Four Short Films for Christmas

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/20/opinion/opdocs-christmas-.html

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By Matthew Salton

The story of our modern Santa Claus — magical bearded man, flying reindeer, supersonic sleigh travel — is nothing if not far-fetched. One filmmaker went looking for the source that weirdness, only to fall down a hallucinogenic holiday rabbit hole.

By Drew Christie

Has Santa gone soft? Is he losing respect among the hard-to-impress children of today’s America? Maybe it’s time to adopt some more commanding or even terrifying Christmas-season icons — like the German Krampus or the Japanese Namahage.

By Joe Callander

After 63 years of marriage, a man’s devotion to his wife is unbroken by Alzheimer’s, as he spends the holidays both with her and also alone.

By Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar

As Christmas approaches, children across the nation are asking Santa for toy guns. But after two shootings in the filmmakers’ home state of Ohio, toy guns no longer seemed so innocent.