Bruce Templeton inducted into International Hall of Fame

Just 24 hours before the biggest day of the year for Santa Claus, Bruce Templeton got some very exciting news.  The Santa Claus International Hall of Fame has announced six inductees for 2014, and this morning Bruce was surprised with the news, he’d not only been nominated — he was one of that special six.

The Santa Claus International Hall of Fame is also inducting James F. Martin of Santa Claus, Indiana, Sam Militello of St. Clair, Michigan, Haddon Sunblom of Chicago, Illinois, Ron Robertson of San Juan Capistrano, California, and Tim Cavender of Ball Ground, Georgia.

The prestigious hall found inside Santa’s Candy Castle located in Santa Claus, Indiana includes some pretty famous friends of Santa Claus such as the first Miracle on 34th Street’s Kris Kringle, Edmund Gwenn (1877 – 1959), Mickey Rooney (1920 – 2014) for his voice portrayals in famous stop animation specials, Charles W. Howard (1896-1966) of Albion, New York and Jim Yellig (1894-1984) of Santa Claus, Indiana. Howard created the world’s first Santa Claus School and was Macy’s parade Santa for 18 years. Yellig became the official Santa to Santa Claus Land in 1946 and for the next 38 years had more children sit on his knee than any other Santa ever.

Other notable members of the hall include the first ever department store Santa, Scottish-born James Edgar (1843 – 1909) and Doug Mellor (1929 – 2004), a commercial Santa from the 60s and 70s who appeared in ads for Sears, Jell-O, Archway Cookies, McDonalds, and on the cover of McCall‘s magazine multiple times.

Along with the original Charter Members, the Saint that is the basis for the legend is honored. The International Santa Claus Hall of Fame is dedicated to Nicholas of Myra, the 4th century bishop known for his great deeds of generosity. St. Nicholas is known as the patron Saint of children.

Bruce is being inducted into the hall this year, recognizing his many decades dedicated to assisting Santa in a variety of ways, for his two books, and the work both he and they are doing in partnership with the Rotary Polio Plus program. He is humbled, honoured, and thrilled about the news, and will be the only living Canadian in the international hall of fame.

Click here to visit the official hall’s announcement page for bios and a video.

HitsFM helps Newfoundland & Labrador youth meet Santa at North Pole

Continuing on with its annual traditional flight to the North Pole, 99.1 HitsFM took qualifiers leading up to the big flight which took place on Saturday, December 13.

The lucky little ones were piled on to a Provincial Airlines direct flight to the North Pole where Santa took some time away from his busy preparations for the big night to come on board the plane upon landing.

The kids all had the opportunity to ask him one questions, and each received a surprise gift from the man in the red suit!

Bruce Templeton to appear on CBC’s CrossTalk

Tune into CBC Radio One on Friday, December 18 to listen in on a conversation between CrossTalk host Ramona Dearing and Bruce Templeton, with a chance to call in yourself as well!

Also, check out this recent profile of The Man with the White Beard from Atlantic Books Today!

Click the image for an enlarged version.

Bruce Templeton meets with Justin Trudeau

On his recent visit to St. John’s, NL to sign his own new book Common Ground, Justin Trudeau and Bruce Templeton had an opportunity to meet at a separate function.

In their brief conversation, Bruce passed along a copy of The Man with the White Beard for Justin to take home to his wife Sophie to read!

 

Santa stops in St. John’s for Downtown Parade (via The Telegram)

If you were in St. John’s yesterday and have youth in your life, chances are good you paid the annual visit to the downtown area to take in the annual St. John’s Christmas Parade.  As always, it’s capped off with an appearance from the jolly ol’ elf himself, and this year was no exception.  Take a look at today’s front page image from The Telegram to see for yourself!