From the Archive: Vanity Fair on Star Wars

[[Santa Claus, That Little Red Man](]( [View this email in your browser]( [Vanity Fair’s Cocktail Hour Newsletter]( A daily digest of things to discuss over drinks December 21, 2019 [Seasons greetings from Vanity Fair. Today our festive fare includes Christmas favorites from our archive: ruminations on the evolution of Santa’s beard, the enduring appeal of a low-budget Christmas film, Christopher Hitchens’s pensive holiday in Iraq, and more. As our gift to you, we’ve unlocked these stories for your reading pleasure. But if you’re not already a member, won’t you consider [subscribing]( today?]( [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.]( [READ MORE »]( [Santa Claus’s Beard Through the Ages]( [In order to celebrate Christmas in 1931, the 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 illustrated by Dr. Seuss.]( [READ MORE »]( [Holiday in Iraq]( [Over Christmas break, Christopher Hitchens took his son to northern Iraq, which the U.S. had made a no-fly zone in 1991, ending Saddam’s chemical genocide. Now reborn, Iraqi Kurdistan is a heartrending glimpse of what might have been.]( [READ MORE »]( [Santa Claus for President]( [A proposal.]( [READ MORE »]( [Balanchine’s Christmas Miracle]( [Fifty-five 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.]( [READ MORE »]( Subscribe to Vanity Fair to read the Holiday issue and access the archive]( [][Vanity Fair]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( This e-mail was sent to you by VANITY FAIR. To ensure delivery to your inbox (not bulk or junk folders), please add our e-mail address, vanityfair@newsletter.vf.com, to your address book. View our [Privacy Policy]( [Unsubscribe]( Copyright © Condé Nast 2019. One World Trade Center, New York, NY 10007. All rights reserved.