrote about the 40th anniversary of 🎅 Santa Claus: The Movie for @theconversation.com: theconversation.com/santa-claus-...

Also available on my shop: a new translation by me of 25 Medieval Latin miracles of St Nicholas www.patreon.com/benitocereno...

Santa Claus is still a woman on.ft.com/4oocnEr | opinion

Five years on, @benitocereno.bsky.social's video lecture series THE MAGIC AND LEGENDS OF OLD CHRISTMAS is still the best and most accessible general survey of Christmas-adjacent holiday traditions and characters from around the world (predominantly central Europe). www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO9E...

A pleasant early Christmas book gift left at the door courtesy of @thomasruyssmith.com and it looks great! A small handful of pieces and names I recognize, but I expect the majority to be completely new to me, so should be a fun voyage of discovery.

I want to point out that @benitocereno.bsky.social HAS A SANTA COMIC COMING OUT FROM IMAGE! It's an 80+ page monster with five stories, all drawn by different wonderful artists. This is not his entire Santa/Christmas mythology... but it's the beginning... imagecomics.com/comics/relea...

Siiiiick my hard copy of @thomasruyssmith.com ‘s new book is here! This is imo a must-read must-buy and I can’t believe it took so long for someone to do it

Here it is, a very special--& especially supersized—250th #ScholarSunday thread of great public scholarly writing & work, podcast episodes, new & forthcoming books from the last week. Please add more below, share as widely as possible, & enjoy, all! 🗃️ blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...

🎄🎄 CHRISTMAS CAME EARLY 🎄🎄 My book **Selling Out Santa: Hollywood Christmas Films in the Age of McCarthy** was surprise published yesterday! Here's the book description and Barnes & Noble link if you're interested in gifting it to history and film lovers! www.barnesandnoble.com/w/selling-ou...

The Santa Claus we know was shaped by 19th-century poems, stories, and illustrations. In his new book, Searching for Santa Claus, @thomasruyssmith explores these roots. Today, he returns to Christmas Past to trace the literary birth of an icon. #santaclaus #christmashistory #literarychristmas

It's crass, but I'm asking for a small favor. I'm applying for a grant to help possibly turning the flash fiction conthology into an actual, physical book. If I get about 30 more followers on BSKY, I can truthfully say I have at least 1k followers on every big platform. Mind asking your friends? ;)

Ever wanted to know more about the origins of Santa? Prof @thomasruyssmith.com from our School of Philosophy, Politics and Area Studies explores the literary and artistic origins behind Santa in his new book. Read more: https://bit.ly/3JRtvUJ #Christmas #SantaClaus #Academia

Taylor is writing songs about Travis Kelce, Charli is collaborating with John Cale, may we all be this triumphant.

Charli working with John Cale, what a riposte to the Swift drama.

Got writers or editors in your feed? Please consider reposting my writing contest/anthology (ConThology!!!!) [it's only nominally a contest because I like to make things complicated]. It's strange, seasonal, anti-seasonal, and fun af. weirdchristmas.com/2025/10/30/a...

Today is also a good time to tell your comics retailer you would like to reserve a copy of STARTLING TALES OF SANTA CLAUS, because time to pre-order is running out

This Wednesday, I kick off season 2 with my episode on Mickey's Christmas Carol (including the long history of it, which you may not know about). Join my Patreon for as little as $1/month and get episodes 24 hours early.

In next month’s BBC History Magazine 🎅👍

And my book, Selling Out Santa, for the history and film lovers looking for the cross over event of the season, explores the tumultuous 1946-1961 post-war, early Cold War period in Hollywood via a case study exploring the political, and cultural changes in the Christmas films of the long 1950s:

. @thomasruyssmith.com's Searching for Santa Claus is a sugar plum-filled dream for the academics and Christmas connoisseurs among us as an unmatched, first if its kind anthology tracing the origins and evolutions of the icon:

For the film lovers on your nice list, @aduralde.bsky.social's Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas is recently revised and updated to include Christmas films from the last 15 years with fun facts, rare films, and merry movie magic in a fun and informative guide to the genre:

Hey guess what!!? 🎄🎄🎄 It's 75 days til Christmas 🎄🎄🎄 And I just so happen to have the perfect gift right here in a Christmassy book bundle for the readers in your life: My book, @aduralde.bsky.social's Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, and @thomasruyssmith.com's Searching for Santa Claus ↓↓

Our next virtual launch from the Recovered Books series at @bhousepress.bsky.social will be for Malachi Whitaker's unique memoir, And So Did I, on Tuesday, 14 October, at 7PM BST. Our special guests will be Catherine Taylor and Valerie Waterhouse. Register on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk...

If you are a comics reviewer or a writer of or about Christmas stuff and you would like an advance pdf of STARTLING TALES OF SANTA CLAUS 2025 (in stores December 3), let me know and I will hook you up. If you would like to talk to me about the book for your publication, hmu

Coming in December! STARTLING TALES OF SANTA CLAUS 2025 ANNUAL! 80 pages of fantasy adventure Christmas comics feat. @seakae.com @docshaner.bsky.social @nedroid.com @emmetthgraham.bsky.social @nickfil.bsky.social @longtalljodie.com Six stories, all new or in print for the first time!

🎅🔎 Searching for Santa Claus, my collection of the stories, poems and illustrations that shaped a global icon, has a cover (by the amazing Studio GRRR)! Available for preorder from @bhousepress.bsky.social now! 🎅👉 www.boilerhouse.press/product-page...

An exciting arrival today from @christmaspast.bsky.social! Congratulations Brian - order your copies now!

MNHS has been nominated for an EMMY for their documentary on how Harry Smith's Anthology helped save a St. Paul theater that really needed saving. The result is beautiful art, richly informative, and precisely accurate. Gratitude to @pedigreedbunk.bsky.social !

🎅🔎 Searching for Santa Claus, my collection of the stories, poems and illustrations that shaped a global icon, has a cover (by the amazing Studio GRRR)! Available for preorder from @bhousepress.bsky.social now! 🎅👉 www.boilerhouse.press/product-page...

Everything is terrible right now in general, but in personal good news, my book has a cover and I'm so excited to share it!!! Selling Out Santa is about Hollywood's manipulation of the Christmas holiday for socially conservative ends in the early Cold War 🗃️ www.barnesandnoble.com/w/selling-ou...

@rickriordan.bsky.social Are you a fan of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Wonder Book for Girls and Boys? We’ve just produced a new edition with our students and would love to send you a copy! Unsurprisingly your work was a big inspiration for everyone involved! www.ueapublishingproject.com/product-page...

Coming soon! Our new @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social edition of Nathaniel Hawthorne's A Wonder-Book for Girls & Boys - his groundbreaking collection of mythological stories retold for younger readers, first published in 1851! More here 👉 www.ueapublishingproject.com/product-page...

Went to visit Hank (closed on Wednesdays 🚫).

Superman was joyful.

I love a choice block quote - I love letting my subjects speak! Letting their voice breathe again!

Huge props to brilliant UEA American Studies student Daisy who has won the BAAS MA scholarship to Wyoming for this September. Shout out to supervisor extraordinaire @thomasruyssmith.com! @officialbaas.bsky.social @uniofeastanglia.bsky.social eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Check it out: the pre-order link for Lingering Inland: A Literary Tour of the Midwest! This book collects dozens of #LiteraryLandscapes essays, and pre-orders will ship in November—perfect for Christmas! www.press.uillinois.edu/books/?id=p0...