Thomas Ruys Smith
@thomasruyssmith.com
Prof of Lit and Culture, mostly nineteenth century. Coming soon: 🎅 🔎 Searching for Santa Claus: An Anthology of the Poems, Stories and Illustrations That Shaped an American Icon. Writing a book about Mark Twain & London.
http://www.thomasruyssmith.com
http://www.thomasruyssmith.com
Pinned
🎅🔎 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...
🎅👉 www.boilerhouse.press/product-page...
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
Also available on my shop: a new translation by me of 25 Medieval Latin miracles of St Nicholas
www.patreon.com/benitocereno...
www.patreon.com/benitocereno...
November 26, 2025 at 6:48 PM
Also available on my shop: a new translation by me of 25 Medieval Latin miracles of St Nicholas
www.patreon.com/benitocereno...
www.patreon.com/benitocereno...
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
Santa Claus is still a woman on.ft.com/4oocnEr | opinion
Santa Claus is still a woman
There is something particularly stubborn about gender roles at Christmas
on.ft.com
November 27, 2025 at 5:33 AM
Santa Claus is still a woman on.ft.com/4oocnEr | opinion
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO9E...
Magic and Legends of Old Christmas part 01: Christmas starts earlier than you think
YouTube video by Benito Cereno
www.youtube.com
November 23, 2025 at 7:54 PM
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...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=fO9E...
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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.
November 19, 2025 at 8:34 PM
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.
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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...
This is not his entire Santa/Christmas mythology... but it's the beginning...
imagecomics.com/comics/relea...
Startling Tales Of Santa Claus #1
Six seasonal fantasy-adventure stories to drive the cold winter away!
imagecomics.com
November 19, 2025 at 4:57 AM
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...
This is not his entire Santa/Christmas mythology... but it's the beginning...
imagecomics.com/comics/relea...
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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
November 18, 2025 at 10:06 PM
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
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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...
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
#ScholarSunday Thread 250! (11/16/25) – Black and White and Read All Over
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 ...
blackwhiteandread.com
November 16, 2025 at 12:59 PM
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...
blackwhiteandread.com/scholarsunda...
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
🎄🎄 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...
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...
November 16, 2025 at 2:07 PM
🎄🎄 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...
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...
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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
#santaclaus #christmashistory #literarychristmas
November 14, 2025 at 5:41 PM
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
#santaclaus #christmashistory #literarychristmas
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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? ;)
Mind asking your friends? ;)
November 13, 2025 at 8:22 PM
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? ;)
Mind asking your friends? ;)
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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
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
November 11, 2025 at 4:12 PM
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
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.
November 11, 2025 at 10:27 AM
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.
November 11, 2025 at 10:19 AM
Charli working with John Cale, what a riposte to the Swift drama.
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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...
weirdchristmas.com/2025/10/30/a...
Announcing the EIGHTH Annual Weird Christmas Flash Fiction ConThology!
Yes, the (non) contest is alive, and, yes, it’s late. It’s been a rough year, and I’ve lost a lot of the time for REAL work because of all that half-ass work that actually pays. I had to figure out…
weirdchristmas.com
November 8, 2025 at 6:21 PM
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...
weirdchristmas.com/2025/10/30/a...
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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
I know it's 2 days to Halloween and very few of you want to think about Xmas yet, but the nature of comics means the time to order STARTLING TALES OF SANTA CLAUS is now!
Please let your retailer know you want a copy, and please let me know if you're a media outlet who would like to talk about it!
Please let your retailer know you want a copy, and please let me know if you're a media outlet who would like to talk about it!
November 6, 2025 at 8:32 PM
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
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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.
Scrooge: A Christmas Carol Podcast | Patreon
A podcast about every TV and film adaptation of A Christmas Caro
www.patreon.com
November 3, 2025 at 9:49 PM
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 🎅👍
November 2, 2025 at 2:21 PM
In next month’s BBC History Magazine 🎅👍
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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:
Selling Out Santa
Christmas is not just a day or a frame of mind as Kris Kringle (Edmund Gwenn) imparts in Miracle on 34 th Street (1947); Christmas is also a vehicle for national mythmaking as an idealising mirror for...
www.degruyterbrill.com
October 11, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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:
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
. @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:
Searching for Santa Claus by Thomas Ruys Smith | boiler-house-press
"Searching for Santa is both a lovely gift book for serious Santa fans and an important resource for anyone studying the history of American children's literature.”- Linda Raedisch, author of The Old ...
www.boilerhouse.press
October 11, 2025 at 7:02 PM
. @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:
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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:
Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas
Don't waste a second of your valuable holiday time on another boring Christmas movie. In this merry and informative guide, film critic Alonso Duralde takes us o…
www.bloomsbury.com
October 11, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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:
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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 ↓↓
🎄🎄🎄 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 ↓↓
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...
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...
October 11, 2025 at 7:02 PM
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 ↓↓
🎄🎄🎄 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 ↓↓
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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...
Register on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk...
September 30, 2025 at 11:00 AM
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...
Register on Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.co.uk...
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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
September 30, 2025 at 7:01 PM
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
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
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!
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!
September 19, 2025 at 4:32 PM
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!
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!
Reposted by Thomas Ruys Smith
🎅🔎 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...
🎅👉 www.boilerhouse.press/product-page...
September 5, 2025 at 6:14 PM
🎅🔎 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...
🎅👉 www.boilerhouse.press/product-page...